I Finally Left Bogotá

Hey everyone, how ya been? The past week or so we've spent in Cartagena, which is this beautiful city on the coast. We flew here the 4th, and I've been enjoying being on vacation quite a bit. Some backstory on this. The biggest reason we're here is for the parents to do their seminars, but they brought us along so we're doubling up and doing vacation at the same time. Basically they do one of these seminars in every major city in Colombia once a year, and from what I've gathered their business works with horizontal property and legalities? I don't really know. Tania (the mom of my household) grew up in Cartagena and she has a whole bunch of family here, so they come decently often. On Tuesday we arrived, I stepped off the plane, and was just punched in the face by the heat and humidity. I know I complained about the humidity in my last post, but this is on another level. It only gets to about 85 degrees, but it's so humid it feels like you're melting. The first couple days it was kinda hard to breathe, but I'm used to it now. Tania's dad who lives here picked us up from the airport and took us over to his apartment where we've been staying. It's a really beautiful place. Three bedrooms (plus one for the help), three bathrooms, and decently big living room, dining room, and kitchen. It’s on the ninth floor of the building, and the views from the balcony are stunning. The sunsets are really beautiful, and remind me a lot of home. We rarely even get a sunset in Bogota, so everyone's been all bedazzled by them here. We were going to go out that night, but the grandpa said it was dangerous and sorta wouldn't let us leave. Everyone kinda did an inner eye roll, because it really isn't that dangerous. He just was worried we'd get hit by a motorcycle. It was chill though. You'd be surprised how exhausting it is to sit on a plane and do nothing. Everyone fell asleep and I just watched TV with the girls. It was nice having a TV in our room, but Andrea always had it turned to networks with trashy shows like H.C. Honey BooBoo, Hoarders, Ancient Aliens, etc, and I quickly grew bored of the awful Spanish dubovers and drama over what someone found in a storage unit. Andrea likes the shows though, so I tolerated it.  

Waiting at the airport

Taken only an hour after the first photo

Wednesday we spent the whole day out and about with Tania's half-age half sister, Tami tagging along. In the morning we went to Bocagrande to buy some touristy things and a swimsuit for Tania, then went to the beach. Now, I've only swam in the ocean in California and Mexico, so I’m only familiar with freezing water. I did not expect it to be warm at all, and I was really surprised when it was. Like, warmer than the air, and it was not cold that day. It was wonderful. We swam around for a while, got our hair braided, drank coconut limeade, ate the lunch we'd brought from home, and just relaxed. There were storm clouds over, so there were no sunburns, and it started raining right after we left so we really lucked out. Oho, but the day doesn't end there. We went to the most beautiful part of any city I've ever seen, Ciudad Amurallada. The history of Cartagena is it started out as a Spanish settlement back when Spain was colonizing the Americas in the 1500s. Being a major Spanish port, it was prone to attacks from British and French pirates. To defend the city, they built (more accurately, their slaves built) a big castle/fortress and a stone wall surrounding the city; both of which still stand today. The city of Cartagena has since spilled out of the walls and is HUGE, but the region within the walls still heavily represents that era. Now it’s a big tourist hotspot, and rightly so with the tropical climate and rich history. We walked around a bit, drank some juices and ate some pandebono from this cute restaurant, and eventually found ourselves in the main plaza. We paid (way too much) for a horse-drawn carriage tour of the city, and that's when I found my soul's favorite place. Old Spanish-style buildings, plants spilling out of every window and balcony, houses painted in bright colors, cobblestone streets, a gorgeous pink sunset, fruit vendors yelling about their pineapples and mangoes, the tourists drinking Colombian coffee in over-priced cafes, all of it I loved. Well honestly mostly the architecture, but the rest still really added to the whole experience. The city was just so gorgeous. I swear I had an existential revelation. It was ethereal. I recommend google searching Cartagena or just clicking here to get a better idea of the city, because my photos really don't do it justice. Sitting in that carriage, I was so at peace and happy, and more than anything, grateful. I've been incredibly privileged to have the life I have, to have been able to experience the things I've experienced, and gone the places that I've gone. Even after 10 or so months of living in a third world country, it never gets easier seeing children begging for food or neighborhoods so poor the majority of homes are falling apart. A lot of people live in poverty, and I've been very blessed to have landed in the circumstances of life that I have. 

Alleyway of Umbrellas

Woosh so that was kinda heavy, but still true and relevant. After taking lots of pictures all over, we went back home around 11, and crashed. The next morning the parents had their seminar, so they left super early and us girls stayed at the apartment all day. We spent a couple hours at the rooftop pool, but other than that we just slept and watched movies. Oh, and I took some really cool pictures of the sunset. After doing nothing for an entire day, the three of us plus Tami tried to make up for it by going out that night. First we got these massive ice cream sundaes for dinner, and afterwards ate sushi for dessert. It was pretty dope. And then we fell asleep to The Simpsons. Aaagain.

Post-Sushi

On Friday we ate a big breakfast thanks to Nelsi, the wife of the dad of Tania. I'm just gonna take this opportunity to give her a shout out and thank her. She, plus their maid Liliana, took care and fed us so well the whole week. It's rare to find such a loving woman, and she really was so generous with us and always made sure we were comfortable. Love that lady. 

After breakfast we went back to la Ciudad Amurallada and visited el Palacio de la Inquisición. Originally established in 1610, the Palace of Inquisition was where the catholic church used to torture and kill people, mostly Jews and the natives, for things like witchcraft and adultery. The building was used to hold captive, judge, and execute the convicted, and is now a museum on the history of Cartagena and human rights. It was pretty disturbing, but also educational and it's always good to be aware of history. There was a little courtyard that they were decorating for what looked like a wedding (Idk why anyone would want to be married where people used to be murdered, but to each their own), and I took this really morbid picture of a noose decorated in flowers. It's kind of aesthetic tho.

I just love this picture

After leaving the museum, we bought coconuts from a vendor for drinking/eating, and set off for the castle/fortress, el Castillo de San Felipe. We wandered around a bit, drank some really good limeade, took some pictures, and overall had a good time. The castle had a bunch of tunnels running under it that we explored for a while, and I took a picture of a sign in the bathroom that I thought looked really weird. It was super hot outside so we didn't stick around too long. We then went to check out part of the wall, and we bought bracelets from a vendor. I bought several with shells and black coral, but my favorite was one strung with coffee beans, and even smells like coffee. It’s a rEaL bummer that I lost it a few days later. Go me. Afterwards we had lunch back at the apartment and went to visit the rest of Tania's family. Her mom and grandma used to live in Bogota, and we'd spend every Sunday with them, but a few months ago the great grandma moved back to Cartagena, and just last week the other grandma joined her. The g-grandma, Ana, is the funniest thing. 91 years old and sassy, and also really nice to me. Once Camila has her baby in July, there will be 5 generations alive in the family. Pretty whack. We had dinner, I met the aunts, uncles, and cousins, and we even played this game where you gamble coins by spinning this dreidel-lookin thing. That family is loads of fun. I especially liked their aunt Sandra (actually the sister of their grandma). Her personality reminded me of my grandma and they even have the same name. Once again, we came home late and fell asleep to the Simpsons. 

On top of the castle

Dinosaur women not permitted to make peace sign after tossing turtle in toilet

Saturday morning we ate breakfast early, and went to another beach in Boquilla. The grandmas and Aunt Sandra took a taxi and joined us there, and we spent the whole day at the ocean. It was so dope. We did all the classic beach things: swimming, burying each other in sand, getting extremely sunburned, eating mamoncillo (it's a fruit. really weird, really good.), and buying candy from vendors. We went to this beachside restaurant that set up a little canopy for us by the water, and we ate lunch by the seaside. I had a plate of coconut rice, filleted fish, avocado salad, and cazuela de mariscos, which is like a soup with all sorts of seafood. It sounds awful but it actually tasted really good. It included shrimp and a whole lobster which were delicious. It was so much food. Somehow I ate it all, although it took me like an hour. I got suuuper sunburned that day because I was stupid and only put sunblock on my face and shoulders. My back, chest, and stomach were all ketchup red, and hurt like heeeck. This made it really difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position, and really hard to find clothes that weren’t painful to wear. Whatever, it was karma for being dumb. You know, the worst part about it though? Now that my skin has healed and is mostly done peeling, I’m not even that much tanner than before. Real bummer dude. 

Ana didn't help with the mermaid tail, but she wanted to be included

Eating mamoncillo

This is mostly how I got so sunburned

On Sunday we went to church with the grandmas’ ward. I went to Relief Society, and I swear it was the longest church class I’ve ever sat through. I heard wasn’t the only one who felt that way either. We spent the rest of the afternoon we spent visiting Tania’s family and later lounging around the apartment. That night we went out for pizza and ice cream with Tania’s dad, stepmom, and half sister. 

Church

Waiting for our pizza 

Before going to bed, we packed our bags and got ready to leave the next morning to continue the rest of our vacation. I’m going to include that part in another post because this one is already long enough as it is, but it should be out soon. It was pretty awesome spending a week in Cartagena and being able to experience an entirely new part of Colombia. I’m also glad I’m back to writing these, It’s gratifying to not have given up on it, to say the least. Stay tuned for the next one, and stay chévere.