Return to Colombia

Today Sutho and I ventured through the city. It was great to see the many famous buildings and churches, and even a toture museum of the Spanish Inquisition.

And yes, Mexico has a McDonald's. We wanted some familiar food and the Quarter Pounders are still the same :) But they do have a selection of burritos etc.

Feeling so much better today after the walk. If you ever come, street signs, red lights and pedestrian crossings mean nothing. Actually, during the cab ride to our hostel yesterday, there was a Mexican Stand Off between our car and another car through a skinny street. Our cabbie kept creeping forward forcing the other car to back up and around.

The other thing we noticed is the amount of police here. They're everywhere. Male, female, with big automatic machine pistols. Plenty of porn, cheap watches and t-shirts.

We came back from McDonalds, did a load of washing, and sat on the 6th floor balcony and bar, and sank a 1ltr Carona. We have a panoramic view of the cathedral and the city, and it was great to relax.

Tonight we're seeing the Lacho Libre (basically like WWE wrestling in Mexico) and tomorrow Sutho and I will head out for the day to see the ruins.

I met another back packer whose wallet was gone (stolen), and all she said was ''They got my wallet, but at least I wasn't kidnapped''.

We´re now on day 2 of mexico. Our last day in LA was amazing: we went to Santa Monica Pier, and walked to Venice Beach and watched the sun set. Travelling through LA on 2 buses was great, so much to see and met a few locals along the way.

Standing on Venice Beach, on the otherside of the Pacific Ocean was an incredible feeling, especially as the sun went down. We were with our new german friends: Charlotte, Christina and Michael.

Unfortunately, after staying up right through till 3am to catch our shuttle was the start of a bad run. We were dropped off at the wrong terminal, stood in the wrong line for a while before making a mission over thr other side to the right one. It was at this point I´d discovered I´d sprained my ankle quite severely. I can only assume it was from the walk around LA Venice Beach in thongs.

After finally checking in, we realised we had not recieved our boarding passes: making our way back down to the checkin, the woman finally gave us our boarding passes, but informed us that Sutho and Chizm would have to go back to the American Airlines terminal to be issues new passes - because ''both their first names were the same and it causes a problem in the system'' but we can´t be sure.

Chivers, Chris and I made our way through the airport to the gate. We waited as long as we could before boarding the plane after being assured that Sutho and Chizm would be put on the next flight with no charge.

Exhausted and frustrated we´d been up for clos to 24 hours straight. We boarded, had minmial sleep on the 3 hour flight, and picked up our bags at the other end.

It hit me.

I didn´t have my wallet on me. Anywhere. Credit card, bank cards, driver´s licence and phone card. Fucking gone.

We then spent an hour through the airports administration areas in broken Spanish and English and left our details with the airline (we can assume it could have only been lost/stolen between the flight and landing in Mexico).

We got into the hostel, I rang Virgin to cancel my card. To make things worse ING would not accept a change of bank account link, so my savings cannot leave the account. It was at about this point I was ready to come home. I was totally exhausted, pissed off and worst of all didn´t want to burden my friends with any of this.

It was early evening so we decided to go out that night to find some food, which was great. We saw quite a bit of the city in that short walk. Waiters were very kind to our broken Spanish and wide eyes. The highlight was when the bill came back with a translated sentance ''The total does not include tip :p'' with the smiley face drawn on. It was great, and we all cracked up.

Thankfully I´d photocopied every card of mine, including the phone card. So afert dinner I made the much needed call home. Nobody was home earlier, but it was good to talk to Mum and talk it all through. I'd been awake for over 36 hours and was beside myself. I knew I just needed to get to bed. With money and access sorted out I felt better. I rang Elise and it was really good to hear her voice again, and talk it through.

Finally went to bed. Awake now and feeling much better.

This afternoon we got free tickets and were in the Jay Leno studio audience. Came back to a $5 all you could eat spaghetti at the hostel up in the common room watching Family Guy on the 50" LCD screen - fucking best :). Opened my first bottle of Canadian Club & Carona.

Tonight we'll be riding in a Ford Esplanade Stretch-Limo around Hollywood.

Our flight was delayed at Sydney, but we're finally here in Hollywood, LA, and have now checked into our hostel. First part of the flight over was great - we had 4 rows of seats to ourselves. The second part of the flight (from Tahiti to LA) was packed and we quickly realised how spoilt we'd been.

Getting out of LAX was quick and easy, and we jumped straight onto a shuttle that took us directly to our hostel. Sutho was off and onto another flight to see our friend Kevin in San Fransisco, and we'll meet up with him again on Saturday.

Rooms are all dorms, we're sharing with a few people. Staff are awesome, and theres a bar upstairs with a beer bong proudly hanging from the ceiling. Tonight we're booked in for a 'limo tour' with about 15 other people from the hostel.

We're totally exhausted from all the travel; we also checked out Amoeba Music - which is by far the biggest and most comprehesive music store I've ever seen. Now we are counting down the hours till we can have our first drinks and celebrate Chizm's 21st. (Pictures Soon)

Well after nearly 12 months of planning, we're finally leaving tomorrow for our 5 week trip. Spent the day with Elise, family & packing my (~12kg) pack.

I'll be posting as many pictures and entries as I can along the way. Feel free to email me (jye@jyesmith.com) or comment here.

I'll be sending out the address to this blog to friends & family this week, where I hope to keep a photo and written journal of my time away.

Itinerary:

• January 17 - Los Angeles, CA
• January 21 - Mexico City, Mexico
• January 27 - Bogota, Colombia
• Santa Marta
  
• 6 Day Trek through the jungle to the Lost City
  
• February 15 - Miami, FL
• February 20, Los Angeles, CA
  

So today it hits me. The joy, pain and anxiousness about meeting my birth-mother. It starts at the base of your sternum and shoots through your chest and hits the back of your throat. I can't really breathe and my arms are longing.

Punching out the email to meet her right now.

Bought most of my stuff for the 5 week trip earlier this year at a Kathmandu sale. Although a better way to express that could perhaps be 'went nuts and bought everything at the Kathmandu tornado'. Between crowds of people and a brand new credit card, I was a little pumped.

Picked up my boots today. Needed something not only for the 6 day trek to La Ciudad Perdida, but also for the other 4 weeks travelling around everything from big city LA to the villages in Mexico. After visiting Kathmandu and Paddy Pallin.

I ended up purchasing them from Peak Fifteen in the CBD and picked up a pair of Lafuma M Rando. Great service, much more attentive. Highly reccommended, even if it's a little more expensive on some items, and definitely not the mega-store variety.

Still on the todo list: Torch, Pants and Socks.

I guess I should also explain that I am returning to Colombia in January/February 2008, which prompted all this. With 3 of my closest friends, we'll land in LAX, head to Mexico for a week, stop off in Miami for a few hours, then to Colombia for three weeks, back to Miami for a week, and then return to LAX for a few days before heading back to Australia.

I'm really grateful and excited to be sharing my first trip back with my closest mates.

I've now written back to my mother's email, and am waiting a reply.

Got my first email from my birth mother today - surreal.

That's the only way to describe how this has felt for the past 24 hours. I really wasn't sure how to react - hearing your birth mother speak for the first time in over 21 years.

My friends from the US translated the letter for me within the hour. I was still in shock - and didn't know how to react. But having my Spanish teacher read it allowed for me (in Spanish) was the most moving.

Obviously my head is filled with all kinds of questions and doubts. More on that later.

But I guess what I really wanted to say is how much this makes me feel like a child. I'll always be somebody's child. But this makes me feel naive, even helpless at times - there is just so much wonder.

This will be dedicated to documenting my trip to my birthplace, Colombia. And also my thoughts and feelings about finding my birth parents. I hope that it'll give my friends and family an honest insight into how I really feel about all this, and also help anyone else who is an adopted child like myself.

Much more detail to come, but for now:

I was born on July 14, 1986 into an orphanage in Bogota, Colombia. At about 6 weeks, I was adopted by my Australian family and have lived in Sydney, Australia ever since.