This is our first guest post. We think this is a really great idea because it offers a different point of view and style from our writing and most importantly it means we don’t have to write a post This is good news for our lazy asses! Tom and Jenny are the first friends to take us up on our guest post request, and we are very excited to present it. They are a really awesome couple from San Diego who have embarked on a journey that will eventually take them around the world.  You should check out their website TillTheMoneyRunsOut.com for more on their adventures. So, without further ado:

After waking up early from a not entirely comfortable night at Plantation house we decided to go get some breakfast and check out La Serrana. La Serrana had been recommended to us by a few people, and we knew Luis and Lacey were there, so we were planning on switching if it looked as nice as we had heard. Well Tom was actually ready to switch the night before as soon as we found out there was no WiFi at Plantation house, and I was ready to switch about 5 minutes before that; due the cold welcome we had received from the staff. ***Jenny: Hola! Tenemos una reservacion abajo del nombre Tomas. Super mean front desk girl: No acceptamos reservaciones despues de las seis en la tarde. Jenny: Oh. Lo siento, Yo mande una correo electronico sobre nuestra llegada a las siete…Tom: Ud. tiene habitaciones libres?Super mean front desk girl: Si. Tom: Luego, la reservacion no esta importa. Podemeos tener una cuarto?<Super mean front desk girl kind of rolls her eyes and walks out>Jenny: (whispers to Tom) Are we supposed to follow her? I don’t get it…Tom: I’m not sure. <Super mean front desk girl comes back and waves impatiently at us for us to follow her>***After we walk up the Hydrangea lined path to La Serrana, we come upon the office and ask the woman there if she has availale space. Its a bit early and everyone is sleeping so she tells us that we can check in later, but that she can’t show us the dorms or rooms because they are all occupied. I think it was only about 8am at this point. As we walk around the grounds (did i mention absolutely freaking stunning?) We run into Luis and Lacey, and all decide to go horse-back riding in a couple of hours.
We arrived back at La Serrana at 10:30ish and run into Lauren (the Californian we had met during our stint as hostel volunteers in Guatape) right at the entrance. Lauren, as it turns out is joining us for horsie riding, so we are all of a sudden rolling in a California posse 5 deep. Notes on horsies:Luis and Lacey both actually know how to ride so they were given the spirited horses. I may have died if I was on Luis’ horse. Lauren is seriously allergic to horses. Like no joke-seriously freaking allergic. We were all super impressed that she was down to go actually. My butt raised about 6 inches from the saddle and slammed back down with incredible force every 3 seconds or so, while Lacey’s shoulders just kinda jiggled while her butt maintained contact with the saddle the whole time. I don’t even get how that worked. Horse back riding in Salento is absolutely amazing and beautiful, and may be one of the highlights of the trip. It pretty much felt like we were on an awesome epic fantasy quest the whole time. We scaled steep ravines and galloped through emerald green countryside, and forded rivers. Horseback riding+our guide+ Salento=AWESOME.

After we all hobble back on our saddle sore legs, backs and butts to La Serrana we decide that later that evening we are all going to go “in town” to play a game of Tejo. Tejo is a pretty amazing game. It almost seems like too much of a Colombian stereotype to be true, but it’s totally real. Its almost like ski-ball (like at chuck-E-cheeses) but with drinking, mud and gunpowder. Basically there is a metal ring set into some mud with gunpowder folded into paper triangles at the 4 cardinal directions (if the circle was a compass). You throw metal pucks at the box of mud trying to land in the metal circle. The point breakdown is as follows:If you land right in the middle of the circle-6 points; If you make the gunpowder explode (bigger bang than you’d think)-3 points; If no one makes it in the circle or makes it explode than whoever is closest to the circle gets-1 point.
Add some beers and aguardiente and you gotta game! My favorite is when the paper triangles explode, and then flare up in flames while we all cheer. Explosions are good and all, but explosions plus a li’l bit of fire are even better.

Tejo from Lost World Expedition on Vimeo.

All in all a perfect day in Salento, Colombia!

April 9th, 2011 | Tags: blogsherpa, Colombia, horse back riding, salento, south america, tejo | Category: Colombia, South America | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL