Feliz Aniversario

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Bueno Dias,



I’m back in my normal spot this morning on the balcony enjoying the view, it’s still early, the only sounds I can hear are the waves crashing against the shore and the garbage trucks out picking up trash. This year me and Mrs. Woods celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary, September 5th, 2007 we were married in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and ever since then we have decided to take a trip to celebrate our anniversary, a few years we didn’t take a trip but we’re 8/12 on anniversary trips and that’s a good shooting percentage in the NBA.

Today is a lot different that yesterday, we took it easy on Wednesday but today we’re gonna get out and see some sights. I was up early and headed down to Juan Valdez, coffee another thing Colombia is famous for. It’s not far from the condo, less than 5 minute walk and one thing I’ve learn in Colombia is that you just cross the street and cars will stop, now this is something I would never attempt in Texas cause I‘m not taking any chances with a F-250 coming down the street. I observed a few people do it here and I’ve gotten used to it, so I just walk across the street and the cars stop but I will leave that trick here in Colombia cause American drivers aren’t pedestrian friendly and I like my health. So I get to Juan Valdez get some croissants and Frappuccino then head back to the condo, enjoy breakfast out on the patio while doing some people watching.

We’re done with breakfast now it’s time to get dressed and head out on our journey for the day, we’re heading back to Getsemani to walk the streets and look at the street art. As soon as we get downstairs a cab pulls up so we don’t have to wait, I tell him we want to go to the big Cartagena sign to take pics, after a few seconds of trying to break the language barrier we head to the sign, the sign is one of the first things that you see coming into the city from the airport so we get there in about 10 minutes and he asked us if we want him to wait? I say yes and he offers to take pictures of us, after a few pictures I tell him can he drop us off at Getsemani which is pronounced like Get some money, he darts us through traffic and drops us off by Plaza de La Trinidad and I give him a tip from driving us around and we’re own our way. We’re back in the area we walked in last night but during the day the crowd is different, more tourists walking around and taking pictures, so we head down one of streets cause I was looking for some wall art that I saw last night and after walking about a block I found it, I took a few pictures then we were on our way.

The humidity had picked up so I stopped by a corner store to get us some water, I grabbed two bottles paid my money and then the store owner started to play with one of the pigeons who wandered in the store, after walking a few blocks and admiring all the incredible art we were hungry so we stopped at one of the resturants, it was nice and cool, besides being hungry we needed to cool off for a little while. No one was in there, it was only noon and they just opened, I sat down to look at the menu then I felt something on my foot, it was a kitten who was playing with my shoestrings, he was rolling around and having a good time with my shoestrings and the strap on my camera bag, as more people came in he wandered to their tables to be entertained by their shoes and bags. I ordered wings and cherry lemonade, my wife had a salad and lemonade, the food was really good, haven’t had a bad meal since we’ve been here and after finished our meal and enjoying the air we headed back out wandering the streets and looking at all the street art. Eventually we made it to the end of the neighborhood and made our way to the Walled City, we came here the other night but it was only to go to Cafe Del Mar then grab some dinner but today we’re going to walk around.

As we cross the street their are so many people out, also lots of vendors and we actually stop to buy some sunglasses, we both forgot our sunglasses in the car at the airport but today we couldn't avoid it and bought some cheap ones. As soon as we walk in we’re stopped by a Palenquera, these are the ladies that wear colorful dresses while balancing fruit on their heads. These women come from San Bassilo de Palenque, it’s a small village outside of Cartagena and it was the first free town in the New World. Runaway slaves moved to this town during the 17th century, negotiated their freedom from the Spanish and become the first free Africans in the Americas and that is today’s history lesson. So we both took pictures with her and of course it wasn’t free gave her tip then we began to walk. The Walled City is beautifu, shops everywhere, the architecture is unbelievable but what I didn’t like was the overwhelming amount of vendors everywhere it felt like it was nonstop someone trying to sell me something, rap to me or put a hat on my head. We finally got to the fort and walked up on the wall to escape the chaos, the view up there is beautiful and the breeze from the water is peaceful, it was a few vendors up there but they were not aggressive like the ones down on the streets, so we sat for a while and enjoyed the peace and quiet, but we have been out for few hours and it was time to head back, we walked down and headed to the street and one thing about Cartagena finding a cab is never hard, standing there for less than a minute and cab pulls up, I tell him take us to Bocogrande and we’re on our way. We make it back to the condo in about 10 minutes and lay out on the bed to cool off.

It’s time for dinner now so after a few hours of cooling off we head down the street to San Marino, we ate there a few nights back, they have really good sangria and oh yeah the food is good too. Serena is about to play so we ask the waiter to change the tv to the US Open, he comes over to take our order and of course we order a pitcher of sangria and some smoked octopus. The waiter comes back with bread and our sangria then he takes our order, I order seafood lasagna and my wife has a seafood platter. A few moments later we get our octopus which is really good, by the time we finish that our food comes and Serena has already won the first set. We finished eating and watch Serena beat the brakes off this girl, she never had a chance, match point and we finish our sangria, i pay the bill then we head back to the condo. American football has started, when you say football in Colombia they mean soccer, first game of the NFL season starts tonight so I watched that and it’s a little bit different when the play by play announcer is speaking Spanish but football is football. Today was a great day but unfortunately our trip is starting to wind down but we have another day to enjoy before we back to reality, buenas noches.

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Comments

[Gina Gonzales]

Awesome!
I've enjoyed reading about you and your wife's adventures! You definitely have some great trips and insights. Can't wait to do some traveling.