Bogotá y el camino hacia Urabá

So, first, an apology for neglecting to post here for so long...
But seriously, if you knew what our intenet in the community was like.......

Anyway, I spent my first week and a half here in Colombia in the capital city, Bogotá. It was a tale of two halves....
The first three days were spent running around the city with my FOR teammates, visiting the awesome viewpoint called Monserrate, and staying out dancing each night until the wee hours of the morning. It was awesome: saw an awesome Colombian movie, met some Colombian cuties, and had an insane night on Super Bowl Sunday...
But everything has a balance, which required that I spend the next couple days really sick: sore throat, couldn't or didn't want to eat, chest pains... (it's ironic: getting sick in the comforts of the big city, while in the far-out countryside of tropical deseases I've been completely healthy hmm)

In any case, I left Bogotá by bus the night of February 8th. I arrived with my teammate to Colombia's second biggest city, Medellín, early the next morning. Our sebsequent bus up to Apartadó, suffered a flat tire after only 3 three minutes of leaving the terminal... And it was classic Latin America: cute kids on the other side of the bus yelling at 5am, while sending us their brillant smiles and laughter...
Anyway, the bus ride was amazing. The Colombian countryside is one of the most beautiful I've seen: passing up and down tropical valleys, seeing coffee and banana plantations, stopping in quaint colonial towns... all the while soaking in the groove of Colombian music blasting in the bus.
In any case, it really hit home again why the Colombian State has never been able to really assert control over its territory (thus leaving a space for illegal groups such as guerrillas and paramilitaries): the geography is just so diverse, with hill after hill and lush vegetation impeding widespread domination of political control by any one entity. Obviously, there are other reasons as to the government's inability to do assert its control, but the factor of geography is vividly one of them.

After hours and hours of bus travel, we made it to Apartadó, the capital of the municipality where the Peace Community of San José is located. I bought my pair of rubber boots (key for the walks I would be doing throughout the countryside) and drank some tasty juices of local fruits (including a red and sweet one call zapote that's soo delicious... mmm Colombia has some of the best fruits in the world: not only mangos, papayas, bananas, but also unknown ones to foreigners like guanábana, feijoa, tomate de árbol...)

In the late afternoon we got on the chivero (jeep) that would take us up to San José. In San Josesito, the site of the main PC settlement, I met a lot of the community members and then we loaded up our bags on a horse, which we would take with us up to La Unión (where the FOR volunteers live). On the way up the sun set, leaving me to try to avoid tripping over the rocky terrain through the darkness. I had an amazing conversation with one of the PC members about the history of the community and their cooperative farming groups. Along the way we stopped at a house that sold us boleys de coco (coconut-flavored ice bars), to which I became addicted.
Finally we arrived at La Unión. The first house I visited, the man sitting there with his two cute kids offered me deer meat he had hunted the week before, which was pretty good. In fact, since most FOR volunteers are vegetarians, the people are stoked to hear that I eat meat! Anyway, the next house I went to was overflowing with adorable kids. We stopped and chatted for a while, sharing names, most of which I wouldn't really learn for a while...
Eventually we made it to the FOR house, and one of my teammates cooked an awesome plate of rice, beans and veggies for us... And thus went my first night in La Unión and the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó.