This was a very fun, although weird, Christmas! Bill and I took the morning slow so I could recover from kitesurfing yesterday. I have mystery bruises in various places, but nothing serious. We went for a scooter ride downtown this morning but everything was closed. We’ll go again tomorrow so I can get a tea cup. I have a collection going from all the places I visit. After lunch, we decided to try to find a snorkel location other than the hotel just for something different. We took the scooter past miles of beautiful beaches but most of them weren’t good locations for entering the water. Rather than sand, they are covered with pieces of coral and then a rock shelf that’s almost impossible to walk on without shoes. There are sharp edges everywhere and they hurt. So, we came back to the hotel and snorkeled here for a while. The reef is really close to shore and it’s filled with various kinds of fish. The fish are used to snorkelers so they stay pretty close although not close enough to touch. There are little damselfish that are black with bright blue and purples spots that look like tiny lights. I wonder if they glow in the dark. We also saw some crabs and sea urchins. I’d really like to see some seahorses, rays, and octopuses, but none so far. We might see more when we go to Kline Bonaire. Bill has a GoPro-like camera and he got some great underwater pictures and video. I’ll attack the pictures. We got a note from management asking people to dress up for Christmas dinner. They wanted people to wear long pants instead of shorts, which is a little unfair since many people don’t pack pants to come here. There’s not much reason to have them. Bill and I dressed up, but the meal was basically the same as every other night and lots of people weren’t dressed up. The restaurant offered “wild game” pate, but we aren’t sure what counts as wild game here. So far, I haven’t seen any mammals – no squirrels, rabbits, rodents- nothing! Do iguanas count as wild game? There are lots of those. We ate fish and chicken instead. We are sitting by the pool now overlooking the beach. It’s a beautiful evening with a nice, cool breeze and palm trees blowing around us. We can’t see the ocean because it’s dark, but we can hear the waves crash in. No one else is out here so it’s peaceful and perfect! It’s definitely not a snowy Christmas, but it’s been lovely just the same! Tomorrow, we are doing a three hour 4 wheeler ride to a bat cave. That should be a lot of fun. I’m hoping to go shopping for a tea cup too and we’ll probably snorkel again. I hope you all had a great Christmas and everybody is healthy and well!
We only got to spend the evening here in Bonaire yesterday, the good Netherlands according to the local travel channel. It had a very entertaining spot about the differences between the Netherlands to the north and the Caribbean Netherlands. Not much happened yesterday other than landing at the Flamingo Airport, a tour of the resort, eating and resting from out travel day . Emily didn’t get to hear everything the guy said during our tour of the grounds, she did notice he said “don’t forget” a lot, must be a Dutch or island thing. I found it amusing when he was driving by the scooters they rent and he pointed at the scooters and said these are scooters parked here. They looked like scooters, there was a sign that said scooters but he wanted us to know they were in fact scooters.
Today we signed up for some activities, possibly scuba on Friday, a quad tour and Emily got to try out kitesurfing! We also rented a scooter for three days. We’re also looking at doing a kayaking tour of the mangroves.
After renting our scooter we took it for a spin downtown. They do lane splitting here, I’ve never been comfortable with that. I’m probably not going to be doing that. For those that don’t know the jargon, lane splitting is when motorcycles and in our case scooters get to weave trough traffic using the open spaces between cars to get to the front. It’s legal in some states. In California I seen people doing it at highway speeds. I think Iowa was considering allowing it at traffic lights so that motorcycles can get to the front. I would consider doing that as the safest place to be is usually in front of traffic. We got to see a bit of the city. We made it back without getting lost.
After lunch we took the scooter out to Emily’s kitesurfing lesson. They have a max speed of 60 km/h or 38 mph roughly. The scooter maximum is about 52 km/h. Scooter rental was $29 a day after taxes and we were told a taxi would be about $25 and that doesn’t include a tip for those inclined to do so. Scooter maybe a good option especially since they really don’t seem to have a lot of crazy traffic here. Our ride was right along the Caribbean. It’s a lovely ride. We also got to see the salt flats and a flamingo. It’s very interesting that all along the coast road there are places for people to pull over and go scuba diving. There are marked areas and other places it appears people are just pulling off and going diving. The place where Emily had her lesson was a ways out from the resort. It was a section of beach were it must be extra good for kitesurfing as there were a couple different groups offering lessons. The beach was covered with kite surfers 🏄♀️ that had a hippyish vibe about it. It was cool to see all the activity going on. I will have some video of Emily’s lesson after were get back. I recorded it on a little gopro type camera, hopefully it turned out. The sun is very bright here and I couldn’t see the screen on the camera.
We did a little snorkeling after we got back before dinner. I was impressed with our ability to just go out to the beach and see so much, I will get some vid tomorrow when the lighting is better and have them as well after we get back. There were a lot of fish and some corals just in the area we were in.
We will get more pictures tomorrow as well. We have a few and we will get them posted.
The food here isn’t bad. It’s buffet style with one cooked to order meal in the main dining area. It’s open air and the drink staff are a little slow on the refills. The birds are an issue in the morning and afternoon, not at night though. They have a snack bar that’s open during the day for burgers and pizza if you want to go that route. The selection is has been good. Emily likes the idea of not deciding where to go. The all inclusive deal hasn’t been a bad.
The age of the resort is showing in places. They are currently in progress of a 5 year renovation, they have a new pool that is very nice and the construction of a new building for the check in desk and what not is under way. European/ Caribbean’s do make some interesting room choices, but still nice.
The sun here can be hot but there always seems to be a nice breeze. The trade winds offer some relief and in the shade with them it’s very pleasant. The ocean is beautiful to look at with the greens and blues. The people here are very nice and they will tell you that the people here are very nice. I think they like to point out the obvious.
We had a fun first full day! After breakfast this morning, Bill and I set up some of our activities for the rest of the week. Places are pretty booked for scuba so we may not get to do that, but there are plenty of other fun things to keep us busy. We rented a scooter and Bill is now driving us all over the island. We went downtown to see what was there and he took me to my kitesurfing lessons. He’s a very useful person. I would have been completely lost.
I tried kitesurfing this afternoon. As it turns out, I’m not a natural. It was really hard. I never even made it to trying out a board. My instructor started me out on land with a small kite so I could learn how to maneuver it and keep it in the air. I was pretty good at that part. Then we set up a much bigger kite to take out on the ocean. My instructor took the kite out with a board and had me swim out to the boat. I cracked my toe on a rock on the way out and it barely moves now. I had on really heavy equipment and barely managed to haul myself into the boat alone. With nothing to stand on, it takes some effort to pull yourself and kitesurfing equipment into a floating boat. It was not a smooth operation. Bill probably has video. Once we finally got out into the water, my instructor attached the kite to my harness and it almost immediately pulled me into the water. Before you get a board, you have to learn to control the kite while you are in the water, keep it in the air, and get it back up when it falls in. This is much tricker than it sounds. I lost a contact lens and swallowed a lot of ocean water. By the end of my 3 hour training session, I could keep the kite up and let it pull me among the top of the water for a while. Apparently that’s all most people do on the first lesson. It takes a lot of time in the water with the kite to master the process. My teacher said the first lessons is mostly an exercise in being drowned over and over. If you lose control, the kite just drags you through the water. I’m going to be sore in the morning. Kitesurfing is actually really dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. There are lots of ways things can go wrong. The bigger kites can pull 800 lbs and really good kite surfers can do jumps 60 ft in the air. I’m glad I tried it even though it wasn’t as smooth as I’d hoped.
On the way to my kitesurfing lesson, we passed some of the salt flats where they produce salt from ocean water. That was neat. The process produces this fluffy white salt residue that flies around like bubbles. Bill had to wait for 3 hours on the beach while I did my kitesurfing lesson. It was very nice of him to give up the afternoon to wait during my lessons. Once we got back to the hotel, we did some snorkeling so we could try out our equipment and so Bill could have some time in the water. The water here is the bluest water I’ve ever seen and there are all kinds of colorful little fish just a few steps off our beach. We are planning to snorkel at Kline Bonaire, a small island marine refuge, in a few days where scuba and snorkeling are supposed to be even better. We are also thinking about doing a nighttime snorkel trip. I think they have bioluminescent sea animals here so that would be neat! We’ve also set up a 4-wheeler tour of a nature reserve and a bat cave and we are planning to do a mangrove kayak tour.
The food is good and there is plenty of it! The accommodations are also nice. Bonaire is not the most beautiful place I’ve been. It’s very arid, dry and scrubby, but the water is spectacular and I think some of the nature reserves will be nice. There’s also always a nice breeze that keeps things cooler than you would expect. This place is really about the water and there are lots of divers. All the equipment is rented out which is why we may not get to dive. There are lots of Dutch people here, which I guess is not surprising since it’s a Dutch island. Everybody speaks English though so it’s fine. I think the Island only has 18,000 residents and even though big cruise ships come in, its surprisingly uncrowned. We had the beach and the pool mostly to ourselves this afternoon, and driving around, there are mostly empty beaches everywhere. The island is doing a lot of building so maybe it will be more crowded in a few years. Right now, it’s fantastic. I was really concerned that it would be super crowded since it’s Christmas break for everyone, but that’s not the case at all.
There are Christmas decorations up here, but sunny, warm weather and beaches doesn’t make things seem like Christmas. Some of the palm trees have been decorated with lights and there are some Christmas trees here. They seem very out of place.
Bill is working on his update, but I’m out of energy writing mine. I’ll probably have more tomorrow!
Hello All! We made it Bonaire about 4pm their time yesterday. It was a very long travel day and the time zone is two hours different, so everything feels a little off for us. I think it’s going to be a good vacation though. It’s hot! We are 11 degrees south of the equator. The island has some of the best diving locations in the world and there are dive shops at our resort. We had good food last night. The restaurant is a buffet but the kitchen also cooks a few things fresh so I had some really good red snapper with crunchy stir fried cabbage. I’ll write more later today. We are headed out to get breakfast now and set up some activities. Hope everything is going well for you all!
Bill got second place in the “best legs in a kilt” competition at Waterloo Irish Fest today! I was looking at the Irish Fest schedule last night and noticed this competition. Bill’s last name is Abernathey, so he comes from Irish stock and he already has a very classy kilt with reflective stripes in case he needs to direct traffic or wear it to work. He’s also a weight lifter and just bought a new leg press, so this seemed like the perfect competition for him. It took a lot of nerve to get up on stage in front of a big crowd to show off his kilt and legs, but he went all in for it! It was very fun. He got a “participation beer” for his efforts. I think it was a Guinness beer. Neither of us are big fans of beer and this one was was particularly bad. He had to throw it away after we both confirmed that it was undrinkable. The lemonade we got with our hotdogs for supper helped clear away the bad taste. I have good video of the event and I’m posting pictures below!
We also watched some Irish Fest games which involved men in kilts throwing bales of hay over a high bar with a pitch fork. It was more interesting than it sounds. Some of them were really good. The guy who won looked very Irish in his kilt with long, wooly, curly blond hair.
We finished our day with some expensive, greasy street-cart food. It was a fun day!
Well in about 40 minutes we’ll be on our way home! Our painter is back at it just outside our window. I’m all packed and ready to go, now it’s a waiting game. On the way here it’s a rush to do everything and make sure things are in order and for the trip. Going home it seems less rushed as all the things we brought are packed and there is nothing left to do. There’s nothing that can’t be replaced in the states, if you forget something coming you may have to do without for the entire trip.
We used up the eggs and some of the ham and cheese for breakfast. It was nice having the kitchen to eat some meals here. Both the stores we shopped at though were light on seasonings so we had salt and garlic salt, not quite like back home. We did eat out a lot and I’m taking home most of my almonds and snacks. I probably will skip them on future trips. Snacks seem like a good idea but unless your dedicated to eating them then you end up eating local foods.
We are staying cool this morning in the apartment before we leave so we don’t get sweaty before traveling.
I’m going to get my DouLingo done before we go, I’ll add more later after our travel has begun.
We’ve made it back to the States! No problems with getting out of South American this time!! No problems with customs and we’ve found our next departure gate and have had some Popeye’s. Should be a pleasant wait, we’ve got seats close to the gate so we can hear the announcements and get in line when we get called up. We’re going to have to start booking our own flights to get miles or plus clubs so we can get on early.
Once we get on our next flight we should be back to St Louis in just a hour and a half.
28 July 2019 00:01
We have arrived back to St. Louis and while there is some driving to do later on today, this trip has come to an end as far as I’m concerned. Since I will be in my car driving it feels like home.
28 July 2019 21:15
I made it all the way back to Waterloo, Iowa! No problems on the return! I did however stop off at the future birth place of Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the Starship USS Enterprise. I was not in a hurry and this place exists for road trips!! I probably should have swung through Brandon for the world’s largest frying pan but I didn’t think of it until after the exit.
I did not hit all the sights available, just the museum, the marker of the future birth place and a statue. Emily and I may return and see some of the rest!!
Hopefully you have all enjoyed our posts and with luck we will get to go somewhere again soon worth sharing!
26 July 2019 14:28 R.E.D. Friday (Remember Everyone Deployed) We have a taxi lined up for tomorrow’s trip to the airport with our favorite driver Aley. We both seem ready to head back to the United States but a little sad to be leaving Colombia. It has been a good trip overall, we have seen a lot, learned some Spanish (Emily more than me) and ate really good food. This morning we were thinking we ran out of things we wanted to do and see while here so Emily checked the guide book Cartagena & Colombia’s Caribbean Coast by Moon publishers to make sure. Emily does have kitesurfing on her bucket list but we don’t have enough time for that. She didn’t think about it early enough. She did find a couple restaurants to try before we go. We walked into town and found the first one, the other we are going to tonight. We got pictures, it was a very neat place and the air worked well. It’s exceptionally humid today, my exposed skin is wet almost as soon as I’m outside on days like this. There were a couple fellas that came in after we had ordered and Emily heard English being spoken so she went over to chat with them. Turned out they are Marines and one was from Missouri. The food was very good. I had fish and chips. Mine was a lunch special and it came with a dessert that Emily and I shared that was very good. It was a torte with cake, pudding, coconut and a little chocolate sauce. Tips are usually already added to the bills, this place does that but they are voluntary, you can ask to have it taken off if you wish, if I read right through they are supposed to ask if you do, so far none have asked. It’s only 10% and in pesos that is never very much. We are looking forward to dinner tonight, Emily has picked out sea bass and I may have a steak but we’ll have to see. I have seen horse steak on some menus here and while I’m sure it is probably good to some I don’t want to eat horse unless I’m on the range and I had to shoot my horse before it died in agony, maybe if I was starving then possibly. Emily is at her last class, it sounds like it will be another hard class and the ending will be without any fanfare. I’m disappointed that I didn’t learn more and with the school’s administration. I wish they had been more proactive. They lacked customer service, 24 hours is a long time to wait between responses, there should be someone at the school that could help when situations that will reflect on the school happen. As a business I can’t recommend them. Emily says the Costa Rican school is run better. I will have to let her pick the school next time. Until then I will continue with my DouLingo and other self study aids. I may also join Emily and Sharon’s club if possible. I do recommend visiting Cartagena. Emily and I may have to return to visit more of Colombia in the future. I hear it’s cooler in the mountains. I’m going to do one last load of laundry here tonight, with luck no major leaks. Since the guy came and fixed the large leak there has been a smaller leak after the machine is done that has steadily gotten bigger. Being able to do laundry while we have been here has been nice, we will come back with very few dirty clothes. In Peru we had some laundry done and that was very helpful. We are learning that either having a washer or having laundry done means you can pack so much less stuff. The Hynes 44l carryon does hold a lot. https://hyneseagle.com/collections/carry-on-backpacks/products/santiago If you travel I recommend getting this bag! I hopefully will never have to wait for luggage at the carousel again! The LocTote bag is a great idea, luckily we have not had to test it on the streets. We did lock our things in it while SCUBA diving and that was nice. https://loctote.com/collections/all/products/flak-sack-sport Worth looking at, a better lock would be nice, but in the end it’s about keeping honest people honest since the bad guys always find a way sooner or later. At least you make them work for it. I also wish it was a complete dry bag. I am going to email and see if they will be doing one in the future. There is a dry pocket inside that does work, we tested it. The bag itself resists water but the ropes will wick in moisture. I’m hearing a lot of thunder again this afternoon, there was some yesterday as well and it did rain some while Emily was in class. The windows in the apartment do not muffle any sounds. Rain may be nice if it’s done before I go to meet up with Emily. I’m hoping the weather will be good when we get back so we can get some canoeing and bike riding in before it cools off and Emily gets busy with work. Seems like I’ve been off a long time. From here it feels odd thinking about going back on shift next Thursday, but I’m sure once I get there it will be like the last 23 years, minus the first two years of college. One of the interesting things here is how much they decorate the busses but you don’t see a lot of customized cars or motorcycles. Occasionally a car will have some different wheels and a few stickers and motorcycles may have a different seat and some stickers but the busses are painted bright colors, usually red, yellow or green but the are plastered with stickers, little murals and chrome pipes. We had a cab today that was decorated inside I had to take a picture. So many of the stickers on the vehicles here are advertising for products we see all the time in the USA but not here. We do see clothing here with English words on them, sometimes I wonder if they know what it says, I would Google translate it if it were me. 20:01 The restaurant Emily had picked was closed, seems they don’t open until 7:30pmWe went to the tried and true find someone with restaurant menus and go there. The food was good, I had some ribs since it been a week and they didn’t have chicken wings. I may have to do some when I get back home. We stopped and picked up some leather keepsakes. I got a new wallet and Emily got a small purse of Colombian leather. I’m mostly packed at this point and my clothes are laid out for tomorrow. The trip home is less exciting than the trip here. I will be sad to leave but happy to be back stateside. Hot showers, central air and real bedding. This bedding is way to light and I get tangled up in it. It will be strange not hearing the beeping, sirens, dogs barking, big trucks and the rest of the big city sounds, but I will enjoy the quiet. I also look forward to color, the plain white of the apartment and the lack of green space I won’t miss. We’ve officially entered the lame duck period!
We had a very pleasant final day here in Cartagena. We got up with no plans and had a slow morning. One of Bill’s travel books recommended a couple of restaurants so we tried one for lunch and were planning to try a second for supper. The lunch restaurant had a very fun atmosphere and the food was good. While we were there, a couple of guys speaking English came in. We’ve met very few Americans, so I went over to talk to them. One of them was from Kansas City, MO, the other from Colorado. Both were Marines and were doing some sort of training here in Colombia. I didn’t ask many questions because I assumed they wouldn’t be able to tell me much. Both were very nice. The guy from MO spent quite a bit of time in IA doing something for the Marines. He was familiar with with the MO Bootheel and with the Des Moines/Cedar Rapids area in IA.
My last class was good. I asked my 22 year old teacher if she liked to dance. She said everyone here dances, its part of the culture. You grow up seeing your family dance and dancing with them. Music is on most of the time. She said there are rare people who can’t dance, but most people just do it naturally. I told her I didn’t know anyone who knew how to dance and her response was “I don’t know any white people who can dance.” She says even the white people who take lessons are rigid and not very good. It was funny.
For dinner, we went to another restaurant I found in Bill’s book. It was closed when we got there but we assumed it would open at 6pm. As it turned out, it didn’t open until 7:30pm so we had to find another place to eat. We waited for a while in a square next to the city wall. As we were leaving, we heard a crowd of people right outside the wall. There was a protest going on and the protestors poured into the square right as we left. Nabely, my teacher, had told me right as I was leaving class that there was going to be a protest. Apparently, for the last few years, all over Colombia, local community leaders have been being assassinated. These are people demanding better education, land rights and public services for their communities. So many of them are currently being assassinated that people decided to organize a protest. Apparently the government is behind the assassinations and everyone knows this. There has been a lot of police and military presence in the area.
Overall this has been a really good trip. We are ready to come home, but we feel like we have done everything we wanted to do. The only thing I didn’t do that I wish I had found out about earlier is kitesurfing. Cartagena has some great kitesurfing schools and locations. It looks hard but it also looks like a lot of fun. It’s on my list of things to do next. This is an amazing kitesurfing video for anyone who’s interested.https://youtu.be/
Lunch restaurantCoconut Lemonade againReceipt with tip includedUpper floor swimming poolWedding we came across.Guy dressed up as Deadpool.Dinner restaurant
Bill and I just got back from dinner at a tiny little restaurant we happened to come across. They were out of coconut lemonade, which was disappointing, but I had a fried fish fillet and Bill had something that tasted like a Mongolian meat dish with several different kinds of meats. The food was pretty good, but my legs started to feel really itchy while I waited for our food. I had been a little itchy all day so I though maybe I got bit by something at the aviary yesterday. It kept getting worse so Bill and I had a conversation about whether we might have bedbugs in our apartment. By the end of that conversation, I was itching all over and wondering if mom would let me come back to stay at her house! I considered leaving all of my possessions here and buying some new clothes at the airport or coming home naked if the airport didn’t have clothes. Part way through our meal, Bill noticed that women sitting at the table behind us were also itching their legs. He looked down and mine were covered in tiny mosquitoes. They were swarming everywhere. Normally, mosquitoes go for Bill, and he gets bit much more than me, but they chose me tonight. We both came back to the apartment, took a shower and smeared hydracortisone all over our legs. I’m still itchy. On the bright side, Bill checked our beds for bedbugs and found no sign of any!
Our vacation is winding down, so we had a fairly uneventful day. We swam in the ocean this morning, fixed ham sandwiches, then I went to class. I’ve been working on some very difficult verb forms and not really succeeding. I think I should have mastered a few other skills before moving on to this, but at least I’ll be familiar with this part of the language, and everything is good practice.
We did a little bit of shopping before dinner. I got my friend’s baby a couple of adorable headbands. She will probably hate them, but maybe she’ll wear them long enough for a picture. I got a headband with a flower for myself too. Afro-Colombian women make them and sell them on the street. I posted pictures below.
When we got back to the apartment, there was a gecko outside our door eating bugs around the lights. It was a cute yellow one. When we came in, there was also a gecko on the wall in the kitchen. We were excited because it was a pretty, colorful one and we are hoping it will eat the ants that have taken over the kitchen counter, which we use as our table! Bill thinks it just ran across the top of the sofa while he was writing his update. If so, it’s going the wrong direction. We thought about catching some outside and letting them go in the kitchen.
Since we both have relatively short posts, I’m including Bill’s below rather than making a new one for him. Here it is:
25 July 2019 19:25
Our trip to Cartagena, Colombia is winding down. We have had a great time here and have seen what we wanted to and gotten to relax. We got to try out SCUBA! Even though I was frustrated with the experience I still am glad I got to do it. In reading our pamphlet from the dive shop if they would have filled out the dive information we could have used the dive towards getting certified and would been helpful to the next place we go in knowing what we did. Long term it won’t matter as we will be a ways off before we do free diving on our own, it would have been nice to have though.
I’m not wishing I was home yet, but just feeling satisfied with my time here and home is always nice to go back to.
We didn’t do a lot of noteworthy stuff today so updates will be shorter.
After breakfast settled we went to the beach. This morning the sand was dry by the rocks along the wall separating the beach from the sidewalk. It was very soft and powdery, once you get to where it is wet, it’s hard with very little give, sometimes it doesn’t leave footprints. The water feels soft when you are in it and it is calm but then a wave will come and hit you and as it breaks around you you can feel the force and sometimes for a brief second it almost feels solid. While swimming today I discovered a flaw in men’s swimsuits, no tops! A fish bit me on the nipple, it still feels sore. There were some children out this morning that appeared unsupervised that borrowed my goggles. I wasn’t sure if I would get them back or mot but I did. They did have some supervision but we are guessing it was a sitter or older sister that wasn’t very interested in her job.
I met Emily after class and we went to see about some hair bands and dinner. The place we picked for dinner was a bit sketchy but the food was good and not too high priced. It had mosquitoes though that seemed to like Emily more than me which is a switch.
Little girl roller blading in a tutu.Grocery storeOld Willy’s Jeep turned into a coffee truck.Tonight’s restaurantOur little kitchen geckoBaby head gear.
Yesterday, we called our taxi driver and went to an aviary about 45 minutes outside of Cartagena. It was a really neat place, and we have a bunch of bird pictures for anyone who’s interested. I spent three hours talking in Spanish to our taxi driver then another three hours in class. By the end of the day, I was completely wiped out! Salsa class was yesterday instead of today, but I just didn’t have energy to go. I came home to swim in the pool instead, which was lovely. Bill had more time to write, so his post is below and the pictures follow that. He had people ask what was in his Cuban sandwich, so that’s part of his description.
24 July 2019 16:52
My Cuban sandwich was thin sliced pork, slice of ham, mozzarella, pickles (sweet) tomato, lettuce, onion and mustard. The bread was a light airy bread. It reminds of the bread Sub City used to get from Wedeking bakery back home. A soft crust, light and airy inside. They then pressed it either on a flattop with a weight or using a panini press. It was served hot and delicious! Tracy knows what I’m talking about! A little messy to eat.
I did get a response from the school to an email that I sent yesterday. They did offer a classroom and Emily says they told her they could get a teacher who speaks English. I declined. I’m not sure what that would actually do to other students at the school. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” (Spock).
Plus I have found myself keeping occupied, today laundry and a nap! Last night was towels. I have a system for drying in the humid environment, A/C and a fan blowing the length of the drying rack. The fans here are loud so it is best to do when you are not trying to talk. The white noise isn’t so bad for sleeping as the city can be loud. Emily was jealous since we took a tour this morning. She had already spent 3 hours doing Spanish with our guide / driver before going to class. I do recommend our taxi driver if you are here and speak Spanish. One of the pictures has his information and the tours he does.
21:14 Our tour this morning was to Aviario Baru, there may have been a misspelling yesterday that was related to the texts I received were done while he was driving. He explained all the things we passed on the way out to Baru island. It is connected to the mainland by bridge. We had to go though the industrial area and past the ports. The port is huge and they have a large industrial area as well, including a petroleum plant.
It was a nice morning to be out side of the city. So much more green space along the roads. Still kind of junky looking closer to town and in the small towns we passed through. Aley says they do have a stop littering initiative but the primary initiative to build is bigger and faster.
The aviary was very neat! The colors of the birds here are so bright for the most part. The aviary itself was really nice and they are continually improving it. They have been working on it for ten years. It was humid but the breeze was nice and the trees made for very nice shade. It’s always humid here.
After Emily got back from class we went for a swim. It wasn’t a bad evening for a swim. The water was a bit warmer feeling than yesterday.
For something easy we had pizza from the place next to our building. It reminds of New York style pizza, flat, thin, not a lot of sauce. The crust wasn’t bad and it’s probably real cheese, it wasn’t super flavorful though. We dipped in some pasta sauce we had left over. It did feed us, probably a step up from gas station pizza or maybe a tie with Casey’s pizza when it’s fresh. It may be good if you like New York style pizza, I’ve had it in New York and I’m not a fan. I prefer Chicago style pizza.
Like in Peru they use the mortar and broken glass bottle system to keep people from climbing of their walls. You have to wonder do they drink a bottle of something the save the bottles until they get enough or do they finish a bottle break it in half and bust out the mortar so they get some coverage right away? It is a city of a million people so there will be crime and it has to be somewhat cheap. I would think razor wire would be better to deal with.
Just a couple more days here in Colombia. Time has gone by pretty fast. We have had a lot of good experiences here. Even though it is a big city it hasn’t been overwhelming. The area we are in is a good one if you want to avoid crowds. It’s easy to get around walking or by taxi to the things worth going to. Taxis are cheap, 7 mil (7000 pesos or about $2.50 depending on the exchange rate) during the day and 8 mil at night. Some will get the 8 during the day as well. $400 will get you around 1.2 million pesos if you want to feel like a millionaire for a bit.
Food at some of the better places run 80-130 thousand pesos. The good chicken place by us though, 30 thousand, like $10 for both of us with drinks.
There are not as many dogs here roaming around, they do have some animal control, I seen a truck one day that had dogs loaded in crates.
That’s Bill’s post. In the pictures, notice the new tattoo I’m trying out. It’s a dragonfly. I really like it! I’m thinking about a permanent one of a hummingbird or something like that.
Aviary picturesCute little girl at the aviary.Pictures a of villages on the way to the aviary.My tattoo.Picture of Cartagena out the window.This is our building.Aley’s tour card.More aviary pictures.
Traveling with Emily! 