this blog is the “travel journal of my experiences, the good, the bad and sometimes very ugly”.  that’s what it says, right there in the title.  welcome to the swollen, red, itchy and very ugly part of the trip.

sadly, my heat rash only got worse throughout the evening, and we ended up deciding not to do the Lost City hike.  by the time i went to bed, i could barely walk and my legs felt like sausages stuffed into ever-so-tight casings.  they are a bit better today, and i’m going to go to the drugstore and see if they have anything that will help.

canceling the hike….i think it was a wise decision, but we’re really disappointed.  i talked about it for ages, purchased special gear, and not it’s not happening.  but it potentially could have been 4-5 days of being really uncomfortable. and although the Lost City would have been amazing, probably not worth my pain and misery. my misery which most definitely would have been shared with 10-12 other people. people that likely would have hated me by the end of the weekend.

so, what will we do for the next 4 days?  that remains to be seen.  for now, it’s hanging out in the hotel with a cool cloth on my legs.

a day long hike through Tayrona National Parque was adventure for today. hot and humid, 8 km, total (so said the guide) and beautiful beaches along the way.

the hike was relatively flat, and the terrain wasn’t difficult.  we walked along a dirt and sometimes a boardwalk path, through mud and sand, and made our up and down many stairs. one issue was that the shuttle picked us up at 6:50 AM, which was before breakfast. how are you expected to go on a hike without the most important meal of the day?

we did have an opportunity to eat at a restaurant when we got into the park, but we opted not to, and thought we’d wait for the restaurant by the beach.  in between the two, we stopped off at a bakery for a little warm bread with a cheese filling. that was really good.

we had lunch and a swim around 11:30 AM, and then made our way to the final beach of the hike, El Cabo. (pictured above) we rested there for an hour or so, and then made our way back to the entrance.

this was a good warm up to the Lost City hike. that will be longer and hotter. everyone says it is difficult, but so pretty. i’m not sure i will make it to the end, if today is any kind of indication.

although i’ve known it will be hot and humid, i somehow completely forgot about my propensity to heat rash. until today that is…..my legs are on fire.  i wore light weight zip-leg pants, but kept them zipped since we were in mosquito territory. mistake? hard to say. i would have gotten the rash even in shorts, i’m just that kind of person…..but maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad? i don’t know.  i took a Benadryl, hopefully that will help, and i’m anxiously awaiting a dip in the pool.

the next post will be next Monday when we get back from the Lost City.  until then, keep your fingers crossed my friends!!

today we enjoyed a private Santa Marta city tour where we took in the sites of downtown, the cathedral, and Quinta de San Pedro Alejandro.

did you know that Santa Marta is the oldest city in Colombia, founded in 1525, and the Santa Marta Cathedral was the first cathedral built in Colombia? now you do.

we could see that Santa Marta is going through a major revitalization, and asked our guide about all the work.  she said the government (now under new leadership) is finally putting money back into the city instead of their pockets, and has big plans. budget is going into public spaces, education and housing. by 2018, parts of the city will look different and be more tourist friendly.

we spent most of our tour time at Quinta de San Pedro Alejandro, which was founded in 1608, and was a working sugar cane plantation.  it was also the estate where Simon Bolivar spent his last days before dying of tuberculosis in 1830. he was only 47.

not knowing much about Simon Bolivar, it was interesting to hear all about his life (which was personally so sad, but politically successful) and the dreams he had for the future of Colombia.

not only did we see the place where he died, but the home (the Customs House) he was in before he went to the estate, and the cathedral where he was first buried.  he is now buried in Venezuela, his birth place.  except for the ashes of his heart which are in an urn hidden in the Santa Marta Cathedral somewhere.  “although he is buried in Venezuela, his heart remains in Santa Marta”.

ps. lunch at Lulo – delicious, dinner at El Bistro – good. but back to Ouzo tomorrow for our last dinner before the big Cuidad Perdida hike on Thursday.

woke up to a sunny sky, which quickly became cloudy, but thankfully not rainy. we enjoyed our last breakfast at the Hotel Monterrey and bid Cartagena a fond farewell.
our itinerary said we were going to be picked up at the hotel, and then have a shared transfer service to Santa Marta. we took that to mean we were going to be in a shared van or bus for the 4 hour ride. au contraire, mon frère, that would have been a delightful way to go.

we were picked up and made our to the main highway and headed toward Santa Marta. we thought, maybe there weren’t other passengers at that time and we had a private transfer.  wrong. two hours in we stopped off in Barriquilla and changed from our comfy car to a not so comfy van. ah, ok, so now comes the shared part of the trip. well we did share,  but not with other people…..we were in a courier van. we spent the next hour driving around Barriquilla picking up packages, including a sealed cooler from a hospital. we didn’t ask. we then stopped again, left the goods in the van, changed cars again and FINALLY headed out of town to Santa Marta.

the next 2 hours of the drive was along the coast, and parts of it were very pretty.  there were also a variety of terrains within 10 minutes of each other. one minute you were looking at lush tropical scenery and then next thing you realize, you’re in a dry rocky desert environment. it reminded me of driving to the top of Haleakalā on Maui.

in Santa Marta we are staying at La Casa del Farol, seemingly in the heart of town. it’s a super cute old mansion with 12 rooms and a rooftop pool. we are staying in the Paris Suite, and i’m ready to move in.  it’s spacious, has good water pressure and although on the street, isn’t very noisy.

after what seemed like a full day of travel (and yes i did send an email to the travel coordinator about the “transfer”), it was nice to land in such a great place. we dropped off laundry at wash & fold (it is really hot & humid), had lunch at Ouzo, and finished the afternoon with happy hour at the pool.

dinner was at a place recommended by Lonely Planet called Radio Burger.  it’s located at Carrera 1 #23-99, which was home to the first radio station in Santa Marta.  the decor features a lot of cool old radios and station gear, which is fun, but the burger wasn’t that great.  the potato wedges on the other hand, yum.

thunder, lightning and a lot of rain, that is how the day began. thankfully it stopped raining, just as we were getting ready to take a boat trip over to Majagua Island.

the island is only about 45 minutes away from Cartagena, and once there were a number of activities we could do. snorkel, paddle-board, kayak, take another boat trip to a different island to see the fish zoo, or you could simply relax on the beach.

we opted for snorkeling, which was a lot of fun. there were so many cool fish, my favorite was a small blue one with super florescent bright blue spots. of course i can’t remember the name now, but it only is that bright when it’s young, as they get older they lose their color. sad.

back at the hotel we enjoyed a cocktail at the bar, went for a swim and watched a Colombian pop-star get interviewed by a local celebrity. she also gave a live performance on the hotel rooftop. i wonder who she was??

now it’s time for Crepes and Waffles and a glass of cold white wine……yum.

we landed in Cartagena last night safe and sound, after almost missing the flight from Panama City. not my fault.

note – should you travel with someone that likes to wander and has no sense of time, set a meeting time in advance.  that way you’re not searching the airport for them while the final boarding call is being made for your flight. sigh.

we arrived fairly late, and thankfully we didn’t have to do anything today except for a city tour at 2 PM.  we slept in, had breakfast at the hotel (Hotel Monterrey), went to the market, took a nap, then went on the tour.

we went to the modern section of the city, the Castillo de San Felipe, the fortress that protected Cartagena from land attacks from the French and Spanish, the Zapatos Viejes (old shoes) monument, which pays tribute to the Cartagena’s poet Luis Carlos López and his poem “my old shoes” and the Cartagena Cathedral.

after the tour we went to Crepes and Waffles for a snack, and then made our way to El Santisimo for dinner.  Crepes and Waffles is already on the agenda for dinner tomorrow.

another year has begun, and i’m very excited this one starts with a trip in the works. a trip you will hear about a lot between now and then, so get ready.
you may remember it’s Columbia in May. whohoo.

things have changed a bit since i first booked, the itinerary remains the same, but now i have a travel companion. it’s a little scary, as i haven’t traveled with anyone for that length of time. ever.

expectations, it’s all about setting realistic expectations and communicating those, right?  sigh. we shall see.

the itinerary, in case i didn’t share before, looks like this: Cartegena, Santa Marta, Ciudad Perdida, Medellin, Armenia and ending in Bogota.  three weeks of action packed fun.

Ciudad Perdida is the part i’m a little iffy about….it’s a 4 day hike through the La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range to see the Lost City which was constructed by the Tayrona Indians in the 13th century.  there are 1200 steps to deal with, in addition to bugs, humidity, and a lot of sweating.

i’ve started going to the gym in preparation of the hike…..maybe i should go a little bit more.

photo courtesy of paradiseinthe world.com

on the train ride from Denali to Anchorage one of the more interesting structures we saw (or glimpsed) was the Dr. Seuss House.  it has nothing to do with the real Dr. Seuss, but it definitely looks like something out of one of his books.

the owner of the home chose that particular piece of land to build so he could have the best view of Denali. all was well and good until the trees started growing taller than the house, blocking his view.

his solution was not to cut the trees, but simply to make the house taller. and taller. and taller.

photo courtesy of inhabitat.com