Armenia was interesting. Originally I was supposed to stay with the other staff members at this farm bed and breakfast place, but it turned out that they messed up the room numbers and didn't have a room for our faculty members Craig and Mary Ann Mumm (who are awesome and adorable, and have been together for something like 40 years, even though they are pretty young still.) So instead of being selfish and taking the single room to myself, I gave it to the Mumms and went to take their room at the hostel place where the musicians were staying instead. Luckily there were some staff already staying there, so I got to room with my Stella again, which was nice. This place in Armenia was super creepy. I guess it was like some housing for workers, and it was obviously trying to be really kid friendly, but it just ended up being crazy creepy. It had a playground with these clown heads that were straight out of "It" or something.
The rooms were funny too- we had a room with two small twin sized cots and a bunk bed. All it all it was fine though, as we only were there for a night.
We had ridiculous key rings for the room keys at this place. Here I am pretending to have it in my pocket.
The concert went great, AS USUAL (because these kids are pros). Here I am posing by the YOA poster that reminded me of a red carpet event, so I had everyone pose by it and take pictures.
We got up fairly early the next morning to head to Manizales. The bus ride was pretty long, but not as long as before. There was some serious drama at the end of it, because the road to the hotel was partially blocked by downed trees, and it started pouring rain, so there literally was a river down the road. The poor bus drivers had to get off of the bus and wade into the water to help move trees and guide the other driver.
We finally made it though, and this hotel was very cute! This place is special because it is near a volcano and has natural hot springs, so they have pools that are fed by this mineral-rich hot water. We each got little cabins, that were all painted very eccentrically, and many of ours had little personal hot tubs with the hot springs water.
Originally they messed up and put me in a 3-room cabin by myself, but then Stella came to take over one of the other rooms, then later it was discovered that another group of people had the wrong room, so I ended up having Stella share my bed, and Ana (our photographer) and Marysol (our nurse) in the other beds. After only a few hours of being here, the musicians had to head to the concert, but I had a lot of work to catch up on, since internet has been off and on for the last few days, so I stayed at the hotel and worked on it. It was good to get my work done for once, but it was FREEZING in my room (the climate here is rainy and cold- much different from the other places we've been), and I was STARVING towards the end of the night, since I had to wait until the musicians got back (around 11:30) to eat dinner, and I wouldn't get the snack that they were all getting at the concert site. Anyway, not to be a whiner, but I was sad to miss out on the concert.
The next day I got up reasonably early to meet with Nina and talk with her about the work I had done the previous night, and figure out some of the issues I have been trying to solve (VIP tickets, events, and other things like that). I got some more work done, then needed a break, so I got in the private hot-springs tub for our cabin and just sat in there for a nice long time. Ana joined me and we just sat out there and relaxed, even though it was raining and cold in the air.
At 2:00 a group of us hired a bus to take us into town so we could see the area. I went too, since I didn't have a chance to see Manizales the day before when they went to the concert. I am very glad that I did, because it has very pretty churches, and I was able to see the city.
I had a delicious pastry topped with Arequipe (basically caramel, or dulce de leche or something awesome) and got Patrick a soccer jersey, and hung out with the musicians. These guys and gals are awesome and I am so glad that I got to bum around town with them.
I am going to take this opportunity to go to bed BEFORE midnight (for once), so goodnight all, and I hope Medellín has better internet connections so that I can blog tomorrow.
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