I started the first leg of the trip to Colombia yesterday with a drive to St. Louis. The night was short with an early morning flight, at least this was our choice for this trip. With luck or on time flights we will be in Cartagena about 1:00 pm.
Getting through STL was rather quick, I did get flagged for my snacks. Must be a thing about snacks, the guy in front of us did as well.
Atlanta was easy, we had a short layover but it was enough time to get to where we needed to be and use the facilities.
We are going to be in Colombia for 2 weeks and from the way it sounds Emily was able to pack almost a change of clothes for everyday there in her new Hynes Eagle 44L carry on. I only brought a weeks worth so my outfit will reappear in photos.
I highly recommend this carry on bag! You should get one if you travel. Get the inserts if you really like to be organized. No checked bags means in and out of the airport on both ends. You can get you tickets at the automatic kiosks and go right to security checkpoint. On the way out there is no waiting for the luggage at the carousel. When we went to Peru I packed enough for the two weeks with my personal bag. Emily packed about everything she had in her giant suitcase .
We made it to Colombia! I was a little tired and cranky. I’m okay with 5-5:30, not so much 4am. It’s hot and humid, but from looking at the weather back home there’s not a lot of difference this week. Here there is an ocean breeze that’s not too bad. The buildings are not as rough here. In the better neighborhoods they look like Miami from what other tourists say. I believe it. Surprisingly I’ve only been to the airport there. The airport was fairly easy to get through, short wait getting our passports stamped. We exchanged money and our driver was waiting for us as we exited. He was friendly and works for the school. We met up with a couple more people from the school who helped us to our apartment.
Our apartment isn’t too bad. I was a little concerned about it and the school I picked due to some hiccups. I also need to lower my standards some. The A/C works and we have security in the building all the time so those are pluses. Hot water is iffy but Emily says that’s how it is here in South America.
They put us on the 12th floor and we look out over the ocean. The beach is across the street, went there today and though I’ve been in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific I have never swam in the ocean until today.
The walled part of town where the school is, is interesting. We spent some time down there today, found our school and looked at the shops. We found a American style pub that was nice. They played excellent music, 60s, 70s and 80s. The food was good as well.
I’m interested in classes. I’m not sure how well I will do. I’ve been doing Doulingo for a while now and they seem to think I know about 3000 words. Reading them, I do okay but when I am listening to people talk that number seems to go down. I think it will be good to get to the point where I can have a conversation. It would have been handy last week when We had two patients that didn’t speak English. Next time I should be more prepared!
This trip is more relaxed than Peru. The schedule is much more open with the exception of classes. And other than our choice to take the early flight here we shouldn’t have to many days were we, or at least I, have to set and early alarm.
It’s nice we have a kitchenette. Should save on food costs and no hotel breakfasts. We have a little store down the block from us that has a fair selection of things. I could go pretty basic with ham sandwiches and eggs but we are going to cook some actual meals. We will have to go to a bigger market to see about some seasonings, our little one was limited in that area.
It’s 7 million pesos to take a cab to the walled part of the city. That’s about $2. They say 2 and mean 2 million even though they have some 200 peso coins. I’m not sure the coins are worth getting. It’s interesting they can technically price things to such a fraction of what dollars are worth.
Speaking of buying things, I bought myself a Juan Valdez hat today. You can roll them up and the bounce right back. Not sure how long it will last but for now it’s nice to keep my face in the shade and not burn my scalp, my hair is not as thick as it once was!
The city is big! Not as big at Lima, 10 million people, here is around 1 million. Emily said it’s made up of 4 islands. We are going to try and see a couple of museums and maybe do some tours. I have a guide book so we may just take some of those multi million peso cab rides and see what we want. We may just end up hanging at the beach.
Tomorrow morning we go in for testing. Should be interesting how they do it. I’m hoping they don’t go by just reading. For them to understand how much help I need they will need to try and have a conversation with me!
Traveling with Emily! 