Colombia: Day 2: Minca

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

We woke up relatively early the next morning so we could have a full day up in Minca, the mountain town (village? enclave? Whatever you call an area where 500 people live) where Ali lived and worked for about a month. I took a cold shower at her apartment in Santa Marta (there’s no hot water in the country [that she’s ever experienced], but I didn’t mind because it was so hot out I would have taken a cold shower anyway), and then we headed out to the bakery around the corner, called La Viña, for a quick breakfast. I got coffee, dedo de queso (“dedo” means finger, and the pasty is sort of like a cheese straw [“finger”-shaped]), and a pastel de arequipe and bocadillo (a pastry filled with dolce de lece and guava). Ali and I then took a taxi to the edge of town, where there’s a motorcycle station. If you can call it a station. It’s really just a spot where a bunch of guys with motorcycles hang out. You tell them where you want to go, haggle a price, and hop on.

Ali told my driver that this was my first time in Colombia and my first time on a motorcycle, so he had to be extra careful with me. He apparently told her he would treat me like his own sister. After making sure we got me a helmet that fit snuggly, we were off! At first I didn’t know where to put my hands (my purse was around my shoulder, sitting in front of me, and Ali had a backpack with our clothes) so I held on to my driver’s shoulders. But as I got more comfortable with the ride, I was able to let go of him and hold on to the low bar behind me or just let my hands hang free. The ride was so much fun! We climbed 600 meters up into the mountains, through what I can only describe as a jungle. Everything was so green, and the leaves were huge, and I tried to keep my eyes off the road in front of us as the driver swerved between the various potholes. As scary as it was when I looked down at the rough road, though, he clearly knew what he was doing and expertly dodged them all.

Once we arrived in Minca, we went to Liseth’s coffee shop, which is where Ali worked and lived. Juice (“jugo”) is a big deal in Colombia, so I got a marancuya jugo (passionfruit juice) and everyone laughed as my eyes lit up when I took my first sip. It was so tart and sweet! Ali’s friend Adam, who lives in Minca showed up at the shop. He has is own organic farm up in the mountains and grows amazing food and makes hot sauces, jams, and vinaigrettes, of which Ali has many. I bought a papaya lime jam and a Jamaican hot sauce- both have since proved to be delicious.

Ali then walked me all around town, which basically consists of two main streets that meet at a T. I took pictures of all sorts of unfamiliar flowers, seed pods, leaves, and trees. We walked over to a hostel in town that has a macaw (not in a cage or tethered, he just flies freely). His bright red, blue, and green color looked almost cartoonish to me. On the hostel’s porch were roughly half a dozen hummingbird feeders, and there were dozens of hummingbirds swarming all around. I’ve never heard so many hummingbirds at once, but the sound of all of their wings beating made this constant hum that filled the air. I’ve never heard vibration so audible.

We then walked down to a stream at the edge of town where you can walk across on all of the rocks, which was very pretty. On the way down we passed a tiny little building that Ali said was “the club” in town. I laughed when she said that, because it was just so tiny! Everything about Minca is little and cute. Well, except for the views. While walking through town we got lulo popsicles (lulo is another fruit) and pandebono. Pandebono is one of Ali’s favorite snacks; it looks like a little roll or bun, but it’s made from yuca, so it has a gummier, doughy texture. It’s a strange thing, but when it’s warm and fresh out of an oven, it’s strangely addicting. Of course Ali knew the owner of the bakery and chatted for a bit as we sat on their porch eating our pandebono.

We went back to Liseth’s and changed into our bathing suits in anticipation of swimming later, then hopped back on some motorcycles to go up the mountain a bit further to La Victoria, a coffee farm. On our way out of town we stopped for empanadas (mine was corn and cheese, a classic veggie combination) with picante (sort of like a thinner, spicy guacamole), which we ate on the back of our motorcycles. At this point I was used to riding on a motorcycle and felt pretty badass sitting on one eating an empanada in the middle of the Colombian jungle. Because I was only carrying my camera (I had left my purse, and Ali had a backpack with our towels), I also felt comfortable enough to take pictures while on the moto. I took pictures of the views, of Ali behind me, and even a video. For a while we rode alongside these two schoolgirls on a moto, too. I swear the girl driving couldn’t have been much older than 12. They were a sight to see, in the knee-highs and plaid skirts on a dusty motorcycle.

When we got to La Victoria, we got a great tour of the coffee farm. We were the only ones there, and the girl working there recognized Ali from the last time she came. She didn’t speak any English, but was patient as Ali translated for me. I also found that I could often understand the general idea of what she was saying based on keywords and where she was pointing. The farm was started in 1892, and still uses the original hydraulically operated machinery. At the end of the tour, we got a small cup of coffee (delicious!) and I bought a pound to bring home with me, which I’m savoring.

Because the farm is in the middle of nowhere, our motorcycle drivers waited for us so that they could drive us back down the mountain. They took us part way down, to a spot called Pozo Azul, which is a little water hole with beautiful waterfalls situated right in the middle of the jungle. The water was freezing, but we went in anyway. We swam around for a bit, and climbed up a high rock to jump off of. I wanted to try the rope swing, but didn’t quite have the guts. We walked around along the sides, too, and saw a line of thousands of ants carrying little pieces of leaves. It was amazing how far you could trace their line because of these little flecks of perfectly aligned green. It was the sort of thing I’d only ever seen on National Geographic or in a cartoon. But here they were in real life, just marching along!

We gathered up our things and started the walk back down the mountain to Minca. It took us probably about an hour, and it rained for most of the way. Good thing we had just gone swimming and were still in our swim suits. Along the walk we saw tiny frogs, leaves taller than us (the kinds of leaves the use to fan princes in Aladdin, seriously), and a crazy fuzzy white caterpillar who was triangular in section. He was big, too! Maybe an inch tall, and pointy along the top. I’d never seen anything like it.

Part of the way down the mountain we stopped at a barbecue place. I’m not sure what to call it; it was a thatched roof over some tables and a big oven, but there were no walls. It was more permanent than a stand, but definitely not a building, in the traditional sense. Ali ate some chorizo, which she said was some of the best she’d ever had. I had an arepa (a super thick-type of thing made of corn), spicy guac, fresh tomatoes, and yuca. There were puppies, kittens, and chickens running all over the place, and the puppy at one point tried to play with a donkey that someone was riding down the mountain. The views out over the mist-laden mountains was beautiful; the layers stacked upon one another looked black and white in the fog, each one getting progressively darker.

We got back into town finally and stopped at a shop to buy some toothpaste because we were out (they call toothpaste colgate, regardless of the brand. I cracked up when Ali asked the man for “col-GA-tay”). Then over to Liseth’s for a quick cafe con leche and frozen tiramisu while Ali chatted with one of her friends Chito, and I bonded with a sweet town dog named Quinoa, who is a sweetheart.

We packed up our things for the night after we’d dried off and headed out towards Oscar’s Place, a hostel where we’d stay for the night. Ali had told me all about Oscar’s when she lived in Minca, and described it as paradise, which you have to walk 15 minutes through the jungle to get to. She wasn’t kidding! I was surprised at how far out of town Oscar’s was, and it was only a footpath. There’s no room for cars, only a donkey if you had to carry anything substantial, which was how Oscar built the whole complex. I can’t even imagine. Along the way Ali grabbed me a ripe mango off the ground, and taught me how to eat it by sucking out the flesh without getting any of the tough stringy parts stuck in your teeth.

Because of all the rain Ali was worried I wouldn’t see a famous Sunset at Oscar’s, but right as we were getting to the hostel the sky cleared and we saw one of the most amazing sunsets of my life. Oscar’s Place is situated on a sort of plateau, with views in three directions, to mountains on both sides and all the way down to Santa Marta on the sea below. (These mountains are the tallest coastal mountain range in the world. Fun fact.) Oscar has two dogs; Max, and Thomasa, who just had a litter of 12 puppies. The last time Ali was there they had been newborns, but now they were a wiggly six weeks old. We played with them and then hung out with Oscar on the porch to play backgammon (his favorite). Dinner was pasta with a veggie and lentil (for me) or meat (for everyone else) sauce. After dinner Oscar made a delicious herb tea and we continued to play backgammon. I ended up falling asleep in a hammock watching lightning off in the distance until Ali woke me up so we could go sleep in our loft-style room. We laid out on the ground outside our bed for a while, chatting and looking up at the stars.

Ali often said throughout the day that she wished I could have been there longer, but I kept reminding her that things that she had become accustomed to were completely new to me, so the day felt jam-packed. Things like seeing puppies play with donkeys, eating a mango off the ground, and riding a motorcycle were all new to me, and I was exhausted after the first day from just taking it all in! Needless to say, we slept soundly.