Traveling to South America

---

Long ago I decided that I would try to conquer Mexico and Central America before I ventured over the pond or into South America. I have concentrated my effort on Mexico for the past 7 years. I have visited most of the Country, save the north, which has little appeal to me. I have studied Spanish on the Caribbean Cost (Vera Cruz, Merida, and Campeche), the Pacific Coast (Puerto Escondido and Manzanilla) and in the central highlands (Queretaro). My wonderful wife and I trekked through Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua and Costa Rica. My brother and I also spend 9 days enjoying Nicaragua. So naturally the next trip should have been to El Salvador or Panama (no interest in Belize they speak English!). I set my sights on Panama, bought a book and started reading. Seemed like a great place to visit. But, one day as I was wondering the travel section of our local books store my eyes fixed on a travel book on Columbia. Hmmmmmmm………..Fresh cup of coffee, a little extra time, why not. Oh my gosh, what a mistake. I became completely fascinated and really wanted to visit this place. I bought the book and a second book on South America. Suddenly Panama was left in the dust (Columbian Dust that is). Within a week I was on the phone to my brother and he said “I’m in, let’s do it!” So, we bought plane tickets. Now we just needed to figure out what we were going to do for 9 days in Columbia South America. Four weeks before departure and still no clear agenda for the trip. My brother was starting to get nervous, and a bit irritated with me. So I go into planning mode. Agenda set! First stop, Cartagena, from there on to Santa Marta, then Taganga with a final stop in some small village in the mountains. Most of the bloggers report that Minca is a wonderful place to relax, bird watch, and get in touch with nature – sounds good to me. Finally, a 1 ½ day visit to the Capital, Bogotá before we fly home.

We depart today with an overnight in Fort Lauderdale, Florida so we can catch our flight on Lan Airlines at noon on Friday (um….Friday the 13^th that is – yeah, we are doing a 4 ½ flight over the Caribbean Ocean on Friday the 13^th).

So, I plan to blog during the trip. We shall see if I can keep up for 9 days........

---