Bogota and my Dad's Visit

Last we left off, we had just come back to Cartagena from the beautiful Playa Blanca. We didn't have much time there though before our journey continued. First we watched the Notre Dame game online and were sadly disappointed when we lost to Michigan. Then we tried to visit any remaining tourist attractions we could before we left Cartagena for good. Finally, the day of our flight arrived and we flew into the capital of Colombia, Bogota.

It was good to get away from Cartagena and get into a real city that doesn't depend on tourism for its existence. And how could it? Bogota has a reputation for kidnappings and crime that make every website we've visited about this country assure us that everything is much better now. Luckily the websites were not lying. The city itself is much like any other capital city we've visited in South America and just as safe or unsafe depending on what you did. Luckily we had a friend in Bogota who welcomed us into her apartment and let us stay with her. Suzanne has a whole blog post on Amanda Lyons in her head so I won't spoil it, but I can say that we absolutely loved staying with Amanda for a couple of days. She took us to some of the nicest places in town and gave us her bed to sleep in. We told her of our plans and she gave suggestions and advice. It was real hospitality.

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Dad's visit

We didn't have long in Bogota till the main event occurred. My Dad, who had been unable to make the journey down when my brother Thomas came to visit was able to reschedule his flight for a long weekend in Bogota with us! We booked a place in the old colonial part of town (named the “Candelaria”) and picked Dad up from the airport. We were amazed at how quickly he seemed at home in Bogota. On the cab ride to the hotel he chatted with the driver the entire time about Colombia, his time growing up in Cuba, and the current state of Latin American politics. His Spanish skills hadn't diminished at all since he had stopped traveling internationally over 35 years ago. In fact, Dad seemed more at ease in Bogota than he often appears in the states! He would often strike up conversations with random Colombians wherever we found them and just chat with them for 10-15 minutes. I usually don't see that in the states. As you may know, my dad spent the first 15 years of his life in Cuba before Castro came into power. His dad was a businessman who had to flee before Fidel nationalized all businesses.

Dad just chatting with a local about Cuba:

From Bogota

Since we only had a weekend we tried to fill it with the major sites. We started out at the Gold Museum. Wow. In a previous post I talked about never seeing so much gold before in my life. This museum beat it by far. It was 3 full floors of gold artifacts from the native peoples in Columbia. The crazy thing is that this is all the gold the Spanish missed! There were frequent quotes from the old explorers about how everyone in a village would have a gold nose-ring or earings. (Gold was admired but not used as a currency). In the end you got tired of all the gold in the room and just went past it. This is in great contrast to some of the museums in the southern countries where the gold breastplate was the prized asset of the museum! Not only was the content amazing but the presentation was excellent. All signs had English sections and the material was excellent. We learned about all the methods used to make these beautiful artifacts, methods which are still used today. In fact, there are no new methods other than the ones these people used, how crazy is that?! Unfortunately, I assumed that there would be no picture taking in the museum so I didn't take my camera, so no pictures. :( You'll just have to go yourself!

Dad and Suzanne looking over Bogota city:

From Bogota

Me and Dad in the botanical gardens

From Bogota

The other big site we visited was the Salt Cathedral. There is a big salt mine just outside of Bogota and the miners constructed a church out of the huge chambers they created. Then the church became unstable and they had an international contest to design a new mine. This is the one we got to visit. It was pretty cool. It holds 10,000 people and is just huge. The way in begins with the stations of the cross which are made out of salt (everything is made out of salt). Then it opens into the huge nave with some absolutely massive columns. Overall, pretty cool. :)

Stations of the cross in the salt cathedral:

From Bogota

From Bogota

From Bogota

From Bogota

We had a great time with Dad and the only regret was that it was so short. However, this was mitigated by the fact that in about a month we will be coming home! Yes, you read correctly. We are going to be done with our adventure in South America in just about a month! Why? Well, its a mix of factors. First, we're going to be out of money in a month. We really should have planned on spending $150 a day instead of just $100, second, we are starting to become tired of traveling. Things that shouldn't bother us (like that massage lady in the last post) really start to become nerve rattling and things that should delight us are just not that interesting anymore. We miss our families and our country and just want to come home! But not yet. :)

We had always wanted to spend time in Buenos Aires, longer than the 3 days we spent there at the very beginning of our trip. Our dream was to spend 6 weeks there originally but we took a look at our money left and decided that one month would work too. We have some friends who live there, plus it's arguably one of the best cities in South America.

The big loser country in our decision to come home early is Brazil. It's not that we didn't want to go, but the combination of the factors above (out of money and getting tired of traveling) plus the facts that it is one of the most expensive countries, speaks a different language, requires you to get an expensive visa, and is absolutely huge all caused us to look at the country and say “we'll try to get back to you”. So sorry Brazil.

We arrived in BA last Thursday and have been living in a furnished apartment since Thursday. We love it! BA is such an amazing city. It's like visiting a European city but without the expensiveness! We are really lucky to have our friends Ximena and Andres here. They are excellent guides, showing us things we never would have seen just using our guidebooks.

Next post will be more about BA and our new life there. :)

~Mike

Playa Blanca

First off we'll start with some pictures of Cartagena that we promised in the last blog post!

From Cartagena

Mike defending the city:

From Cartagena

From Cartagena

Cartagena being on the Carribean Sea makes it very close to some beautiful islands. Given the heat we were anxious to get to a beach that would allow us to get into the water. We headed to the best beach around, Playa Blanca (white beach).  There was a tour that went there that also included a trip to the Isla Rosario islands which are supposed to be cool so we went ahead and booked it.  However, the boat was incredibly slow and while the islands were ok, they were not really worth the trouble.  They did bring you to an open air aquarium however which included some cool sharks, turtles and dolphins!
Shark!

From Cartagena

From Cartagena

After that we headed to the beach.  When we finally arrived (again, the boat was really slow) we were bombarded by local people trying to sell you crap.  Luckily they left us alone to eat in relative peace but the second we got up they began again.  Since we had time we had decided to stay a night on the beach and this was probably the best decision we could make as the tour boat only gave you about an hour on the beach before it started its lumbering journey back.  As an added benefit, after the tour boat left, the hawkers all went home!  However, this was not before one lady who was offering massages decided to give Suzanne a "free" preview of her massage.  After telling her repeatedly "no gracias" and knowing that "free" quickly turns into demands for payment she refused to stop so I lost my patience and told her to go away.  She then got angry saying it was her beach and what right did I have et cetera et cetera...  So we just stopped saying anything and ignored her and eventually she left saying we should buy a massage tomorrow!  :)  Hilarious.  

Anyway, after the hawkers left the beach was transformed from tourist hell into tourist paradise.  We stayed in a little cabana right on the beach and drank delicious pina coladas all night long and watched the sun set over the horizon.  It was so beautiful we couldn't drag ourselves away to take a picture.  Then we dined on delicious lobster and shrimp and then headed to bed, falling asleep to the sound of waves on the beach.  The next morning we woke up with the sun, had a delicious breakfast and went snorkeling on the reef just off the beach!  At 7am the beach was even more deserted and we had the place to ourselves!  The wind hadn't picked up either so the waves were almost nonexistent and the water so clear!  Eventually though the army of hawkers came in to get ready for the tourist boats but this time we were ready.  Then our boat came and we had to bid goodbye to playa blanca.  

From Cartagena

From Cartagena

From Cartagena

Cartagena Columbia

Last we left off we were in Quito trying to decide whether we should take a 30 hour bus ride to Bogota or fly. While the real distances aren't that great (its mostly the mountains that make it 30 hours), the flights were pretty expensive. In the end we decided on the plane trip but used our newly discovered trick to get an extra flight out of it for very little. We arrived on Thursday the 2^nd and have been here since. Cartagena is a beautiful city! It was the place where the Spanish took all their gold they plundered and stored it until the Galleons could take it back to Spain. It therefore became very rich. That richness is shown through the wonderful colonial architecture of the historic center. However its richness was its curse. Everyone wanted a piece of the action and Cartagena became a target of pirates and other nations. Sir Francis Drake sacked the place (before he became a “sir”) and so did a french guy. In response the Spanish set about fortifying the bejeezus out of the place. The old city has very thick walls around it and there are numerous large forts protecting every angle of attack. In the end the fortifications were effective, repelling a huge English invasion that kept Columbia a Spanish colony until they lost it to independence. As I said before all this history and riches truly make Cartagena one of the most beautiful cities we've seen. It's kind of like Venice but with a Spanish-colonial twist. It's really fun just to walk around the old city and marvel at the pretty buildings with their balconies filled with bougainvilleas (we think that's what they are). Pictures to be shown in next post...

Cartagena is also on the Caribbean sea so that makes it hot! This woke us up to an important fact. In all our travels we have very rarely been in any kind of hot climate! Since we've pretty much traveled up the spine of the Andes mountains, we've always been at some altitude or away from the equator far enough for it not to be hot. Not so anymore! We're here and for the first time in months have longed for an air conditioned room!

Mud Volcano

Just a couple miles outside of Cartagena is something I never would have guessed. They call it a Mud Volcano. It's exactly what it sounds like. Apparently its some heat below the earth is mixing with water and dead organic material and pushing up this stuff in one spot. The result is a big cone of mud. Since the heat is pretty far removed, the mud is a nice lukewarm temperature and now a tourist attraction! How many times have you climbed into a mud volcano? I bet its a big fat 0! It was really cool. The mud is thick but very liquid at the same time. It's very dense so you just float in it. If you lay on your back you just float and you can stand straight up in it and you just float there. I tried to push myself down as deep as I could but the most I could get to was my neck. Overall really fun.

From MUD Volcano

From MUD Volcano

It was just a little crowded. :)

Next up we're going to be heading to the most beautiful beach in the area called Playa Blanca. The plan is to stay a night but I'm slightly torn about that because Notre Dame will be playing Michigan on Saturday and I'm pretty sure this beach won't have a high speed internet connection. :) I know, Notre dame plays every year and how often are you going to be on a beautiful beach on the carribean? But I still have a strong desire to watch it! We'll see if we can find some way to do both. Nothing like having your cake and eating it too!

~Mike

ps.  Posted this after our disappointing loss to Michigan.  Stupid Michigan...

Flying Quito to Columbia

Suzanne and I were hanging out in Quito dreading the next part of our trip, a 28 hour bus ride from Quito to Bogota.  Not only would this be one of the longest bus rides we've taken but its also guaranteed to take us through the most dangerous part of a much-safer Columbia (the south).  Of course we had checked out flights but a one way flight from Quito to Bogota was around $300 a person for a one-way!  Strangely, if you make that a round trip, the price will sometimes drop!  So obviously there is some sort of penalty for one way flights.  I think I had heard of that before in the States but maybe with the rise of Southwest and the other discount airlines, its become a thing of the past.  Not so down here, but the good news is we found a way around the penalty a multi-leg trip!  I kind of stumbled upon it, but if you're considering a flight, try to consider two and make it a multi-leg trip and somehow you'll avoid the one-way penalty.  For us, we decided first to go to Cartagena (on the Caribbean in Columbia) and then take a second leg to Bogota.  I luckily just put it in as a multi-leg trip and it came up as around $350.  So not only are we getting to Bogota but we're getting a very inexpensive leg thrown on for just a little more (the bus ride from Cartagena to Bogota is 20 hours each way).  We calculated that we would save ourselves 70 hours in a bus!  So if you're in a position like ours in South America, check out the multi-leg trip.

~Mike

Whales and Surfing

In my last post, I talked about our new found freedom in not having to plan anything for the future for a couple of weeks. Well I'm glad to report that we still have managed to keep that freedom but its definitely a struggle! I have this nagging feeling that we shouldn't be here. That we should be looking up flights from Columbia to Brazil and planning what we want to do in Columbia while we're there. I think in large part the ability to avoid all this is where we are. We're currently on Ecuador's coast. Here in this location happens to be over 300 humpback whales who come here every year to mate and have their calves! Since that was one of Suzanne's goals for this trip, we decided to take a dreaded overnight bus to see them. Below is a couple of pictures of these huge but graceful creatures!

Suzanne's super-excited face:

From Whales

From Starred Photos

From Starred Photos

Suzanne loved them so much that we went back the next day. Unfortunately, I happened to get sick that day and ended up barfing over the edge of the boat! But afterwords I felt much better and the tour continued!

From Whales

From Whales

While we were down here we decided to check the surrounding area and then we found out that just an hour away was the surfing village of Montanita Ecuador! Since I had been wanting to do surfing ever since my appetite was whetted in Peru, we put the rest of our plans on hold (yes!) and headed down. After getting some antibiotics from the 14 year old pharmacist in town for my stomach, I was feeling good enough to go surfing the next day! So today was the first surfing day and it was fantastic. Suzanne opted for just a body board since she thought she would enjoy that more. I felt like I improved considerably from the first time. I think the reasons for this was that the ocean floor was sand (instead of rocks) so I could walk my board up to the waves instead of paddling constantly. Next I think my shoulders are a bit stronger due to their previous beatings from last time. Anyway, I was getting up pretty consistently and now my goal for tomorrow is going to be learn how to turn the board and follow a wave. At least that's the plan.

So for now, that's where we are and what we're doing. We're liking this place so much we think we'll stay another day at least before heading back to Quito.

~Mike

Ode to America

Throughout our journey we have been reminded of the many tourist destinations in America. Usually the conversation starts with us mentioning that we had last lived in Colorado. The first response to this statement is usually “Oh yes the Grand Canyon” since people associate Colorado with the Colorado river that flows through this famous place. It is at this point that Mike and I usually mention that neither of us have been to the Grand Canyon but hope to in the future. From Niagara Falls, Yosemite, Hawaii, Alaska, California, and the Florida Everglades we're developing quite a list of must see places in the US. The impression of most visitors is that the United States is a place of great cities and natural beauty. In our recent trip back to the United States I felt the same way. I experienced great awe seeing for the first-time the California coast near Monterrey and walking in the redwood forests. We had a great time in San Francisco seeing Mike's brothers Luke and Dane and our longtime friend Lance Johnson. Coming fresh from winter in Lima it was interesting to visit San Francisco and fast forward to the summer. Sea lions and surfers were common to both but the Spanish influences have been muted in San Francisco overshadowed by the magnificent bridges, state parks, skyscrapers, and subways. It was great to be back home.

From California 2010

The beauty of America continued as we traveled from Omaha to Chicago. I was glad that Mike also appreciated the drive across Iowa. Between the free wi-fi at rest stops, the paved roads, and the beautiful rolling hills I'm not sure what he enjoyed the most about Iowa. However, it definitely struck us how easy it is to travel in the United States and this is a more significant achievement than we had previously realized. Then we arrived in Chicago and the experience reinforced my belief that it is one of the greatest cities in the world. From the lakefront to the buildings, Chicago is such a beautiful city.

From Nicole and Dave's Wedding

Then we had a brief stay in Omaha and got a chance to visit my favorite zoo!

From Omaha Summer 2010

Lastly we headed up to the Pacific northwest to visit friends in Bellingham and Seattle. The nature here reminded me of our time in Argentina and Chile. Here too are the glaciers, volcanoes, lakes, and thick forests that are a marvel to behold. The beauty truly takes your breadth away and it was great to have time to take it all in.

Northern Hemisphere Hospitality:

Seeing familiar faces, speaking the language, free water, free restrooms, and plenty of hope to go around it was easy to see how much we take for granted at home. Even the most downtrodden individuals seem fortunate by comparison. In America some people seem to be down on their luck. However, in their faces you can see that with some help they believe their situation could be quite different. By comparison some people we have encountered on our trip seem to have accepted their fate and don't even dare to dream of a different life. The American dream is unique in that anyone can hope to achieve it.

From California 2010

Our trip back gave me an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of hospitality. At Anne and Matt's wedding, the priest spoke about the importance of hospitality in marriage. He elaborated that hospitality is different than kindness because the goal of hospitality is to have people feel cared for and welcome. Maybe it is just because we have been traveling in a land of strangers but this message really resonated with me. I think my ideal society is not necessarily one focused on peace but rather one focused on hospitality. Conflict is bound to exist but if everyone feels welcome and cared for it is easier to focus on the issue instead of trying to discredit the individual. In our trip we were able to make it to two weddings (although if time travel was available we would have loved to be at four). I know a lot of people scoff at the effort and expense of a wedding. However, I think that a wedding is probably the best example of traditional hospitality. At a marriage ceremony all that is needed is two committed people and some witnesses to their willingness to enter into the covenant. The focus of a wedding seems to be sharing the couples' joy with all the family and friends that made them the people that they are today. I remember for our wedding discussing with Mike the merits of the wedding invitation. Mike was lobbying (jokingly he claims) for the far cheaper and more efficient e-vite option stating that everyone would love being able to see who else was coming, etc. It is true that if the purpose is simply informing people of the event the traditional invitation has serious competition from the e-vite. However, the reason the e-vite loses is on the hospitality scale. When people receive a wedding invitation that has been carefully selected, stamped, and addressed they feel personally invited and welcomed to the celebration. The wedding guest is expected to simply be present and celebrate. At both Anne and Matt's wedding and Nicole and Dave's wedding, I felt fortunate to be invited and be the recipient of such welcoming hospitality. After months of traveling it was fantastic to be surrounded by friends.

From California 2010

From Nicole and Dave's Wedding

The hospitality continued throughout the trip. A special thanks to Luke, Betsy, William, my parents, Julie, Sarah, Nick, Jacob, Elaine, Larry, and Catherine for letting us invade your space and making us feel welcome. In addition to all the people we stayed with, thanks to all the people who we got to catch up and share a meal (this list would be much longer but you know who you are). I only hope that we can return the favor sometime in the future.

~Suzanne

From Chris and Kristen pre-wedding

Doing nothing and loving it!

After a bad experience at a hostel in Lima as we were dropping off my mom from her visit, we just wanted to get out of Lima and Peru in general. We spent in total just under 60 days there and we were ready to move on. But where to? We now have an extraordinary experience of not having to be anywhere at anytime for several months! I know that sounds weird, we've been having one great adventure for the past 8 months right? But one thing we did since the beginning was place deadlines on ourselves that forced us to do some detailed planning out at least a month or two. At the start it was get south as soon as possible before bad weather set in at Patagonia, then we wanted to get to a cool celebration of Semana Santa up in Peru, then we wanted to get Galapagos done before Thomas arrived, then he was here, then we were in the US then Mom was here. But now, glorious now, we have nowhere to be and no deadline except the end of our trip! Our road is completely open once again. Our first act in our new freedom was to head up to Quito. We had thought about going along the coast of Ecuador because we had heard good things about it from an Australian surfer dude but we had an urge just to go to Quito where we had familiarity and take some more salsa lessons. So that is what we did! The past couple of days have been full of nothing except a dance lesson! The rest of the time we have spent catching up on our blog, our pictures and just reading books in our room. We have a nice little setup in our hostel which has a great guest kitchen so we've been cooking our own meals.

But can it last?

We're reveling in our new slothfulness but we know that it'll eventually have to end. After all, there is only so much of our trip left and there's still a ton to see. Our long range plan currently includes us heading up to Colombia where we will spend a couple of weeks. Then a big decision is before us. Do we continue north through Central America or do we stick to our original plan and head down through Brazil and end in Buenos Aires? A quick finance check says that while we'll definitely go over our budget for our trip, we have enough spare cash to experience Brazil and BA. So that's our decision. Here's the catch. Since Brazil is expensive and BA is at the end of our trip, we're going to have to book flights and that means long range planning again! But for now, we're just enjoying the moment.

Included are some more shots of Quito's old town both at day and night, plus one or two of some dancing people we saw at the archbishop's palace.

From Quito

From Quito

From Quito

~Mike