Looking back, the month of October seems to be a blur of many Halloween costumes and other celebrations. Colombia, our school, and our new friends now feel more comfortable and familiar than I ever thought they would. Of course I’ve had moments of homesickness, and I’ll admit, I had serious FOMO seeing everyone’s apple picking photos on social media. However, October proved itself to be an exciting month, and not just because I discovered the Starbucks in the mall near us has pumpkin spice lattes!
A major highlight this month was the celebration of Halloween. Colombian culture is very festive, so it came as no surprise that the students and teachers at our school fully committed to this holiday. Everyone was encouraged to dress up for school, and it was mentioned more than once that it would be pretty hopeless for us teachers to execute a serious lesson. This was a little hard for me to believe, since in the U.S. I once gave a test on Halloween, but I decided to go with the flow, which I’ve found is best when acclimating to a new culture. In preparation, I forced Conor to be my assistant as I cut and glued the fabric for our iguana costumes (that’s right, we were the best animal in Colombia for Halloween day celebration at school). The morning of the big day, we decided to change into our costumes at school, which Conor claimed was due to the fact we didn’t want to get our tails dirty on the walk to the bus, but, let’s be real, we also didn’t want to stick out any more than we already do.
The day kicked off with a hallway decorating contest, and the courtyard was full of students posing for pictures with friends. Between the Sea World whale trainers, the kangaroos, and the hippies it was hard to even tell which students were mine. Conor and I had a lot of fun crawling around and “whipping” kids with our tails, just like the real iguanas do! Even my “too cool” guy students laughed at our costumes, which I consider a big win. However, the celebrations didn't stop there! There was also a high school costume contest and elementary costume parade, and outside of school we did a Halloween Hash run, went to our friend's 90's theme Halloween where we party partied like the Rug Rats! Colombians really know how to celebrate!
Another big highlight of October was our trip a small Caribbean beach town on the coast of Colombia called Palomino. A teacher friend raved to us about how Palomino is completely untouched by large scale commercialism of any kind, so we knew we had to go! Getting there wasn’t easy (one plane, two buses, and lots of attempts at Spanish travel lingo), but since we had a stretch of 5 days off for Colegio Bolivar’s “Semana de Receso” (Fall Break), we were able to take the time needed to travel off the beaten path to reach this gem of a destination.
When we finally reached Palomino, we were dropped off on the main road and had to traverse around mud puddles and major potholes to reach our hostel. Thank goodness they had a foot washing station ready for us! Despite the mud, Palomino was unlike any beach town I have ever seen- a fusion of plantain fields, lush jungle, dirt roads, sandy beaches, and tiny wooden restaurants. Our hostel, Coco Sankala, was completely built out of palm, and was located between the restaurants and the beach. Staying there Conor and I felt like we were having a sleepover in a tree fort, similar to the ones the lost boys live in in the movie “Hook.”
Our first full day was spent sprawled out on the warm sand reading our books and enjoying the view of the sparkling water. Perhaps overly excited, we were out there by 9am, and had the beach mostly to ourselves until around 12 when other sunbathers began to appear. The best part of the beach was how untouched it was, and Conor and I couldn't resist filming some “action shots” for our Amazing Race audition video reel. Unfortunately, I had a small fall while climbing a coconut tree- don’t worry, no Taylors were seriously injured in the making of the film! My scrape healed nicely with the help of lots of band-aids and a few mojitos.
That night, we met up with our friend Abby, and her boyfriend Jake. They traveled with us, but they were a little more ambitious and hiked Tayrona National Park during our beach day. Over an Italian dinner, we caught up between bites of pasta and ballads from a traveling musician serenading us on the Colombian flute. The following day we went tubing down a river spilled into the ocean. To get to our launching place, we had to hitch rides on the back of motorbikes and then hike about a mile up the mountain. We had to earn the beautiful views of the exotic birds, iguanas, and cows that dotted the river! Never a dull moment!
Favorites:
-Trip to Palomino (with Abby and Jake)
-Halloween Hash Run
-Halloween Day at School
-Adult 90’s Halloween Party
-Conor’s student giving us tickets to our first Salsa Show, Ensalsate
-Jess’ Birthday Chiva (party on a hollowed out school bus with strobe lights and a DJ!)
-Volunteering at the local animal shelter
-Getting creative with curriculum at school (Taylor’s Multi Genre Project)
-Learning to make Patacones, a homemade fried plantain chip
-Taking horseback riding lessons in Spanish (Taylor only, Conor is afraid of horses)
Getting Schooled:
As mentioned above, I fell out of coconut tree while trying to film our Amazing Race audition tape. LOL. This one is pretty self explanatory...I thought a feet of pure athleticism and strength would impress the casting people at CBS, so I scurried up a coconut tree...while holding onto one of the big leaves. The leaf snapped off, I fell to my demise, and acquired a large scrape and a bruised ego in the process. Oops!