After exiting the plane, the first thing I noticed was the voices of the crowd. The words spoken at the Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport seemed to mix together, and I could no longer focus on individual conversations like I could at Toronto several hours earlier. This trip to the Colombian island of San Andrés marked the first time I was venturing to a country where English was not the official language. In the weeks leading up to the trip I had tried to prepare by memorizing common Spanish phrases. It was not until I was surrounded by native speakers that I became conscious of how little I understood.
My mother and I hurried out of the airport and joined several others already seated in the shuttle. While en route to …show more content…
Out on the water I could see several boats, but one of them was particularly huge. My driver slowed the 4-wheeler and told me that it was a war ship. We turned onto another road and travelled for a while until we reached a place with massive, solid walls that were topped with jagged glass. We took a short break and my driver explained that this jail housed all of the island’s criminals. I’m not sure if he was intentionally trying to scare me, but I was definitely feeling a bit unnerved. After taking a few pictures we headed onwards until we reached our destination. The workers dropped us off near the edge of the shopping district and told us there was a bus that stopped at this location to take us …show more content…
Motorcycles were the preferred method of transportation by locals and I could see them passing us on both sides of the road. The bus came to a fork in the road. Instead of continuing rightwards on the main road the driver turned left onto a narrow path that had become overgrown with vegetation.
I turned to my mother and I could see a concerned look in her eyes. This was not a way that the resort workers had taken us on the 4-wheelers, and I could see no signage to indicate where the driver was headed. We were going in the wrong direction! I became panicked. Should we stay on and hope we don’t get dropped off on a remote part of the island? Should we get off, walk back the main road and wait an uncertain amount of time in the dark for a taxi to arrive? Should I explain our situation to the driver, and pray that we now miraculously understand each other? I didn’t know what to
My mother and I hurried out of the airport and joined several others already seated in the shuttle. While en route to …show more content…
Out on the water I could see several boats, but one of them was particularly huge. My driver slowed the 4-wheeler and told me that it was a war ship. We turned onto another road and travelled for a while until we reached a place with massive, solid walls that were topped with jagged glass. We took a short break and my driver explained that this jail housed all of the island’s criminals. I’m not sure if he was intentionally trying to scare me, but I was definitely feeling a bit unnerved. After taking a few pictures we headed onwards until we reached our destination. The workers dropped us off near the edge of the shopping district and told us there was a bus that stopped at this location to take us …show more content…
Motorcycles were the preferred method of transportation by locals and I could see them passing us on both sides of the road. The bus came to a fork in the road. Instead of continuing rightwards on the main road the driver turned left onto a narrow path that had become overgrown with vegetation.
I turned to my mother and I could see a concerned look in her eyes. This was not a way that the resort workers had taken us on the 4-wheelers, and I could see no signage to indicate where the driver was headed. We were going in the wrong direction! I became panicked. Should we stay on and hope we don’t get dropped off on a remote part of the island? Should we get off, walk back the main road and wait an uncertain amount of time in the dark for a taxi to arrive? Should I explain our situation to the driver, and pray that we now miraculously understand each other? I didn’t know what to