Santa Marta- hometown goodness

Santa Marta has won me over. Initially I wanted to get in, get online and get out but after wandering the streets for 2 days I like this little place. The people are very friendly, the town is easy to navigate and every other street is a little pedestrian zone where kids play and old people sit in plastic chairs outside their doorways. Early in the morning coffee vendors stroll the street yelling "Tinto!" "Tinto!" and selling little shots of heavily sugared black coffee for 25 cents. Good stuff. People take pride in what they do, whether it's shining shoes, selling cell phone minutes or pallets of bananas. They look like they have known each other forever and there's lots of shaking hands and smiles.

There are churches conveniently sprinkled throughout the city as well so there's always a place to duck in for shade or stop and watch a wedding.
The beach is mobbed right now with Colombians from Bogota and Medellin, which is fine because we've been taking a break from the sun and there's no way I would hit a beach with this many people. Crazy.
The streets have a nice colonial feel, but lived in, not polished up like a museum. We have accomplished our goal of planning the next phase, which will be a flight to Lima, Peru and on to Cuzco to put us within touring distance of Macchu Picchu. That won't happen until the 3rd of January though so we're headed back to do some surfing until then. I am very much looking forward to that.

Surfing at Costeno Surf Camp

Angela and I are currently in Santa Marta to heal our sunburns once again. We spent the last 3 days at Costeno Surf Camp and had a great time but our sunblock couldn't handle the wind, water and waves as well as we hoped so the backs of the legs got torched as we learned to surf. Angela got it worse than me so I let the sand flies chew on me for a few hours to make her feel better. I have 17 bites in my right forearm alone. Luckily Alaskan mosquitoes turned my blood to steel long ago and the bites don't itch but it looks like I've been attacked by a forgotten Colombian jungle tribe with serious blowgun skills.To get to the surf camp I experienced the hottest one-hour bus ride of my life. Sweat beaded on my forearms which only happened once before when I got my sauna up to 180F so it's safe to assume the back of this bus was at least that hot. I am also apparently pillowy soft because any Colombian near me on a bus instantly falls asleep on me.
This is Mario the mascot of the surf camp. He is a boxer that turns 1 today. He is very sweet and likes to sleep in the sand.
And this is day 2 of surfing. The water is so hot I actually wished it was cooler once or twice. The black stuff on our faces is zinc oxide, Angela didn't know it but I put hers on in the form of a Zapatista mustache for the day. Her face didn't burn but the backs of her knees sure did.

The surf camp is run by two Canadian brothers and they showed us the theory of how to paddle a board and then they paddled out with us and yelled at us until we caught waves and stood up. It was awesome. Then we ate fried fish and plantains under the palm trees.Now we are trying to figure out the best way to Peru. The Galapagos will have to wait for another trip, it would be too much of a rush job at this point. Of course we could always go back to the surf camp for another month... Such a tough call...

Thunder, lightning, wind and rain- in Taganga

I just finished watching a lightning storm for 2 hours. It's still going but I had to quit and go get something to eat. It was fantastic. The clouds started building in the late afternoon and by 4:30 heat lightning was lighting up the sky in huge white flashes. As the evening wore on there were a few forked strikes, but mostly it was big blasts of light. I tried to take some pictures but I haven't shot lightning before and didn't have a tripod so I was pretty disappointed in the results. I'll have to google methodology online and hope for another great storm like this one. It was also nice to watch a good lightning storm without worrying about forest fires which is a constant fear in Alaska. Not only is there nothing to worry about here, halfway through it started pouring rain. Angela and I took cover in a little restaurant called Bitacora here in Taganga. It is outrageously delicious in a town of very average food. We have eaten there 3 of the last 4 nights. Tonight I had filet mignon with a bacon and mushroom sauce that melted in my mouth. Angela had vegetarian lasagna and a mojito that was top notch. As you eat here in Taganga people come by and try to sell you jewelry or play music and pass the hat. Everyone is very polite and it doesn't get out of control. There are a lot of beach dogs and their population is growing fast. I think something will have to be done soon. I saw a pack of 9 dogs today and even if they are all just 25 pounds or less, that's a lot of dogs. So Bob Barker, if you are reading spread the word.Tomorrow we are going to a surf spot called Casa Grande about an hour north of here. It's run by some Canadian brothers and they are going to pick us up from our hotel tomorrow morning since they'll be in town. We may spend Christmas there or hike off to a beach somewhere, we'll see. We are currently agonizing over how to get to the Galapagos. There are 19 different ways, none of them are very cheap and there's no good info out there. Unless of course you want to take a cruise and we are weighing the pros and cons of that. We shall see.
I saw a guy the other day with “Time will tell” tattooed across his upper back. I suppose he's right. I also want to leave you with this music video, it's all I hear on the radio in this country and it should be stuck in your head too.

I wanna Taganga

We bid a fond farewell to our new friends in Cartagena and caught a minibus to Taganga on Saturday morning. If you are going to travel by bus in Colombia then travel by minibus. It was new, airconditioned, and the driver picked us up at one door and dropped us at the next. Perfect.

We spent the first night at Casa de Felipe which is an amazing hotel set back into the hillside and a bit off the beach in Taganga. Of course we didn't have reservations so we took what was left which was a little room up the road from the hotel a bit. The neighbor had a 4am ranchero music fetish so sleeping was impossible for Angela. I can sleep through an air raid so it didn't bother me any. The room was also about 104F which didn't help.

We initially thought the town was named Taganga because that's the sound a toilet makes when it flushes, and if you buy smoothies from the wrong vendor (which we did) you may become uncomfortably familiar with the old "taganga" sound. But it's 24 hours later and we're all better.So we moved to Casa Blanca and this is the view from our hammock. Amazing. The price is double for the holidays so we pay a whopping $30/night. Not too shabby. Down on the beach are vendors selling fresh mango and papaya juice and anything else you might want without getting off your towel. We also found a custom bikini seamstress and Angela is having 2 and a half bikinis hand stitched for her and ready in 24 hours. In Alaska you can't even get your internet hooked up in 24 hours and all someone has to do is throw a switch. This place rocks. We are extending an extra night and then heading farther north to beaches with nothing but sand and perhaps a surfing school, stay tuned. Grilled fish here is also amazing and all we've been eating. D lish.

Cartagena is a crazy little town of contrasts. If you wander inside the old city walls you step back in time to a place much like Cuba, well, at least what I've seen in pictures of Cuba. There are even guys on the street who try to sell you "Cuban" cigars. They don't look very good.
The streets are narrow, the buildings are colorful, and the heat will melt you into the ground. But all you have to do is slip into a cafe for fresh empanadas and a lemonade and your ready to go again.
The city walls that used to keep invaders out are now the main attraction for attacking tourists. They wander the area by the boatload but Cartagena does a good job of spreading them out and taking their money.We found an authentic Bavarian bar and had Paulaner dunkel weissbeer, my absolute favorite in the world.
Another way to escape the heat is to enter one of the churches in Cartagena. This one was having a sermon so we sat down for the part where you are forgiven for all your sins, it's just extra credit after that so we went back into the heat.At the end of the day we joined forces with some other travelers from Tennessee, Germany, Israel, Italy and a local Cartagenian and hung out in a Salsa bar. It was a delightful way to spend the evening. Tomorrow, more Cartagena and we'll decide whether to head north or go for a mud volcano tour.

Bogota in the rearview mirror.

As the plane circled low over Cartagena this morning it was hard not to think of Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone. Even though it was a bit of a Indiana Jones ripoff I still enjoyed that movie as a kid and to now be in the stone walled city of Cartagena is pretty cool. Of course the damn movie was not filmed anywhere near here so tune in to see how reality cracks up.

Overlooking Bogota from Monserrate, a church that is built on the top of a 10,341 foot peak and as close to God as I'll ever get in this life. We cheated and took the cable car to the top which was good because the view alone made my lungs burn. The church was built in the 1600's which surprised me because I didn't even know they had Christmas lights back then, the place is lit up like a bonfire at night. Inside is peaceful and understated, with a gory statue of Christ collapsing to the ground, cross in hand, at the head of the cathedral. Just outside the cathedral are about 25 booths selling souvenirs the way God intended and I nearly bought a shot glass made from goat hooves. Perhaps on the return trip.

Leaving Bogota was tough, first, because we had such a great time with our new friends, and second, we had to get up at 4am to catch a cab to the airport. Then sit and wait for the fog to clear until 9am and now here we are in 88F with birds and sea air and the Carribean lapping at our feet. Our gracious host Andy at his family's home in Bogota as his mom sets the table for a scrumptious tamale dinner.More awesome grafiti in La Candalaria district. I dig this urban art form. In rush hour traffic it took us nearly 2 hours to go the 6 miles on the city bus to Andy's home.

But we're in Cartagena now and a cold cerveza Aguila beckons...

It burned, burned, burned, that Bogota sun.

This is Plaza de Bolivar in the Candalaria district of Bogota, which is the old town and fantastic. There are little cafes everywhere, the streets are narrow and full of color, and to the north the mountains beckon. We spent the morning walking around enjoying the 70F weather.

There is some great graffiti in the area as well.

Here are some funky old toilets in a renovated house that will be turned into a botique mall. We met Andy, a local, through Couchsurfing.com and had drinks with the Bogota chapter that gets together every day of the week for some kind of meeting or another. Monday is English night, Tuesday is French, Wednesday is German and there are poker and soccer meetings as well. Great people. We had a great time and then crashed on Andy's couch, well, his floor anyway, and met his family and they are all Angela size and very sweet.
Today we are badly sunburnt and headed out to see more of the city, a few museums and churches and eat some delicious empenadas. Saboroso! We have sunblock now and wish we had it yesterday because we look like red faced idiots. Viva los gringos de Alaska!
Tomorrow we fly to Cartagena which burns with the heat of 10,000 suns. It has been suggested we find a hotel with a pool of sunblock to swim in. Very funny Andy, come to Alaska and we'll show you -40F you little punk.

Got the feeling, power steering, Pistons popping, ain't no stopping now! Panama a a a o o o o

Copa Airlines rescued us from the cesspool that is LAX. What a lame aeropuerto. The only thing good was Alaska Airlines sent me a Boardroom pass so Angela and I kicked back there for 5 hours and had free beers and watery chili- but no free WiFi, what is up with that? SEATAC airport has it going on with swank cafes, massageries and free WiFi. Govmn't ought to mandate that action.

So we touch down in Panama and I hoped they would play Van Halen as we landed, but they didn't so I hummed it while we deplaned. We found a $30 minibus tour that took us to a swank mega mall full of Dolce and Gabanna stuff that was at or slightly above american prices. Weird, but air conditioned which was nice. Then through the middle of the city as the driver rattled off sites of interest, Donald Trump's latest high rise being built and then slum areas not gringo safe. These ladies agreed to pose for $1, I've never paid for a picture before but their stockings had to be documented and I also think they could command crows to peck my eyes out so I figure the $1 was karma donation. So far no crows...And then the Panama Canal viewpoint at Miraflores. For $5 you go to a deck overlooking the canal and it was freaking awesome. A 3,000 passenger cruise ship "Amsterdam" was going through beside an oil tanker "World Harmony" and we got to watch the whole thing and wave at saggy europeans. A few didn't even get out of the deck top pool as their moving city went by. Can't say I blame them.
I believe an oil tanker named World Harmony is about as ironic as I get. Unless of course it rains on your wedding day or you have 10,000 spoons and all you need is a knife, or you meet the man of your dreams and then his beautiful wife. But I digress. It was interesting to learn the cruise ship pays by the berth, not the passenger so their bill was $280,000 USD to pass and the tanker pays by the liter of oil it can hold and so he probably paid a lot too. I think a gajillion USD.
Then we headed back to the Tocumen Airport in Panama City and I thought how cool it was that they sell you a $5 tourist day pass to check things out, really it was worth it. I mean I wouldn't specifically make a layover in Panama, but if you're stuck there, by all means get out and about.

Leavin' on a jetplane

It's almost 10pm, -25F outside, and we just finished packing. Tomorrow our flight leaves at 7a.m. for Seattle, 3 hour layover then on to Lost Angeles and a 7 hour layover, then on to Panama City and a 10 hour layover, then finally, Bogota, Colombia. The Panama City layover is 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. so we'll head into the city and perhaps check out some sort of canal system I've heard mentioned before. Whatever.

36 hours of travel with 20 hours of layovers. Yikes. Angela has a sinus cold that is flowing like a river so she's hopped up on Theraflu and trying to pack pots and pans from the kitchen. I shall remain vigilant.
We have allowed ourselves 2 - 30 liter daypacks and it looks like we'll make it. I have my D200 with an 18-200 lens and a 12-24 lens and a 10" Acer laptop and a buttload of charging cables. Angela has 20 pounds of makeup and hair care products, 13 different pairs of shoes and 9 sets of sunglasses. First order of business is to hire a sherpa in Bogota.

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