Happy Thanksgiving to All!! (a week late).
We celebrated Thanksgiving by moving on from our beloved Cartagena to Santa Marta, another Coastal Caribbean city. We spend the majority of the day (after the 2hr bus ride) searching for a fitting Thanksgiving dinner. The best we could do was a pretty sub-par Chinese restaurant. It was a bit sad.
So, we decided not to linger any longer on the coast, and took a 20hr. bus trip to Bogota- the capitol of Colombia. We've been here in Bogota for 6 days now. We've really been surprised with Colombian cities. It's another beautiful colonial town, mixed with highrise office buildings, and huge cathedrals. Everything is cobblestone and brick with a very close-in European feel. It's very stlyish with great cozy coffee shops on every street. That's probably the real reason we've been hanging out here so long. We're just so thankful to have good coffee at such easy access!
We've spent three days in Museums... today at the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum), and two days at the free art museum. The art museum is mostly dedicated to Colombia's most famous painter, Botero, but it also had a few paintings by Picasso, Monet and Renoir...along with a lot of modern and colonial art.
Oh, and one other thing about the city...Bogota is built right up against the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes that runs through Colombia. It's on a really high plateau...higher than Denver...and I mean right up against the mountains. It makes Lookout Mountain in Golden look silly. So, yesterday we took a cable car up to a cathedral that is on top of one of the first mountains overlooking the city. It was probably 1500ft almost straight up out of the city. You can see the city directly below, and then spreading out in all directions across the plateau...to the Central Cordillera mountains in the background. We stayed there for sunset, and came down the cable car to the lights of the city at night.
So, that was nice.
And really, now that we've been in this country for almost two weeks, I feel obligated to defend it's reputation. There is a very well established tourist track here in Colombia. It's very safe, and we've met so many other people here who are doing the same thing we are. Most travellers here are on long term trips, a year or more...staying mostly in Backpacker hostels. It is such a beautiful country, the people are very open and friendly, and the cities are fascinating. I can tell that it is quickly becoming a big tourist destination...as it should be. The strange thing is that Colombia has been so shunned by Americans that locals never guess that we're American...usually English, German, or Swiss (for me, Annie). Whereas in Costa Rica or Panama, it was just assumed we were from the U.S.
Anyways, today we ran into another couple that was on the boat with us from Panama. We also met them previously in Panama City. Their names are Marco and Anna... Italians who live in Germany. They are taking a night bus tonight to San Augustin, and we're going to try to get on the bus with them.
So, that's the latest update! We love you all and hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Ella Tienefe...She Has Faith
Happy Birthday to our new neice, Ella Tienefe Mikal! Great name. We are celebrating your arrival today in the beautiful city of Cartagena, Colombia! We've decided to bring you and your big sister here when you're old enough. So, Congratulations Danny and Chas! We're so happy for you and so proud of our growing family!
As a side note: we need the Mikal Jr's phone number (email it to us, don't post it as a comment)
Ok... so we sailed to Colombia. Hazaa! Three weeks in Panama and now we are in Cartegena -- a colorful colonial city on the Caribbean coast. But let's back up and fill in the missing three weeks with a quick update...
From David, Panama we travelled via a long and uncomfortable bus ride to Panama City -- which everyone in Panama simply calls "Panama" as opposed to Ciudad de Panama, very confusing. There are a few different kinds of indigenous indians in both Costa Rica and Panama. They are allowed to travel freely between the countries but they appear (to us) to be on the receiving end of some discrimination (for all the boasting we hear of how progressive Central America is). I (Scott) traded seats with an indian woman on the bus who was removed from her comfy seat and forced to sit on a stool, although she was on the bus much earlier than many others.
We spent four lovely days in Panama City in a nice hotel with Uber-air-conditioning, watching episodes of Law and Order, eating Lebanese food, and with considerable shame, Dominos Pizza. We also got a dose of the US elections insanity on CNN. It was a nice treat for the crazy hot temperatures on the Pacific coast... much warmer than the mountains of Costa Rica. I liked all the graphics and reporting on CNN for the elections, it reminded me of John Madden explaining with a completely straight face about the supposed detailed intentions and strategies of a bunch of helemeted pituitary freaks jumping into a giant body pile on a the 30 yard line somewhere. X's and O's being guided around on a sreen with an invisible pen. Statistics and historical material and maps of blantanly, racially driven, redrawn districts in Texas. And yet all the same old white guys with clean Blue Blood last names.
I can hear the speeches now. "We will change nothing, and stick with this President and his honest and virtuous war" ... or ... "We will call this administration into accountability and grind this government to a halt for the next two years". Yeah for America.
I'm sure it will continue to be embarrassing...
So in Panama City (nice place, big and cosmopolitan) Annie and I began to research diffrent travel options to South America. For those of you who don't know -- there is no road between Colombia and Panama, not even the semblance of one. We knew this beforehand and had written Colombia off as a place that we had no intentions of travelling. Full of kidnappings and drug smugglers just like our the State Dept. says on it's website. (The State Dept's basic advice to American travellers is: everywhere and everyone is evil and corrupt, if you travel outside of this paradise you will probably die, why don´t you just take a weeks vacation at Universal Studios?) Anyway, we discovered flights to be expensive to Quito, Ecaudor and elswhere in South America except for Bogota, Colombia. We then researched other options, went to the Panama City Yacht Club (someone said they could take us by sail in December when the winds were better) and to the Cargo Docks for a cargo boat (which looked simply too sketchy) and then found out about a German sailboat that was leaving from somewhere on the northern coast of Panama east of Colon, in about a week... it would take 15 passengers for around the same price to fly -- $250 per person -- not terrible. We set out from the city to Portobelo, Panama on the Caribbean coast with a contact number to call to find out where and when exactly, because this boat was still at sea and out of communication. So we hung out in Portobello for two days, a rowdy Caribbean town with good spicy seafood, met some great Koreans and a Japanese guy trying the same thing as us. Finally we heard from our contacts that the German boat would be some 80 miles down the coast -- 40 miles of which we bused, stayed a night in a coastal ville called Miramar, and then took a wooden launch piloted by three Kuna indians from the San Blas Islands. 40 miles through open and somewhat rough seas to Porvenir, one man at the motor, one fishing, and the other perpetually bailing water from the leaking boat. Porvenir island is the capital of the northeasten most province of Panama -- I think called Kuna Yala. Maybe 15 people lived on the island. It had a single hotel, an airstrip about a hundred yards away and an immigration office. We stayed there for three days, one on a neighboring Kuna island (due to some shady hustling by a local [failed hustling]), one night at the Porvenir Motel, and one night on this beautiful tropical island sleeping in hammocks under a cabana... The next morning out of the misty rain on the sea materialized the Stahlratte; "the Steel Rat". 120 feet long, 103 years old, rusty, sails reefed and down, in the fog, it looked every bit a ghost ship. We were met by the captain Feite (Peter) at immigrations and motored out to the ship.
The next five days were fantastic. There was a total of 19 people aboard -- 16 travellers and 3 crew, and two motorcycles. There were four Americans, us and two girls from Oregon, three Kiwi, one Australian, one Austrian, four germans, two brits, two italians, one dutch woman, a frenchman, and a partridge in a pear tree. We had four awesome days of sailing, swimming, drinking, barbecuing, jumping off the huge boat, swinging like pirates, getting mildly seasick and more than mildly sunburned. We played crazy guitar, watched movies, cooked huge meals together, battled with the single hand-pump toilet, learned how to sail a tiny bit, read a book each (not as impressive as the Australian Penny's five and a half books). Best of all was the snorkeling. I snorkeled three days, one day for three hours on the reefs surrounding the 300 plus San Blas Islands. So fun. A couple people got stung by jellyfish, and one of our friends saw some hammerhead sharks. Goodtimes. Our last day was spent steaming (no wind) to Cartagena for nearly 40 hours straight. We had more fun than should be allowed.
So we are in this historic Spanish colonial city, a favorite target for pirates since the 1500's. Last night we got together with everyone from the boat, now scattered across the city, for pizza and drinks. Colombia by the way is very safe and friendly, with well travelled places needing only the basic precautions we would use travelling anywhere. (like Chicago, or Denver...) Cartagena is the most beautiful city we have seen yet and we are still slowly considering which direction to take next. Hugs all around...We miss you!
As a side note: we need the Mikal Jr's phone number (email it to us, don't post it as a comment)
Ok... so we sailed to Colombia. Hazaa! Three weeks in Panama and now we are in Cartegena -- a colorful colonial city on the Caribbean coast. But let's back up and fill in the missing three weeks with a quick update...
From David, Panama we travelled via a long and uncomfortable bus ride to Panama City -- which everyone in Panama simply calls "Panama" as opposed to Ciudad de Panama, very confusing. There are a few different kinds of indigenous indians in both Costa Rica and Panama. They are allowed to travel freely between the countries but they appear (to us) to be on the receiving end of some discrimination (for all the boasting we hear of how progressive Central America is). I (Scott) traded seats with an indian woman on the bus who was removed from her comfy seat and forced to sit on a stool, although she was on the bus much earlier than many others.
We spent four lovely days in Panama City in a nice hotel with Uber-air-conditioning, watching episodes of Law and Order, eating Lebanese food, and with considerable shame, Dominos Pizza. We also got a dose of the US elections insanity on CNN. It was a nice treat for the crazy hot temperatures on the Pacific coast... much warmer than the mountains of Costa Rica. I liked all the graphics and reporting on CNN for the elections, it reminded me of John Madden explaining with a completely straight face about the supposed detailed intentions and strategies of a bunch of helemeted pituitary freaks jumping into a giant body pile on a the 30 yard line somewhere. X's and O's being guided around on a sreen with an invisible pen. Statistics and historical material and maps of blantanly, racially driven, redrawn districts in Texas. And yet all the same old white guys with clean Blue Blood last names.
I can hear the speeches now. "We will change nothing, and stick with this President and his honest and virtuous war" ... or ... "We will call this administration into accountability and grind this government to a halt for the next two years". Yeah for America.
I'm sure it will continue to be embarrassing...
So in Panama City (nice place, big and cosmopolitan) Annie and I began to research diffrent travel options to South America. For those of you who don't know -- there is no road between Colombia and Panama, not even the semblance of one. We knew this beforehand and had written Colombia off as a place that we had no intentions of travelling. Full of kidnappings and drug smugglers just like our the State Dept. says on it's website. (The State Dept's basic advice to American travellers is: everywhere and everyone is evil and corrupt, if you travel outside of this paradise you will probably die, why don´t you just take a weeks vacation at Universal Studios?) Anyway, we discovered flights to be expensive to Quito, Ecaudor and elswhere in South America except for Bogota, Colombia. We then researched other options, went to the Panama City Yacht Club (someone said they could take us by sail in December when the winds were better) and to the Cargo Docks for a cargo boat (which looked simply too sketchy) and then found out about a German sailboat that was leaving from somewhere on the northern coast of Panama east of Colon, in about a week... it would take 15 passengers for around the same price to fly -- $250 per person -- not terrible. We set out from the city to Portobelo, Panama on the Caribbean coast with a contact number to call to find out where and when exactly, because this boat was still at sea and out of communication. So we hung out in Portobello for two days, a rowdy Caribbean town with good spicy seafood, met some great Koreans and a Japanese guy trying the same thing as us. Finally we heard from our contacts that the German boat would be some 80 miles down the coast -- 40 miles of which we bused, stayed a night in a coastal ville called Miramar, and then took a wooden launch piloted by three Kuna indians from the San Blas Islands. 40 miles through open and somewhat rough seas to Porvenir, one man at the motor, one fishing, and the other perpetually bailing water from the leaking boat. Porvenir island is the capital of the northeasten most province of Panama -- I think called Kuna Yala. Maybe 15 people lived on the island. It had a single hotel, an airstrip about a hundred yards away and an immigration office. We stayed there for three days, one on a neighboring Kuna island (due to some shady hustling by a local [failed hustling]), one night at the Porvenir Motel, and one night on this beautiful tropical island sleeping in hammocks under a cabana... The next morning out of the misty rain on the sea materialized the Stahlratte; "the Steel Rat". 120 feet long, 103 years old, rusty, sails reefed and down, in the fog, it looked every bit a ghost ship. We were met by the captain Feite (Peter) at immigrations and motored out to the ship.
The next five days were fantastic. There was a total of 19 people aboard -- 16 travellers and 3 crew, and two motorcycles. There were four Americans, us and two girls from Oregon, three Kiwi, one Australian, one Austrian, four germans, two brits, two italians, one dutch woman, a frenchman, and a partridge in a pear tree. We had four awesome days of sailing, swimming, drinking, barbecuing, jumping off the huge boat, swinging like pirates, getting mildly seasick and more than mildly sunburned. We played crazy guitar, watched movies, cooked huge meals together, battled with the single hand-pump toilet, learned how to sail a tiny bit, read a book each (not as impressive as the Australian Penny's five and a half books). Best of all was the snorkeling. I snorkeled three days, one day for three hours on the reefs surrounding the 300 plus San Blas Islands. So fun. A couple people got stung by jellyfish, and one of our friends saw some hammerhead sharks. Goodtimes. Our last day was spent steaming (no wind) to Cartagena for nearly 40 hours straight. We had more fun than should be allowed.
So we are in this historic Spanish colonial city, a favorite target for pirates since the 1500's. Last night we got together with everyone from the boat, now scattered across the city, for pizza and drinks. Colombia by the way is very safe and friendly, with well travelled places needing only the basic precautions we would use travelling anywhere. (like Chicago, or Denver...) Cartagena is the most beautiful city we have seen yet and we are still slowly considering which direction to take next. Hugs all around...We miss you!
Friday, November 03, 2006
Exclusive Teen
We made it into Panama! we're in David, Panama right now...the border crossing was fairly painless. Except that today is Panama's Independance Day. Turns out that we're doing a Tour of Central American Independance Days! Which is fine...but the banks are all closed. So we've been thwarted again in our mission to exchange dollars for local tender. The one thing we do have going for us is that the Panamanian currancy...the balboa...is really just dollars. seriously. everyone here just has pockets full of American dollars. I mean i get some balboa in change (and it looks identical to pennies, quarters, etc.) and the exchange rate is actually pretty comprable. We are both confused.
Anyway, so far the consensus is that Panama is a bit more sophisticated than Costa Rica. They actually have a highway - like an interstate. We even saw strip malls and subdivisions outside of David. It looked a bit like Florida. That is until we got to our hotel. It's about to fall down. I mean, it looks big and has a restaurant in it and all, but I'm afraid I'm going to fall through the floor (which is on an extreme slope). And I can't explain why, but the shower felt like I was closing myself in to a refrigerator. (anyway, it only cost us $8.00).
So fear not! Panama is a success!
Anyway, so far the consensus is that Panama is a bit more sophisticated than Costa Rica. They actually have a highway - like an interstate. We even saw strip malls and subdivisions outside of David. It looked a bit like Florida. That is until we got to our hotel. It's about to fall down. I mean, it looks big and has a restaurant in it and all, but I'm afraid I'm going to fall through the floor (which is on an extreme slope). And I can't explain why, but the shower felt like I was closing myself in to a refrigerator. (anyway, it only cost us $8.00).
So fear not! Panama is a success!
Thursday, November 02, 2006
We think you should name the new baby...
OH, Lo siento. it´s been a while, and I´m feelin´ my mom´s anxiety all the way in Southern Costa Rica. Seriously, though...we´re fine...we stayed at El Jardin until last weekend. Scott finished the kitchen counter project just in time for the arrival of a Medical team from the US. Our dear friends now have their hands full with organizing a bunch of Americans, so we´ve moved on to the beach! We spent a day in transit in San Isidro de General, and then three days at the Playa Dominical. it was absolutely beautiful! I´m really sorry we still can´t put pictures on here cause ya´ll would be jealous! Dominical is a really small surfer town. Just one little dirt road strip along the beach. But the waves are enormous, the water´s really warm and tropically, and the beach is velvety sand (very unlike the crabby, gooey beaches we saw in Washington...sorry Jeff, the tropics are prettier- and they don´t smell as bad)
Last night we stayed in a less touristy beach town- Uvita- very small, very pleasant. Then there was some confusion with the Lonely Planet explanations of where there are banks and such...what it boiled down to was that we had to get on a bus this morning with only about $5 worth of colones, and search for a bank. Then we missed our bus stop...Then we ended up 17km away from Panama (we´re in the town of Neily)...Then by the time we ate and found a place to stay tonight, the banks were all closed. So, we´ve decided that instead of trying to exchange all our money into colones...Why not just go to Panama?
Sounds like we´re flying by the seat of our pants? um...maybe a little. So... we´d appreciate your best wishes, prayers, energy channeling...as we attempt our first border crossing tomorrow. Should be fun.
But seriously...we´re finding it much easier (dispite all of our "mistakes")to get around now that we can use some basic spanish. It´s amazing how easy it is now to understand "The bank´s closed"!! We´re having a good time, and keeping in good spirits. I think we´ve got a little travel bug, now that we´re up and moving again. For now the plan is to keep moving, until we decide to stop. sound good?
Oh, and for all you who tend to worry, and are threatening to call the US embassy...Scott says that if we get kidnapped, you´ll know. Because they´ll call you looking for a ransom. (i.e. we´re afraid to make promises in case we can´t find a place with the internet -- please stop worrying, we are fine)
Well, we certainly did miss out on Halloween. we celebrated by taking a sunset stroll on the beach. Oh, and eating the best Thai food I´ve ever had. Seriously, I can´t explain how good it was. We looked into flights from San Jose to Thailand.
Kay, Love you all! and Happy November!
P.S. We think you should name the new baby Muey...but not anything to do with Guns n´Roses... (it was a dream I had...I can explain later)
Last night we stayed in a less touristy beach town- Uvita- very small, very pleasant. Then there was some confusion with the Lonely Planet explanations of where there are banks and such...what it boiled down to was that we had to get on a bus this morning with only about $5 worth of colones, and search for a bank. Then we missed our bus stop...Then we ended up 17km away from Panama (we´re in the town of Neily)...Then by the time we ate and found a place to stay tonight, the banks were all closed. So, we´ve decided that instead of trying to exchange all our money into colones...Why not just go to Panama?
Sounds like we´re flying by the seat of our pants? um...maybe a little. So... we´d appreciate your best wishes, prayers, energy channeling...as we attempt our first border crossing tomorrow. Should be fun.
But seriously...we´re finding it much easier (dispite all of our "mistakes")to get around now that we can use some basic spanish. It´s amazing how easy it is now to understand "The bank´s closed"!! We´re having a good time, and keeping in good spirits. I think we´ve got a little travel bug, now that we´re up and moving again. For now the plan is to keep moving, until we decide to stop. sound good?
Oh, and for all you who tend to worry, and are threatening to call the US embassy...Scott says that if we get kidnapped, you´ll know. Because they´ll call you looking for a ransom. (i.e. we´re afraid to make promises in case we can´t find a place with the internet -- please stop worrying, we are fine)
Well, we certainly did miss out on Halloween. we celebrated by taking a sunset stroll on the beach. Oh, and eating the best Thai food I´ve ever had. Seriously, I can´t explain how good it was. We looked into flights from San Jose to Thailand.
Kay, Love you all! and Happy November!
P.S. We think you should name the new baby Muey...but not anything to do with Guns n´Roses... (it was a dream I had...I can explain later)
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