Cartagena de Indias and Cartagena independence day

We had a great time in Taganga, but were also excited to see Cartagena, which is called the jewel of the Caribbean. We had a four hour bus ride from Taganga which we were told was "direct" to Cartagena, even though it made at least 13 different stops and went into Barranquilla! Alas... But we did get dropped off right near the old city wall.

Hot and sweltering can describe the weather here in Cartagena. The old part of the city is "within the wall" which means it is inside the fortress that was built to stave off pirates such as Sir Frances Drake.



While the city has obviously changed, through time, the old city has amazing charm from the colorful colonial buildings with small patios overflowing with bougainvilleas. I could spend days here wandering around and taking pictures of the city life of the people and the buildings they live in. Gabriel García Márquez, who still lives in the old city of Cartagena describes the city in his book "Love in the Time of Cholera":

The city, his city, stood unchanging on the edge of time: the same burning dry city of his nocturnal terrors and the solitary pleasures of puberty, where flowers rusted and salt corroded, where nothing had happened for four centuries except a slow ageing among withered laurels ...

We are staying in the Barrio de Getsemaní in a little hostel. Barrio de Getsemaní is outside of the walled area, and is pretty vibrant, and has MUCH cheaper hostels and restaurants.

Without knowing it, we arrived in Cartagena a day before its independence day (November 11). The festival started on Tuesday with the school parades. The next day we were told was the start of basically a 5 day crazy party in the city. I was talking to a lady who works at the hostel who told me to wear old clothes that can get dirty, and not bring a camera, or a purse, which.... was good advice. During the parade, people spray you with shaving cream (sometimes directly in the face) and throw corn starch at you as well. Then there are people that are either entirely covered with paint or just their hands. They threaten to grab you or touch you with their painted hands unless you give them a few coins. All in fun though really. In old town, you can get around pretty much without people coming up to you and spraying you or actually getting paint on you. However in Getsemaní we were sprayed with the foam, and even grabbed with paint (it washes right off)... while we were out at night on Wednesday, and had the old clothes on AT the parade, it was no big deal. BUT during the day when we were just walking on the street at 3pm.... it certainly got very old, very quickly.




But overall the festivities have been really fun. Bands playing with dancers in the street. Of course, all of the Miss Colombia contestants come by on floats as well before the annual crowning of Miss Colombia at the end of the festival! The Colombians we were around came up and talked to us a lot, and also were constantly looking out for us. (ie, don't go over to the barrio south of our area, keep a lookout for pickpockets). I think we had about 4-5 different families that were around just watching our backs. It is what we had been hearing about Colombians, and especially Cartageneans, is that there is pride in their heritage and city, that they are ever vigilant in trying to stop crime against unsuspecting tourists. Really, though, we feel very safe here and everyone has been incredibly friendly and just enjoying the festival.

Cartegena can be a mad crazy city, but this city has a tranquility near the fortress walls that has the impression of having seen everything, and continues to thrive.

Bucero - Parque Tayrona, Colombia

Although the rainy season -- it rains at night and the days are beautiful -- makes for limited visibility, we had a great time diving in Tayrona Park. Our guide, Carlos, made this video for us. Really nice guy and pretty good with the video editing!


Pelicula de Bucero - Parque de Nacional de Tayrona, Colombia from Jim Kendrick on Vimeo.

Taganga!

We arrived in Taganga yesterday after a 20 hour bus ride from Bogota to Santa Marta.

This is a good time to describe what bus rides are like down here. The buses themselves are very nice. Ours was a new Mercedes with seats that recline to almost completely horizontal and give you plenty fo leg room. The buses we have been on all show movies as well. The ride, however, is not as comfortable as that would lead you to believe. The roads are narrow and, in the mountains, often drop off precipitously thousands of feet just off the side of the road. The first five hours of our ride out of Bogota was like like driving a Greyhound up and down Four Mile Canyon in Boulder or the Hana Road in Maui. And there are frequent areas where the road is completely washed out and the bus is literally four-wheeling, albeit extremely slowly. Leslie slept though most of the night, but those that know me won't be surprised to learn I didn't sleep at all (I slept 12 hours last night though in Taganga). The roads were not the most uncomfortable part of the trip, however. We had heard stories about the AC on the buses and thought we were well prepared with long underwear, wool socks, etc. But let me tell you, the stories are not exaggerated. It was colder than an Arizona department store on that bus and we wished we had brought a blanket. There are two drivers on these long bus rides and both extremely nice and incredible drivers. One of the drivers brought his girlfriend with him (Leslie says she wouldn't come with me if I had a job driving a bus across the country; well maybe if I would comp her). The overnight bus rides are a great way to travel though, as you barely lose a day and don't have to pay rent for the night.


There was a woman from Edmonton on our bus that was also headed to Taganga and so we shared a quick cab ride from Santa Marta to Taganga. Taganga reminds us of Mazunte, Mexico although a bit quieter. You can tell this quiet beach town is about to explode, however. We talked to a local last night named Luis who said tourism is steadily picking up and he was excited that people from the U.S. are starting to come to Colombia more. You can tell they take pride in their country and want to show it off and want to make sure you feel safe and enjoy your time here. Luis even gave Leslie a Colombian flag bracelet. Leslie is now officially branded as a tourist, though I don't think we would've flown under the radar regardless. We are staying at a hostel right on the beach and our room and its balcony look out over the water. It is beautiful, but at $25USD per night, we are going to see if there is a comparable private room a bit cheaper (believe it or not). The SCUBA diving here is mostly PADI certified and extremely cheap ($25/tank with lunch and all gear rental), so we are going to spend some time diving while we are here. As you might expect the fish is very fresh and there are a lot of tiny restaurants that prepare it well. We had an amazing huge fish dinner last night that was $10USD for both of us including two beers each.


We haven't even been here 24 hours, but we love it already and are planning to stay a bit longer than we initially anticipated, so we'll be here for a week at least. We no longer have an underwater camera case for diving pictures, but we'll post more pictures of Taganga throughout the week before we head to Cartagena. As always, check the Picasa album for all our pictures. We'll upload as often as we can! Taganga definitely feels like our true Luna de Miel!

Bogota -

We arrived at one of the stops that I have been most looking forward to: Bogota. Most people's idea of Bogota, and Colombia in general, is that the ghost of Pablo Escobar still haunts the country, and that there are roving gangs of FARC Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) that are kidnapping people off the streets. Just like any other country, being careful is essential, but Bogota is a city that is rapidly improving safety, and is beautifully nestled in the mountains. There is still the FARC (CNN reports they are on the borders near Ecuador and Venezuela) and it will take a long time for Pablo's ghost to fade completely (especially when even the Colombian National Police Museum prominently displays his beeper, Ray Bans, and a piece of tile roof which has his blood on it), but Colombia is soon to become a new hotspot.


We are staying in a great hostel Destino Nomada, and pretty much right when we arrived we got invited to a poker game that night and to head to the Botero museum. Like most museums in Colombia, the Botero is a free museum. Besides obviously housing the robust figures by Botero as well as paintings and sculptures by Corot, Renoir, Bonnard, Dalí, Chagall, Beckmann, Delvaux, Giacometti, Picasso, Miró, Bacon..... That night after 50 cent empanadas in a tiny family run place, we played poker at the hostel, and lost (luckily only $5). Coolest part was that we met a great group from all around the world including Peru, London, Wales, Puerto Rico and New Zealand.




Day two involved a stop at the Colombian National Police Museum. Like a majority of the visitors that go, no doubt we were there because we heard that it houses artifacts from the hunt for Pablo Escobar. Our guide was a young cadet with the police who delivered his pre-written jokes with very little enthusiasm, then ask for a tip at the end of the tour. He was nice, and it was pretty funny really.




We also went to the Gold museum, and just wandered around the colonial streets trying the local street foods. We have been in the large Andean cites (Cuenca, Quito and Bogota) and are excited to get to some warm weather and smaller towns on the Caribbean coast of Colombia in Taganga.

La Tierra Es Plana

In reality, my Spanish level is (maybe) adequate for the books on the shelf behind me.

Quito

After the overnight bus ride on October 30-31, we didn't do much yesterday, but today we headed into old town Quito. The hostel that was recommended to us, The Magic Bean, is very nice but a ways from the historic district of Quito and in somewhat of a gringo area replete with various tour outfitters and restaurants that cater to tourists. It's nice but we probably would have preferred to stay in the old town.





This weekend Ecuadorians are celebrating Dia de los Muertes so there was a lot going on in the old town. We wandered the streets and checked out a lot of cool buildings. Leslie got to see the market, a requisite for us in ANY town we go to it seems, and spent some time sitting at a sidewalk cafe in the Plaza de San Francisco watching the various festivities.





The view from the bell tower uses the clock towers to frame the Virgin of El Panecillo statue on a hill that borders town.






We were able to secure a good price on a plane ticket to Bogota tomorrow, so we'll be able to get to Columbia and then to Lima with relative ease, but it also means today is our last full day in Ecuador which is kind of sad.

Pronounced koo-E

One of the culinary experiences Leslie was most looking forward to on the first leg of our trip was the chance to try cuy. Yesterday that dream came true!




For those that don't know, cuy=guinea pig.

From Wikipedia:

Guinea pigs (called cuy, cuye, curí) were originally domesticated for their meat in the Andes. Traditionally, the animal was usually reserved for ceremonial meals by indigenous people in the Andean highlands, but since the 1960s it has become more socially acceptable for consumption by all people. It continues to be a major part of the diet in Peru and Bolivia, particularly in the Andes Mountains highlands; it is also eaten in some areas of Ecuador (mainly in the Sierra) and Colombia. Because guinea pigs require much less room than traditional livestock and reproduce extremely quickly, they are a more profitable source of food and income than many traditional stock animals, such as pigs and cows; moreover, they can be raised in an urban environment. Both rural and urban families raise guinea pigs for supplementary income, and the animals are commonly bought and sold at local markets and large-scale municipal fairs. Guinea pig meat is high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol, and is described as being similar to rabbit and the dark meat of chicken.

Neither of us get particularly hung up on the "what" we are eating so cuy didn't intimidate us really. It was quite good actually, if a bit greasy. It tasted to us sort of like rabbit, sort of like duck. It is served whole for two people with one half lengthwise on one plate and the other half on the other. It is pretty completely intact when served and we found it easiest to eat in the manner you'd eat fried chicken.




We got our cuy at a restaurant that came highly recommended by my Spanish teacher, Veronica. Cuy is her father's favorite food. The restaurant is call Mi Escondite and we'd highly recommend it to anyone visiting Cuenca that wants to try cuy.



Oh, one more thing... Last night while watching the World Series, I realized there is a close resemblance between our cuy and Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. Anyone else see it? ;)

Cajas Parque de Nacional, Ecuador

On Saturday, Leslie and I headed up to Cajas National Park, about an hour outside of Cuenca. We took a bus to the park, but the bus driver neglected to stop at the park entrance (the final destination was Guayaquil) and so several people ended up just getting off on the side of the road in the middle of the park. We hitched a ride back down to the visitor center in the back of a pick-up truck.





Once we finally got to the ranger station/visitor center, we chose a trail and set off. The park is beautiful. We topped out at a little over 13,000 feet, but the terrain at 13,000 feet at the equator is more like what it is at about 9,000-10,000 feet in Colorado.



We got a little bit of rain, but nothing serious. Cajas is known for its lakes and it lived up to its reputation. The lakes on our trail were stunning.





We eventually made our way back to road and walked (with some llamas) to the entrance and waited to flag down a bus headed to Cuenca and headed home.

Feliz cumpelaños a mi

Leslie took me to a great traditional Ecuadorian restaurant to celebrate my birthday.






It was certainly among the quieter birthdays I've had, but there's no one I would have rather been with!