Jan 05, 2016 Los Gringos Viejos are now onboard MS Amsterdam, docked in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. That MS does not stand for Miz; it stands for Motor Ship, though she is of feminine grammatical gender. She will sail tonight about midnight, down across the Caribbean to Costa Rica and Panama, through the canal, then on south to French Polynesia (8 days at sea after the canal). There will be four island stops, then finally on to New Zealand and Australia. We disembark at Sydney, in sight of the famous Opera House, after 36 days at sea. MS Amsterdam then continues on and on, through many Asian stops, around the cape of Africa, across the Atlantic, and back to Ft. Lauderdale after 111 days at sea. We suspect our 36 days will be plenty. This is our ... read more

Colombian food Cousin Steve Engel asks about the food in Colombia. Here in Medellín we have been well fed, because our little neighborhood is full of small foreign restaurants: Italian, Israeli, French, Indian, Mexican, American, etc. None is bad; some are really good. The best ones have free valet parking and a clientele that drives in from other parts of the city. Generally, Colombian food derives from Spanish food, not Mexican; i.e., it never has chili in it. There is one Colombian restaurant that we have been to a few times, called Tres Tipicos, for the three native concoctions that they serve. The one I like best is a long-cooked tripe stew called Mondongo, similar to a Mexican menudo, always served in Mexico with tortillas, lime slices, chopped onion, dry hot chili, and dried Mexican oregano. ... read more

This is an addition to Hacienda Nápoles, Part 2, about the hippos. I just now got Diego's video of the "small" hippo penned up near the refreshment stand, begging for carrots and potatoes. I don't know what TravelBlog will do with it, but I am about to find out. Thanks to Diego Diaz Gonzales, our excellent driver and guide. His address is connectiontravel.co@gmail.com, if you ever need personalized transport in and around Medellín. He is excellent. Later: TravelBlog no longer accepts videos. You have to put them on YouTube, and reference the YouTube address in your blog. I tried, but the internet connection here is unstable, and I could not stay connected to YouTube long enough to upload it. We will be back in a week, and I will try to do it from Detroit. The ... read more

Music and Flowers Last night we had the pleasure of hearing the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in live performance just a few blocks from our house in Detroit. They are doing a Tchaikovsky Festival, with our own great music director Leonard Slatkin conducting. We heard it in Medellín through the magic of the internet; they are now broadcasting their performances electronically for the whole world. You yourself could connect, at http://www.dso.org/live.aspx . I take e-mail and blogging all for granted now, but the live performance of our own home boys somehow seemed extraordinary. Actually, it is all extraordinary. We are the first people in the history of civilization to experience this. Medellín is a wonderful place in many ways, but there is no orchestra or theater that we have been able to find. In all our travels, ... read more

8. A little geography of Colombia We knew very little about the geography of Colombia when we got here, but we are learning. Cartagena, on the Caribbean, is colorful but hot and unpleasant. Big bad Bogota is high and cold and unpleasant. But Medellín is just right just about all the time, the "City of Eternal Spring". We really don't feel impelled to leave this climate for very long. I remember a perfect sonnet by Dorothy Parker that prefers the North Atlantic to the Caribbean: "This level reach of blue is not my sea; Here are sweet waters, pretty in the sun, Whose quiet ripples meet obediently A marked and measured line, one after one. This is no sea of mine that humbly laves Untroubled sands, spread glittering and warm. I have a need of wilder, ... read more