World Tour

Friday was my final day at Karmak. My coworkers had a nice miniature potluck for me and everything. I really do value my experiences there. I learned many things that will be serve me well in the future. Just spending some time learning how to operate in an office setting is pretty crucial, not to mention all of the technology that I became familiar with. My job took me to six states, two that were new to me. I regret not having the opportunity to see any other countries during my work travels, but I can't complain much. The people there are really friendly and welcoming... Goodbye Carlinville! Nice place, but Im not going to miss the commute.

I am going to spend some more time in Colombia before I head to my new teaching position. I figured I should share a couple of things about the last trip that I inadvertently left out. Its crazy to think that this excursion was only a week of my life. I feel like I saw and did enough to fill a month.

The first big site that deserves to be mentioned was Pie De La Popa in Cartagena. This amounted to yet another religious building on the top of a large hill. Besides a great view of the surrounding city, I don't recall it being very noteworthy in my mind, but it seemed to command a degree of importance that I never understood. I gathered from a few pictures on the walls that Pope John Paul II had visited and blessed this place, so if its good enough for the Pope I guess I can manage.

During our wanderings in and out of the religious buildings, there was something I couldn't stop thinking about. When we were finally ready to leave, I had to see it again. At the gates to this place, among all of the really annoying peddlers, was a guy holding two sloths. These might be the coolest animals that I have ever seen with my own eyes. They move ridiculously slowly, and a little scrunched face on a longish neck reminded me a bit of a hairy E.T.. They also had really long claws. I read that they are usually safe from being hunted by humans because their claws are so long that a lethal bullet isn't enough to dislodge their body from a tree. Pretty crazy.

Every church should have an exotic petting zoo

This next picture is a kickass statue of Simon Bolivar that we discovered during a night time stroll in a park. Before going to Colombia, I didnt really know much of anything about this man. But he seems to be the historical rockstar of the continent. Imagine a George Washington figure, who, after leading the United States to independence, decided to go ahead and liberate 5 other countries and serve as president in each. He seems to have just plain dominated the Spanish wherever he went. Beast man.

Well my time in the ol' US is winding down. Let's hope its memorable!

First Day in Cartagena

I finally took the time to do some more Colombian show and tell. Brace yourself for excitement, 'cause 5/9/07 is coming at you.

Now comes my favorite part of the little Colombian trip. Cartagena! (Here's its wikipage, and here's the map). While Bogota's weather was a bit cloudy, and cold enough to have to wear a sweatshirt occasionally, Cartagena was exactly the opposite. It is on the northern border of the country, and it sits next to the Caribbean. A sunny, beach filled place, Cartagena is a perfect tourist spot.

Colorful view of Bogota shortly after takeoff.

As soon as I had walked off the plane it was obvious that this place was much different from where I had been previously. A good illustration of this was the several uniformed employees waiting to help me carry my bags at the airport. One would walk up and ask me if they could carry my bags for me(I can only assume, as I had no clue what they were gibbering). I would say no, and they would reluctantly go away. This event repeated itself at least five times. Once we had finally gathered our luggage, we started out the door. One of those uniformed guys was not about to let us escape without giving someone money. He pretty much grabbed my rolling suitcase out of my hand and started carrying it toward our hotel shuttle.... all 20 steps. Then he stood and said "the tip is optional". Oh man, what a bastard. I think I gave him a dollar just to make him go away, but I was not happy about it.

Even in such a beautiful, touristy getaway, there weren't any non-Hispanic people around, so I felt like I was getting singled out to be hastled. One of the very few downsides of this great place is that everyone seems to be hanging around waiting for me and my wallet. I needed to brace myself when leaving a popular museum, because as soon as I was outside I would get ambushed by people getting in my face trying to sell me sunglasses or random trinkets. I admire their entrepreneurial spirit, but they definitely need to work on their marketing approach. I didn't care what they had, I just wanted to get away from them. Well, enough ranting...

We stayed at the Hotel Decameron in an area called Bocagrande. This section of the city is filled with tall hotels lining the beach. A bit farther inland the scene started to become just the usual urban setting, not much different than the neighborhoods I had seen in Bogota. The hotel itself was pretty excellent in part because it was all-inclusive. There were a couple of bars and restaurants on the property, as well as a few that they would shuttle you to if you asked. Our room had a ridiculously good view of the ocean and the old city, which sometimes made it hard to even want to go outside.

A feeble attempt of mine to get artsy with a shot of the resort.

Once we had dumped all of our luggage in the room, we were off to exploring. The boundaries of the historic "Old City" district were fairly obvious due to the large defensive walls surrounding it. Cartagena was pretty hardcore fortified by the Spanish to keep pirates and other baddies from preying on the city. The city was an important stop in the slave trade as well as commodities, and so became a nice target. The biggest visible part of the defensive structures is the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, which not only is huge and mean looking, but takes forever to say. A two pronged defense plan.

Close to one of the entrances in the high walls surrounding the city, stands Pedro de Heredia, who founded Cartagena in 1533. (Notice that my picture is better than the one in the link... Booyah, Wikipedia!)

Some giant Colombian colors flying over the fort.

The old colonial defenses are a big part of Cartagena's heritage, and the fort is the center piece. The most interesting part of the fort is supposed to be the labyrinth of tunnels that run beneath it. I think that they were used both to confound enemies as well as store weapons and supplies. I imagined that some pickpocket was waiting for me in this dark maze, so I chickened out and wouldn't go very far inside.

This is where someone was waiting to beat me and take my money.

I don't recall the significance of these things... I think that they are the "traveler's shoes" or something along those lines. Nice view of the fort in the background, though.

"Oh McDonald's, wherever I am, you're always there for me with your sweet, sweet unhealthiness"

More coming up!