This last week has been a crash course in learning about Colombia in general, Cartagena in particular. Here's some of the highlights:
* There are essentially 3 types of beer to drink there. All three are made by the same company.
* Pretty much the only liquor that people drink is rum. Straight up rum.
* Colombians don't use seasoning on their foods. I expect mild and bland for the most part. I will be there for giant ant eating season though. Not sure how i feel about that.
* The water in the mountainous regions is some of the purest you'll ever find. Unless you're in an area where they were processing coca, in which case, expect gasoline, kerosene and many other nasty's in it.
* The water along the coast (where I'll be) is essentially undrinkable without boiling it. That means no icecubes. And not eating the skins of any fruits, as it may have been washed off with contaminants.
* Scammers abound everywhere.
* Cartagena is just about one of the oldest cities in the Americas. Though christopher colombus never stepped foot on colombian soil, it's still named after him, and it was (I think) his first officer who actually made it to shore.
* Colombia's estimated to have 90% of the worlds emeralds.
* On exiting the country, the odds of having your intestines x-rayed is quite high. Drug smugglers and all.
I'm sure there are other tidbits of trivia I've learned, but I'm failing to remember now.
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