The Caribbean Coast

You know how when you travel, you form an image in your mind of what a place is going to look like? That is really part of the fun, imagining how places you’ve only read about will be like in person, and then seeing (despite your best efforts not to set your hopes too high) if the image you’ve created in your mind lives up to where you actually visit.

For the final leg of this trip, I think we can say that Parque Tayrona more than exceeded anything we could have imagined while daydreaming at our desks in Philadelphia. The dramatic meeting of the Caribbean with the mountains and jungles of Colombia’s coast provides some of the most breathtakingly beautiful beach settings we’ve ever seen (and more than makes up for the stifling heat). It is one of those places that photos can’t really do justice.

We're back in Bogota now, waiting for our flight to New York. We've had an amazing couple of weeks, and still really haven't scratched the surface of all Colombia has to offer. We can't wait to come back, but for now, adios!

Cartagena De Indias

We’ve spent the last four nights in Cartagena, Colombia’s famous city on the coast, wandering the maze-like streets of the walled old town, taking in the sights of the remarkably preserved colonial buildings, and drinking copious amounts of street vendor served limeade. Cartagena is a fascinating place, sometimes feeling like a romantic old world town, and sometimes feeling like a chaotic urban center, depending on where you are and the time of day. There are three main sections of Cartagena frequented by visitors: the walled old city with its colorful colonial architecture, Getsemani (where we stayed at Hostal Baluarte) directly outside of the walls, and Bocagrande with its sky scrapers and condominiums. We spent time exploring each of them, and also made a day trip to Volcan de Lodo el Totumo, the giant mud volcano. Cartagena is a very picturesque place, and a sampling of some of our shots are below:















We've now moved farther east up the coast to Santa Marta, which we'll use as base for exploring some of the beaches including those at Parque Tayrona. We'll post back soon!

Independence Day

Right now we are in the Bogota airport, delayed on our way to Cartagena, so we are taking advantage of the free wifi (in what is a pretty nice airport) to update you on our time in Salento, a tiny town in the coffee region about an hour's flight northwest of Bogota.

We awoke on the morning of July 20 happy to find out from the owner of our hotel (a very charming Hostal Ciudad de Segorbe) that Salento was celebrating Colombian Independence Day - and Colombia's Bicentennial - with a parade through town. We headed out onto the streets and witnessed a very interesting parade primarily featuring several different branches of the military, along with a Simon Bolivar reenactor, and children dressed to represent different historical figures and time periods. Much to Steve's disappointment, however, there were no fireworks.





Salento is a wonderfully restored town and in addition to being known for its very charming historical buildings, it is also known for its trout (which nearly every restaurant serves in multiple forms, almost always on a patacon - think of a giant tortilla chip made of pressed plantains) as well as its proximity to the Valle de Cocora, which we experienced in a day hike yesterday.


The Valle de Cocora is most famed for its wax palms, which are the highest palm trees in the world and very unusual. The scenery is breathtaking (and so is the walk, which was pretty strenuous in the high altitude!). One of the highlights was getting to see the multitudes of hummingbirds that gather at one of the stops - Acaime - along the trek.


Today, we are in route to Cartagena, where we will experience a change from the cool mountain air we've been enjoying. Still, we are excited to spend the next few days exploring such a historic and iconic city. We'll post back soon!

Bogota by Bike

We have arrived in Salento, a little town in the Zona Cafeteria, and are enjoying the Colombian Independence Day celebration here - more on that in a later post! Yesterday, we spent five hours biking our way through the busy streets of downtown Bogota. If you have ever biked in Philadelphia, you know how challenging it can be to negotiate both city traffic and pedestrians. Now take the worst day of biking in Philly, and it probably still does not compare to the adventure of biking in Bogota.

Now imagine riding through this crowd on a bike
Our twelve miles of city touring not only included seeing the sights but also learning the political and social history of the city through our tour guide Mike, a former American journalist who has lived in Colombia for the past five years. We visited a giant local food market, the cemetery (where plots are rented for just four years), the bull fighting ring, and many other spots of interest. We even came across two separate political demonstrations related to today´s Independence Day.

Steve surprised by the sourness of the unidentified fruit at the market
If you are ever in Bogota, we can´t recommend the Bogota Bike Tour enough. It is a great way to get a feel for the culture and history of the city.

We don´t have wifi where we are staying in Salento (maybe in the whole town itself), so we will have to wait to post about today´s celebration, but look forward to sharing our photos and videos! We are loving the town here, and despite our limited Espanol, all of the people we meet continue to be so gracious and friendly. We´ll post back when we can!

The Tourist Train

Have you ever been on the Wilmington & Western Railroad in Delaware? Well today we went on the Colombian version of that train ride, from Bogota out to Zipaquira.

Called the Tren Turistico, this old-fashioned steam engine (today ours was diesel powered) makes the three-hour journey from Sabana station in Bogota (maxing out at about 17km per hour) on the weekends. Though called the tourist train, the majority of passengers on the train were Colombian families & couples out enjoying the leisurely Sunday morning ride.

The train ends up in Zipaquira, which is best known for its underground salt cathedral featuring the stations of the cross carved into the salt of the former mine. While the salt cathedral is pretty incredible, the journey getting there might be the highlight of the day trip.

The Salt Cathedral
From the tamales and hot chocolate sold on the train, to the live music from a five-piece band that moves from car to car, the Tren Turistico is more than just a means of transportation, but really is a case where getting there is more than half of the fun. Everyone outside stops and waves as the red train rattles through Bogota, also stopping in Usaquen, and then heads out into the country, winding past fields of cattle and horses with the mountains in the distance. Being about six-hours round trip, the train is definitely not the quickest way to get out to see the salt cathedral, but from our experience is guaranteed to be the most unique.

The band during Steve's ill-advised attempt at a nap
Tomorrow, we take a bike tour of the city in the morning and then fly out to Armenia for our stay in Salento in the Zona Cafeteria (or coffee region). As long as we have internet, we’ll post back soon!

Bienvenidos a Colombia!

Our two week trip through Colombia has just begun, and we’ve already have an eventful first couple of days. We awoke from our nap in the cab ride from the airport yesterday morning to find ourselves in the middle of the Candelaria, the historic neighborhood in downtown Bogota. Think of Old City in Philly, except more than 200 years older, and founded by the Spanish instead of the Quakers. Plus, it’s a little edgier, but beautiful and charming nonetheless.

Highlights so far:

Yellow Fever Vaccine = Great Success! We aren’t going to any particularly high risk areas (so don’t worry) but Parque Tayrona (where we go at the end of our trip) requires all visitors to show their yellow card supposedly, so we didn’t want to risk it. It turns out that here in Bogota at the airport you can get vaccines for 100% free (vs the $120 per person it would have cost us in the States). A friendly police officer showed us where to go.

There are delicious street snacks on almost every corner (Steve really enjoyed trying the fried pig anus. No joke.). From grilled corn on the cob to churros to plantain chips to empanadas, everything is delicious and cheap. Hot chocolate is also extremely popular here (particularly with a piece of cheese in it) so we are drinking that whenever possible. Of course, the coffee goes without saying.


Steve trying his new favorite delicacy

The city itself really is a highlight on its own. The people are so friendly and while English is not commonly spoken, everyone is more than willing to suffer through our attempts at Spanish. We’ve only met one other set of American travelers, and while there are tourists here, you definitely can tell that tourism has not been a defining part of Bogota in the past (although it is on the rise, and it somewhere we’d recommend to put on your radar). Our hostel – Alegria’s – is lovely and a great bargain. Also, the cost of cabs here is amazingly cheap.

The courtyard at Alegria's
And some lowlights:

Thursday into Friday proved to be a bit of a long travel day, since we decided to save on airfare and get the bonus of an overnight direct flight by leaving from JFK. Our scheduled Megabus broke down on the way to pick us up at 30th Street, so we got off to a late start that led us right into rush hour traffic, but for $5 a person what can you really expect? We’d do it again.

Definitely the lowest point was when we realized that our bank does not allow us to make ATM transactions – anywhere in the entire country! Our credit cards were fine, and we could use our debit card at stores, restaurants, etc that actually take cards, but the majority of places simply take cash – un problema since we did not bring a 16 day supply. Of course, this would not have been an issue if someone had not forgotten to call the bank ahead of time (and shockingly it was not Steve). For about 24 hours we scrounged around trying to figure out how to access our bank account without any ATMs. When our call to Western Union proved futile, we seriously thought we might have to come home (apparently, in case you need to know one day, it is not that easy to wire your own money to yourself in a foreign country)! However, thanks to our new best friends at the one Bancolombia that is open on a Saturday, we were able to access our bank account without an ATM and are happy to report we will be continuing with our travels! Let’s just say we can laugh about it now. ☺

Up on Monserrate
Tomorrow, we will be taking the Turistren to an underground salt cathedral outside of Bogota and continuing to enjoy the good food and culture of Colombia. We’ll post back soon!

Don't Stop Belizing!

We have reached the tiny island of Caye Caulker in Belize, and are enjoying the abundant sun (maybe not Steve so much as he is seeking cover under any palm trees he can find). There are no cars, and just bicycles and golf carts to get around - or, like us, you can just walk as the whole island is just a few hundred meters. You can only get here by boat.



The seafood here is fresh and delicious (lobster and red snapper are favorites), and tomorrow we are looking forward to our all day snorkeling excursion on a sailboat. Belize has the second largest barrier reef next to Australia, so we hope to see some exciting sea life.

Our last stop in Guatemala at Tikal (the Mayan ruin) was a worthwhile visit, even though our sleeping accommodations (a tent shared with several unidentified types of jungle spiders) left something to be desired.



Still, climbing to the top of Temple IV at 4:30am in the morning to see the sunrise (despite the clouds) and hear the howler monkeys wake up was pretty incredible and made up for spending the night in a hundred degree tent wrapped like mummies in our sleeping sacks. Listen closely to the video below and you can hear them, too:




Plus, getting the park to ourselves at sunset the night before was pretty nice as well (see below).



We're off to the beach!

Tikal Bound

Yesterday afternoon we reached Flores, a small island in a lake about an hour away from Tikal, the famous Mayan ruin site. Soon, we will head there to catch (hopefully) both sunset and sunrise at the park (depending on the rain situation) and maybe see some howler monkeys, too, if we are lucky! Then we have one more night in Guatemala before shuttling over to Belize.

We have been having a great time - even better than we had hoped. Guatemala is truly beautiful. Our internet situation has prevented us from uploading as many photos as we would like but as soon as we can we will show you just what we have been up to!

Steve and I both fell in love with Lago Atitlan, where we stayed at a great hotel built right into the cliffs. La Casa Del Mundo (see below) was such a great surprise and we really got into just hanging out on their balconies, enjoying the cool lake breeze, and meeting the other travelers. Plus, the swimming in their little cove was fantastic. We found out they do destination weddings there, so that gave us some ideas. :)







After leaving La Casa Del Mundo, we spent a final night in Antigua before taking an 8 hour shuttle to El Retiro near Semuc Champey. El Retiro is a pretty little riverside hotel with thatched huts and animals roaming free.



It also featured eco-banos, which trust me you do not want to know about. The best thing about El Retiro was the awesome day tour we took of Semuc Champey and the local caves. Now, parents may want to stop reading now because thanks to the less stringent safety guidelines here, the highlights of that day including jumping off a bridge into the rio and rappeling down and then jumping off a 5 meter waterfall. We also explored a cave by candlelight and played in the beautiful limestone pools. See me very tentatively jumping off a bridge into the river below:



After a very long and hot shuttle ride, we are now in Flores as mentioed and are taking it easy prior spending a night in a hammock in Tikal. We will post back soon!


Steve enjoying his new favorite drink Squiz.

Semuc Champey

Hola all. We arrived in Lanquin last night following an 8 hour bus ride that seemed to take longer. It is much more humid and hotter then in the highlands of Antigua and Lake Atitlan. We really need to pull out the bug spray now! Today, we plan on taking a tour through Semuc Champey, which includes hiking along the river, swimming, and exploring caves. The scenery is supposed to be better than Lake Atitlan, if that is possible.

Unfortunately, internet access has been very sporadic and extremely slow. It seems we are unable to upload our pictures, sign in to facebook, and even check our email. We do have access to Flickr and this blog, so we will try to continue posting and add pictures to Flickr if possible.

And that's all for now!

Lago Atitlan

Well, we made it to Lake Atitlan yesterday afternoon after a wonderful scenic drive from Antigua. We will be here until tomorrow and head on back to Antigua to catch a shuttle to Lanquin/Semuc Champey. We get an internet connection, but it works as well as riding a bike with two flat tires. Once you see our pictures (hopefully tomorrow evening), you will see why we are happy we don't have it!

Can one of Steve's siblings let his Mom know he is alive (no phones and he cannot get into email).

We'll post back soon!

Magic Mountains

Last night, we camped on Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano just over an hour from Antigua. It was truly one of those breathtaking experiences where as you're walking up to the active lava fields you're looking around wonder how anything could be so beautiful. Because we went at night, we hiked up to the volcano for about an hour and a half (with me realizing I am painfully out of shape), set up camp, and then climbed to the active portion of the volcano once the other visitors were leaving. We got to the lava just after dark, and had a truly dazzling (and very warm) sight to behold.

The trek back down was noteworthy as well, with the group of seven of us essentially sliding down volcanic rock for good portions of the way in the dark, accompanied by local stray dogs. We highly recommend OX, the group that organized our tour. Our guide Sophie from Montreal was fantastic. If you're ever heading down to Guatemala, we can't recommend enough spending the night on Pacaya.


We are now back in Antigua, and tomorrow will head up to Lago Atitlan for a couple days.

On another note, have you ever wondered where US schools buses go to rest? Probably not, but the answer is Guatemala, and they are not resting at all, but serving as the main source of public transportation (see below - painted in their wild colors)!


We'll post back soon.

How's The Food?

One of my biggest sources of excitement in heading to a new place is the chance to check out the local food. So far, Guatemala is definitely holding its own in that area. Our first meal was a typical desayuno (for lunch) at Cafe La Escudilla (see above). For less than $10 dollars for both of us, we had eggs, beans, platanos, tortillas, oj, and coffee.

Since then, we've sampled local Guatemalan sweets, fire roasted corn on the cob from a street vendor, a great complimentary breakfast from our hostel (more eggs, beans, etc), and of course, ice cream!

Tonight, we head up to Volcan Pacaya for our overnight camping trip, so I'm looking forward to roasting marshmallows on the open lava (which will probably be less dangerous than our electric shower - see below).




We'll post back soon!

No Sleep til Antigua!

First, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Hoffman!! Kelly and I attended their wonderful wedding ceremony and we felt honored to be a part of their special day.

Our trip started with a quick tour of some of the Mid-Atlantic states. On Friday, we passed through PA, DE, MD, and VA on our way to Carrie and Patrick's Wedding and did not return to the four star Walls B&B (aka my grandparents' house) until 2:00 a.m. Just in time to double check our bags, take a quick shower (yes, Kelly really did take a quick shower), and grab a cup of coffee before we had to leave at 4:30 a.m. to catch our 6:30 a.m. flight.

Overall, the flight went well. We arrived safely in Guatemala City and immediately took a cab to Antigua. The hour long cab ride cost only $20!!


So far, Antigua is perfect. Our hostel seems to be clean, friendly, and fairly quiet. The town itself is amazing! It is surrounded by 3 volcanos that peak above the clouds (climbing to the top seems intimidating) and the people are very friendly. Tomorrow is our big overnight trek to Volcan Pacaya, so stay tuned.

We just wanted to let our friends and family know that we made it safely, with only a few scary moments of turbulence when landing in Guatemala. We will be adding pictures either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks all!

Travel Bug Hits - Hopefully Not Carrying Chagas Disease

Well, Kelly and I are off again to Guatemala and Belize for two weeks of cave-diving, mosquitoes, snorkeling, uncomfortable beds, and of course - Kelly's favorite - the local cuisine. We are continuing in the spirit of our first trip; bringing as little as possible. You can find our similar packing list in the August, 2007 post. We are not checking any bags, so liquids must be under 3oz.

There is only 2 major additions to our packing list. Bug spray - so far we have 100% deet, 25% deet, these patches that overdose you with vitamin b (apparently mosquitoes do not like vit. b) and Permethrin aerosol spray that supposedly provides two-week protection.

The other addition is an underwater camera that we hope to put to good use. It does not take nearly as good as pictures as the Nikon, but is pretty good for a point and shoot.

We are also debating whether or not to bring the laptop. So, leave a message in our comment section on what you think!

Hopefully, you will see us swimming with the sharks in Belize!!

Ah, the Salisbury News...

Well, we made it back to the good ol' US of A. Back to a normal Sunday night in Ocean City, MD. Just about all of the tourists are gone now so it is very quiet. When we left, it was shorts and tank top weather and now it is definitely hat and sweater weather. Our animals and family were very happy to see us and we were very happy to see them, too (and to have a loooong hot shower). We wish we could spend the holidays here and then turn back around and keep traveling!

Almost Home

So, we are very happy with our new hostel. We couldn't check out soon enough from our former hostel this morning and after a quick breakfast, headed over to Globetrotters. Well, it might as well have been the Hilton. The hostel is clean and quiet and in a great historic building - plus they serve a full Irish breakfast in the morning!! Wish we'd been here all along.



Other than that, we took it easy today. We walked around O'Connell Street and saw the General Post Office, did a little shopping, and listened to some Irish music at the Auld Dubliner. Fortunately, there was no rain today so we're not quite as soggy.

Tomorrow, our flight leaves at 11:10am and we get into Philly at 2:00pm. It is absolutely amazing that our trip is almost over - probably the quickest five weeks of our lives. Thanks for checking in with us during our travels. We've had a great experience and are looking forward to planning to the next big adventure! ;)

City Living

It is nice to be back in the city! We returned the rental car yesterday. The Avis rep was nice; she did not charge us for the missing hubcap. The city is fairly small and walkable which was good because we walked back to our hostel. The hostel was not quite what we were hoping for; it was really the only hostel misstep of the trip. Maybe we are just getting a little too old for the party atmosphere! :) .

Despite the accommodations, we are enjoying Dublin. The city does have a long history and we have a short amount of time here, so we are cramming a lot into our days. The day started with more wind and rain, so we headed to the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail for all you English speakers). While the jail was built in the late 1700s, it is famous for housing the 1916 Easter Rising leaders. Fourteen of those were executed in the yard where we stood today - see below.



Next, we were off to the more historic districts where we saw Christ's Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and City Hall. Steve's brain was tired from all of the culture, so we headed to his garden - St. Stephen's Green. It probably was not the nicest day for a stroll in the park, but Steve felt obligated to meet his people. He was sad when no one was there, so the ducks pretended to listen to him. After that, we walked along Grafton Street, over to Trinity College, and back through Temple Bar where we visited the National Photographic Archives.



A pretty good day all in all. Then we arrived back at our hostel. Our roommate was still sleeping from the night before and the rest of the people have a full day of alcohol in them. On the positive side, we did just see a wrestling match!

We will post tomorrow and let you know about our new hostel.

The End Is Near...

We are wrapping up our second night in Galway - only four nights left on our trip! :( Galway is a cute town with medieval, cobblestone streets, brightly painted houses, and lots and lots of traditional Irish pubs. There are also lots and lots of wool sweater stores. As you can see from the photo, we FINALLY got some hats and gloves so at least we will be warmer for our last few days. Galway is also interesting because it is in a section of Ireland that still speaks Gaelic.



Tomorrow morning, we head off to Dublin and return our little Nissan Micra. Hopefully, Avis does not charge us too many Euros for our missing hubcap - a casualty of the flat tire incident. We will be giving up the luxury of driving - which would not be bad at all except that Dublin is in the middle of a bus driver strike last we heard! We are excited for Dublin and hope the stores stay open a little later than 6pm which is what time they close here.



We'll post back soon.

Free Derry

Well, Steve is ready to move to Derry. After the fiasco with the tire, we arrived in Derry happy to park the car and get back to walking. That was a good thing because shortly after we arrived at our hostel - Derry Independent Hostel (which was excellent) - the owner sat down with us to go over a map of the area and point out some highlights. She showed us where the murals are in Derry and said that there are political walking tours that leave ever day at 2pm from the Free Derry Museum. Of course, we hurried of to get something eat - two big breakfast "frys" - and make it down in time.

Before the tour, we decided to visit the museum. The Free Derry museum tells the history of the troubles in Northern Ireland and the huge role that Derry has played as a centerpiece in the struggle for civil rights. It is a fantastic and deeply moving museum. After about an hour and a half inside, we departed on our walking tour.



In contrast from the neutral "Black Taxi" tour in Belfast, this tour is from a more Nationalist/Republican viewpoint which makes it very interesting. Our guide led us through the Bogside neighborhood - which is predominantly Catholic - and highlighted the many murals and monuments (such as the Bloody Sunday memorial - which occured in Derry) while recounting the area's tumultuous history.



Afterwards, we revisted the museum and spoke with the tour and museum guide while getting some more insight. Then we stopped by the infamous Bogside Inn for a cup of tea. The next day, we crossed the river into the Protestant area and visited some of the Loyalist murals as well.

After much debate (we loved Derry and were tempted to stay longer), we decided to leave Northern Ireland and head west, visiting Donegal and spending the night in Sligo. This morning we got up early and headed to Galway, where we are spending the next two nights.

On an interesting note, Steve seems to have discovered a new hobby on our trip as he is taking more and more of our photos! We'll post back shortly.



For More Info: www.museumoffreederry.org