After Mauricio's dinner party we enjoyed 4 hours of sleep before the alarm cracked my skull in half. At first I looked around wondering why I had set the alarm so damn early. Then it started coming back to me. Something about driving to a place called El Penol... to go... what was it... wake boarding??? The plan slowly came back to me and I realized it was the type of itinerary only drunk people make at 2 in the morning. It entailed getting up too early and driving 2 hours away to the beautiful lake of El Penol. There Mauricio had a boat and was going to teach us to wake board. Yes, that was it.
After a hardy breakfast we managed to get to the lake by the crack of noon. Everyone was feeling a bit hung over, except for Kiki. She was very excited for her first day of wake boarding.
Out on the water we started feeling a little better. Kiki was in heaven!
It turns out that hung over wake boarding is a pretty fun sport. After getting dragged behind the boat a couple times I figured out how to stand up. After that it's butter. Like snowboarding on water!
The lake was absolutely fantastic. There is an 800 foot rock dome that is famous for climbing. It looks like a miniature Yosemite Half Dome. I scoped the routes and they look good to go. Let me see, this area has insane kayaking, mountain biking, wake boarding, rock climbing and paragliding. Humm...
Now, I don't want to sound like the asshole husband or anything, but after I got dragged behind the boat a couple times, I was pretty sure Stevie wouldn't make it up. I just know her, and she does NOT like violent water situations. When she got in the water, I was honestly nervous for her. After all, the only sport she knew how to do when I met her was running in high heels. (That should be in the Olympics by the way).
But, to my surprise, Stevie attacked wake boarding with serious determination, and before I knew it, she was mastering her 700th sport.
By the end of the day everyone's hangover was gone and we were all smiles.
This was supposed to be our last day in Medellin. We really need to start heading toward Ecuador. But our new friends invited us to go to the Pacific on Friday.
This is a very special invitation. Getting to the Pacific ocean in Colombia isn't easy. There are only a couple roads that access the coast and they are controlled by drug traffickers, so we had previously written that option off.
But with our new friends we will be taking a private charter plane to a small landing strip, then heading to their beach house by boat and hour away. The house is in the middle of nowhere. Complete jungle. And the surfing is supposed to be epic!
How in the hell can we say no to that? We leave Friday morning and we'll be back sometime on Monday. We'll take the SPOT GPS, so you can track our location below. Adios! TREE
Track Sprinter Life's exact GPS location!
13 comments:
Damn, forgot the SPOT in the van, which is in storage. We'll try to swing by on our way to the airport to pick it up. But in case we don't grab it, don't freak out when you don't see our dot mom! Love you all. TREE
Nice work on the wake board Stevie! I have a feeling you guys will be back there, it looks like Hood River on steroids.
The adventure and beauty just goes on and on . . .
your karma is amazing.
Side note…..Apparently all the women in Columbia are HOT!
Simko
Tree & Stevie - I'm just amazed at the quality of your adventures so far - I suspect it has a lot to do with your outgoing personalities, a younger person might say karma.
I'm trying to think back to when I was 37, think it was when a workout buddy asked me to take one of his sons on my boating trips (blue Infinity and black Protec with skull....you, not me *grins*), a lotta water under the bridge (Carter Bridge that is) since then.............
Uncle Mick
Get your butts to Ecuador already we are T minus one month and 3days before the Schulman/Schafer ( no one is Jewish...no really...no one is Jewish, we are both catholic and no, no one converted) wedding extravaganza!!! You think FARC is scary.... See what happens if you two miss your flights!
Sounds like you found the mother lode of a local contact!
Great that you have such hospitality from your new found friends!
Keep posting about your activities, great stories!
Cheers,
John D. Wilson
Awesome! If you guys ever get to try wake surfing try it...it is super fun!
Love it! What an incredible backdrop to the wake boarding photos. The landscape is awesome!
Im glad you knew to LET GO OF THAT ROPE when you fell Stevie!!!!
A lesson I learned after getting dragged around lake naciemento for an hour!
Good job!
Living the dream bro!
How long are you going to be in SA?
I'm headed to Columbia Sept 23rd with my moto - I'll be in SA until Feb.
Let's scour the OP database and get invited on more jets!
Si pero no?
Sounds like you're in with the right crowd. Awesome.
Post a Comment