LuAnne

Hola, Muchachos! Sorry for the long posting delay. Internet is slow down here and I’m just, well, lazy. Susan and I are alive and well. We've picked up a pet - a hungry kitty we call 'Tacuba'. She is one of the compartments in my small wallet that we 'feed' every morning with money for shared expenses (bus/cab fare, entry fees, bribes, etc.). She’s really hungry. Sometimes we have to feed her two or more times a day. But, it does make life easier for us as we are not scrambling to find equal change for shared services. The idea was mine ... Susan claims it is brilliant! Which is good. Because, she doesn't realize she is really the smart one and is actually doing most of the work. Sometimes I feel a little guilty. While ... read more

This day, Susan and I took a boat to San Marco looking for some peace and quiet with few gringos. San Marcos is supposed to be a place where you meditate and get massages. We found one of the oddest places I´ve ever been to! To get there, we took a boat from Panajachel. The ride was beautiful and relaxing. Many other Pueblos and mansions dot the coastline. When we arrived, two street urchins hijacked our luggage from the boat asking us where we want to go. Normally, we wouldn´t have accepted their services, but, hey, we were on vacation, and it became very apparent that we had no idea of how to get to the hotel we had picked out from the guide book. ´Aaculaax´we told them. ´Do you know where it is?´ ´Si´, they ... read more

From the US State Department web site travel warning on Colombia (Feb 2008) "U.S. government officials and their families in Colombia are permitted to travel to major cities in the country, but normally only by air. They cannot use inter- or intra-city bus transportation, or travel by road outside of urban areas at night. All Americans in Colombia are urged to follow these precautions." So, of course, I had to do part of my trip by road. Tony and I hired this great taxi driver named George to take us from Cali to Popayan, a little colonial town about two hours or so from Cali. Turns out, Colombia seems to have its major highways under control. Every 20 miles or so, we passed random highway patrol pullovers. George informed us this was to check papers, licenses, ... read more

For the many friends worried about us being kidnapped, don´t worry! We are not being held hostage! We landed Friday morning in Cartagena as planned, checked into our hotel in Bocagrande and got some breakfast. I had forgotten about all the different kinds of exotic juices they have in central and south america and Colombia is no different. My new favorite is mora (blackberry). That morning, I had mora con leche, kind of like a blackberry milkshake. There is also mora ice cream and juice. Yummy! Next, we hit the beach. Bocagrande is like a third world Miami Beach. Take the highrise hotels and condos and mix in local beach vendors selling everything from jewelry, paintings, drinks, chairs you can rent and they´ll ´protect´your stuff while you swim ... We were immediately accosted by a man ... read more