Man Boobs, Speed Boat and New Friendship

Today we had become conscious of time as we had to be at the wharf at 8:30am for our day trip to the Rosario Islands. This meant an earl rise and equally early breakfast.

The breakfast was served by the staff who now felt like they were part of our family. As they performed their tasks with such honesty and genuine friendliness. We made it to the wharf and soon we were boarding our speed boat.

Life jackets on, we putted away from the old city and modern Cartagena began to emerge on either side of the harbour banks. Just like in many harbour cities, high rise apartments dotted the harbour foreshore. We left the the old and the new city far behind and it was now time for the boat to show us some speed. The engines started to churn and churn and churn!! and then there was nothing. More spluttering could be heard from the rear of the boat as I tried to position myself away from the direct rays of the sun( as I had fears of transforming into a rock lobster like I did in Rio 5 years ago) Then the one thing you do not want to experience when on any kind of moving vessel, Silence!!. The engines had come to a complete stop and could not be awakened. The passengers began to stir.

Chug chug chug still no luck. The passengers became anxious and worried. Most of the people on board were from Brazil and other latin countries. In fact I thought we were only native english speakers on board(I was soon to be proved wrong on this assumption) Suddenly a man jumped up and demanded to be taken back to shore.

The man appeared to be of Brazilian natyionality whith a German heritage.(not a combination to be taken lightly when fired up) He yelled at the crew as the rest of the passengers were also becoming very agitated and more vocal.

My main priority became sun avoidance . As I slapped on another dollop of 50+ sunblock from head to toe. Still the motors could not be brought to life and the passengers were becoming very angry. Were we going to have our own "Mutiny on the Bounty" in the seas of Cartagena.

Finally the crew made an announcement( of course only in spanish) That it would take a little while to be on our way. A woman who must have seen the confused look on my face then translated to me in perfect english with a slight accent what was being said. We began to chat . Turns out she is a peruvian Australian living in Ballarat Victoria

She was there on the boat with her husband and daughter. The daughter just happened to be sitting next to Michael( It almost amazes me how many interesting people you meet when travelling).

Out of a boat load of nearly 60 people its strange that the five Australians were sitting in close proximity to each other . We started chatting with the daughter who was in her late 20's and quickly realised we had a lot in common( I am one of those people who believe that everyone who crosses your pathway even if only briefly in life does so for a reason) While many of the other passengers were getting angry with the lack of movement from the boat, the three of us sat chatting and quietly laughing at the behaviour of the people, The Aussie "no worries" attitude.

Finally the boat was motioned from stillness into full throttle and we were on our way to the Rosario Isand. The sea was quite choppy. The boat slicing through it with precision. Never having been the best sea traveller  in the world I started to feel sick about 3/4 of the way into the trip.

Michael ( always the bearer of good news ) told me " I looked green"( If only he knew I felt more like baby poo brown)to be continued:..........

Day Drifts into Night

One of the Great things about staying at the Pousada is that you can have breakfast at whatever time you like. They have a system where they set the breakfast table according to the number of guests being accomodated. As each guest has breakfast, a setting is taken away.

 Today as we made it to the table we noticed that only two place settings were left. Yes we were the late risers. We chatted between ourselves and decided to have another day of wandering. Soon we were out in the streets meandering our way through the old city.

We had much pleasure peering into other peoples houses. In Cartagena the living room is at the front of the house and we took a peep into how ordinary people were living their lives.

We saw people lazily outstretched on sofas watching TV, listening to music and quietly chatting. We felt ouselves falling under the spell of the slow, lazy, Carribean lifestyle.

My new camera was certainly getting a workout we took many photos. It was strange capturing this perfectly preserved old city in digital format. We felt lost in time.


In Cartagena a watch is an irrelevant accessory. As it is a place where you eat when you feel hungry and sleep when you feel tired and dance the rhythm of life whenever the moment takes you. We had lunch and made our way back to our pousada for siesta not consciously aware of what time or even what day it was. We were totally relaxed.

Awakening from our afternoon slumber we realized the dark velvet coat of night had fallen across the city. We showered in the open air bathroom, changed, and were once again in the street greeted by the cool trade winds.

The night was ready to take us on a pathway of discovery. We headed for plaza Santa Domingo. There we were captured by the slow rhythm pace . Up unto this time we thought we were the only ones who seemed to be slowly wandering but it was at this point we also noticed that most people were also doing the same. As if under some sort of quiet calm spell. We were having another enchanting night in Cartagena. We listened to singers with guitars serenade young couples and the clip clop of thankfully not thongs but horses hoofs making their way with carriage attached. Taking people around the city. I was starting to feel very hungry and we began to search for a restaurant.




Michael was being his usual indecisive best when choosing a restaurant and I was hungrier by the minute( I must confess that I am not that amicable when hungry). In a moment of irritation I found a restaurant and we entered as two women were leaving.

I have found when traveling it is a good idea to ask people leaving a restaurant if it is any good but in a non english speaking country this can be a difficult task. However tonight I did notice the two women leaving the restaurant had pasty skin, badly dried hair and were wearing clothing from some bygone era( that was not even fashionable then) and had that overly friendly disposition. They had to be English!!

Sure enough my observations about culture and life were again correct. They were English. I asked them for a review and they gave it a thumbs up replying in their best northern accent. They smiled displaying two sets of crooked teeth that the English are famous for( Thank God some sort of of genetic mutation happened in Australia. We all have relatively good teeth or at least we get ourselves to an Orthodontist if we don't) I think they were a little tipsy as they swayed their way into the street in an aura of dowdiness. We entered the restaurant.

Menus in hand, seated in a restaurant with a glass leadlight wall on one side and hard stuccoed wall on the other and tiled floor under feet we selected our food. Usually this design of a restaurant of a restaurant back home would be a recipe for a night of noise induced torture but here in Cartagena people spoke quietly and there no problem with noise. Michael had a bland chicken dish and I had Cajun food which I have always found too bland and here in Cartagena this was no exception..


We paid our bill to a woman who looked remarkably nurse Von from “All Saints” and were on our way to a nightclub to go dancing.

Climbing the stairs after entering the club, we came to a large white room with a bar at the furthest end and seating around the room. The music was American commercial dance music and the club had no energy in it. We left and decided to call it a night as tomorrow we would visit an Island.

Headache, Columbian Hospitality and the Healing Powers of Cartagena

For me headache was becoming a common reality. This morning in Bogota was no different. I made my search for the Panadol that had become all too familiar. Two panadols later I was ready to face the day and check how Michael was.

He was waking as if out of some induced coma, I wondered what was in that needle the night before. Maybe I needed one. I did have to stay conscious to get us organised and on our early morning flight too Cartagena.

Michael was very dizzy and I was not much better. Maybe we had dizzy queen syndrome?. Some how we managed to get ready and consume breakfast. Michael's tummy was feeling a lot better. We farewelled the kind people at the hotel and were on our way to the airport.

The road to the airport was lined with the military(yes those machine guns made a reappearance). As this was early in the morning and the sun was just coming up it looked like this military presence was an overnight custom in the Columbian capital. Eventually we made it through the military check points and were ready to board our on time Avianca flight for Cartagena.

The first thing we noticed on landing in Cartagena was that it had a distinctly tropical feel.
In a short time we were snaking our way through the streets of the old city known as Centro.


The Taxi came to a halt outside a white stacoed wall with a double wooded door in the middle. We were motioned to press the buzzer close to the door. As the taxi driver began to unload the luggage.

A few moments later I could hear the clip clop of thongs on a tiled floor coming from behind the door( Yes the dreaded world invasion of the hideous rubber thong had made its way to Cartagena). In the top right hand corner of the door appeared a small slot ( that upto this time I had not noticed) The slot was pulled back and behind it peered a pair of mysterious eyes through a metal grate( How Indiana Jones is this).

We must have appeared ok as soon half of the right hand door was being opened. We obviously had been permitted entry. Luggage made its way through the small door and we were greeted by the owner of the eyes. A small pretty girl brimming with the natural Columbian Hospitality that we had become accustomed to.



Stepping our way through the dark reception we made our way to a charming light filled internal courtyard. The heart of these type of Casa's as it allows not only light but ventilation. It was still early morning and we were informed our room would not be ready until 12:00 midday.



Leaving our bags in a secured area we left the Pousada and ventured off on foot to let the Travel God take us to wherever there were areas of interest. We headed out of the old city and headed to a spot where we saw people milling. The city was wakening from its slumber. At this spot we noticed a shopping centre called “Centro Uno” and thought this must be what all the fuss is about. We went inside and quickly realised this must be the most boring shopping centre in the whole of South America!!. The crowd was definitely not here as we could wander around in isolation. The centre had a few dowdy clothes shops, a hairdresser and a couple of electronic outlets. The shops on the two upper levels had closed down and were up for lease.( I thought who would rent them in this ghost town?) The centre did have one redeeming feature, a toilet. Which we made use of and made a quick march for the exit.

Once outside we decided to just follow the throng of the crowd. This lead us to a series of alleyways accessible only by foot. We passed through a number of small market type stalls selling everything from clothing to mechanical parts for cars. At the end of these alleyways was a wonderful place of fresh food.

There was a abundance of fruit, vegetables and fresh meat, Chicken and fish that looked like it had just come out of the sea. Here people were closely inspecting the produce. We felt like we were part of the crowd as people approached us to purchase. ( I think they thought Michael was one of the local community members).

Most of the local residents like Michael are of mixed race. A Unique combination of African Indeginous Indian and European ancestry.

They are a very handsome group and have a strong sense of spiritual well being. We came to the end of the markets and decided to make our way back to our pousada.

On finding our Pousada we once again pressed the buzzer and the “thongs” were on their way. Inside we took refuge in the internal courtyard and were informed our room would be ready shortly. The Casa Boutique Veranera advertises itself as a boutique hotel, but so far it had the feel of just a nice Pousada. I thought it best to cast my final judgement after I had seen the room.

Finally our room was ready and we were taken up the stairs of the internal courtyard to our accomodation. We had already been told we would be staying in the green room. ( was this the place we stayed before appearing on Columbian TV?) There was nothing boutique about the room but it had a nice comfy bed, aircon that worked and a functional bathroom. As expected the Casa Boutique Veranera was just a nice Pousada not a boutique hotel. The staff had been so welcoming and professional that we were prepared to overlook the misleading advertising.

“Only Mad Dogs and English Men go out in the Midday Sun” and seeing that we were neither of the above( thankfully) we decided to have Siesta. Both of us drifted into a deep hazy sleep. Michael was still not quite 100%. We woke about 7:00pm and decided to go out for a stroll.

We exited the pousada through the wooden door and were ready to take another adventure through the streets of Cartagena. Only this time at night. The streets were lit by old fashioned lamps stuck to the wals of the Casas and restaurants that lined the streets. columbian and Cuban music drifted from the different bars, restaurants and casas. A refreshing breeze peppered its way through the streets bringing a cool calmness with it. We were starting to feel refreshed and revitalised. Cartagena was working its magic with its healing powers.







I was feeling a little peckish after hours of walking. So we begin our search for a nice restaurant. It was not long before we were entering a nicely decorated Italian Restaurant. with a direct view of the old wall of the enclosed city.


A wall that had protected the city well from invasion and pirate attack. Perhaps it was also in some strange way this same wall that had kept Cartagena safe from the effects of the bloody civil that had ravaged much of Colombia in the past. Life in Cartagena went on fairly much uninterrupted during this period of civil unrest.

Michael decided not to have anything to eat as he was still worried about his stomach, He also was virtually falling asleep at the table. I ordered my food. Ate a delicious meal and soon we were on our way back to the Pousada. Passing a doorway we heard wonderful music. I said to Michael that the music sounded live. Michael as always took the negative option and said it was recorded. Curiousity got the better of me and I ventured into the doorway. Sure enough I was right and there against the wall was a Band playing the most glorious Music. Soon we were inside the Bar enjoying its surrounds and the music of the Band.

Listening to the traditional Columbian/Cuban Music took Michael back to his childhood in India and he was very overwhelmed. For me I had always had this fantasy of listening to Columbian/Cuban music live in a strange foreign place close to the sea. Tonight was a special night for us both. The magic of the music and the night surrounded us. We floated back to our pousada on an absolute high.

It's All About Altitude

We woke early, Michael feeling a bit sick and myself a blinding headache. A couple of Panadols later and we were at breakfast. Before we began our morning tour of Bogota.

One of the guys from the Hotel was going to give us a private tour of Bogota. This was a good idea as we had limited time and would not have to endure the arduous rigour of a group tour where people take hours unloading and reloading. We also thought we would not have to waste time looking at things that would not interest us. This was certainly going to be the case with the gold museum ( boooooringgg)!!.

Driving through the neighbourhoods of Bogota we noticed how the city was on the move. Lots of construction and revivals of old neighbourhoods. Our first stop was in the old part of the city

We wandered around admiring the beautiful old buildings and enjoyed the spirit of the neighbourhood. Dogs resting in the shade, Old people quietly chatting, young children playing contently.





The next place on our agenda was the Fernando Botero Gallery. One of Colombia's finest artists and a national Icon. Boteros work celebrates an exaggeration or “fattening” of people. His works salute those on the chubby side of life with dignity and humour. He predominantly used two mediums, painting and sculpture. Some of the sculptures reminded us of friends back home.


Next stop for the day was the Plaza de Bolivar which houses the presidents house, The Mayors house and the most famous of Colombian Churches the Catedral Primada(you know the one you see in every tour brochure of Colombia.



We marvelled at the shear size of these structures as we avoided the flying pigeon's and machine guns through the main square. Security in Bogota is extremely tight with the Presidents house in such close proximity, the zone we were in had an even higher level of military presence than we had become accustomed to on the streets of Bogota.

The President is one of the few political leaders in South America that lean to the right of the political agenda. He has a no nonsense approach to security and the eradication of lawlessness is high on his agenda. Colombia now rebuilds, democratically, after years of tyranny, corruption and a bitter civil war.

The Gold Museum was the next place for us to visit. We entered and very soon realized this was not a place for us. Hundreds of people peering into glass museum cases. We could not see anything. We exited so fast that we would have left “Miss Speedy” in a wind tunnel( It was outside after our rapid exit that we started to feel our hearts beat fast, and a weird breathlessness. My head began to throb and Michael was feeling more queasy than ever. Yes we were feeling the effects of Altitude.

Sitting on a seat in a square outside the Museum we rested and watched people going about their daily business( I just love to People watch).
Feeling a little better from our “workout” at the Gold Museum we ventured back to the car for a trip to “Monserrate” A mountain that dominates the city centre of Bogota. On top of this mountain is a Church and monastery accessible only by cable Car(for tourists).

The Queue for the cable car was long but soon we were on our way to the top. At the top we were greeted by a sandstone path that was to lead us to the church and the monastery. We were now well aware to avoid another “workout” so we tottered up to the church like two old pensioners. We were spellbound by the beautiful view. Bogota lay outstretched before us.

We inspected the church and the Monastery and marvelled in their majesty. It was at this point at the highest altitude that either of us had ever been to. That we really fell under it affects.



My head began to throb, Michael was now feeling a lot more that just a little queasy and both of us were feeling dizzy,(but both us have been referred to as dizzy queens before). We made a slow snail like retreat to the cable car and descended to a lower level and a quick return to the hotel.

At the hotel Michael became more ill. He lay in bed sleeping as if he had some sort of weird drug. I did some writing after taking another panadols and decided to tint my beard. It was at this point ( as I was trying to trying to turn back time and halt some of the years of ageing) that Michael zoomed past me giving me an almighty bump on the way. As he had to make it quickly to the toilet.

In nearly 30 years of togetherness I have never seen him so sick( Its usually me with the expertise in vomit and diarrhea) He was desperately ill. I decided to call a doctor.

The doctors arrived promptly and within minutes Michael was being diagnosed. The conclusion was that he had a virus. Nothing to do with Altitude.

Wilson, one of the staff at the hotel went and got Michael's prescription medicine. What outstanding service. He promptly returned and Michael began the treatment.
Michael had been given a needle by the the doctor and lay fast asleep. I laid there wondering if Michael would be well enough to make our early morning flight to Cartagena. Being the eternal Optimist I thought everything would be OK.

Goodbyes, Piranha on Plane and Kangaroo Paw on Balcony

Radio Colombia
Goodbyes always come too quickly. Especially when you know that the friends that you are fare welling will not be with you for a long time. This was deep in our mind as the Brazilians(Our Dear Friends) arrived at our hotel to take us to the airport.

Once again we all piled into the "little black Peugeot" that had served us so well and were on our way to the airport praying that it would not rain.

Sao Paulo is known as the city of rain and as we had experienced over the last few days. The problem is the drainage in this city is so poor that every time there is a deluge the road to the airport gets flooded.

Thankfully the rain held off and we made it to the airport on time. We said one final goodbye to our friends and started our search to find the AVIANCA check in, for our flight to Bogota Colombia. Thankfully we did not have to endure another Aerolineas flight( at least for the time being).

Slowly we passed through check in ( after all we were in Brazil ).Then made our way through customs where a loud mouth british person was complaining about not being able to take liquids on board. Where had he been been living? Had he not heard about the plot to blow up six planes simultaneously en route from Heathrow to various American Cities using liquid explosives?
What a stupid man. The Brazilian customs officials smiled and extracted the liquids from the mans clasp. Then they made jokes about how stupid the man was. You could imagine Australians having the same reaction to such stupidity and also making jokes. Humour ties Brazilians and Australians together.

As we sat at the gate lounge_6 I surveyed our fellow passengers. Just making sure there was no "Shoe Bombers" in sight or other suspicious characters. My eagle eyes came to the conclusion that all was OK. An announcement came across that our flight was ready to board and there was that mad rush to queue before boarding. I never quite understand this mad rush, its not as if there wont be a seat, but then I thought back to the "Aerolineas Experience".

Seated on the plane we were ready to enjoy the "Avianca Experience", we had already noted a number of key differences between it and Aerolineas.

Firstly there was an air of professionalism, the plane did not look like it was about to break into a thousand pieces at any moment and the flight attendants were elegantly groomed and under the age of 40. Positively youngsters compared to Aerolineas.

Avianca Flight AV86 was ready to take off and on time. Such a welcome change from the Aerolineas never on time approach to aviation. Take off was smooth. We rested for a bit. Exhausted from our go go go days in Sao Paulo. We awoke just as breakfast was being served. A very curvaceous and beautiful flight attendant was coming down the aisle quickly flicking trays of food to passengers. She was so fast she left her colleagues on the other side of the plane performing the same task about 14 rows behind.

One of the things I liked about the "Avianca Experience" was the flight attendants came in all shapes and sizes. Obviously there was no "Stick Insect" recruitment policy here as there are on so many other airlines.

It was at this time that I began to observe the other flight attendants, as miss speedy flung the breakfast tray at me. Coming up slowly on the other side trapped in the wind tunnel that Miss speedy had left behind her was this odd looking flight attendant.

Now look I don't want to be unkind but this poor woman now struggling against the vortex of wind looked like well..... a Piranha. You know high cheek bones, swept back hair, beady eyes and gnashing teeth. (I thought there was an obedient silence from the passengers on the other side and now I knew why they were scared).

An astropolis adult, a noisy child, a crying baby could all be stopped with just one look from flight attendant Piranha. I thought to my self what a good idea to have a person of this calibre on board keeping the badly behaved in check.

If only we had this sort of quality flight attendant on one of my recent flights from Singapore to Barcelona then I would not have had to put up with the collection of unruly passengers.

We doze again and woke to see miss speedy heading towards us armed with more food. We know this is not Aerolineas( They actually feed you on this airline).

Avianca is a good introduction with its professionalism and friendliness to what we hoped to be a good trip to Colombia.

Quickly we were cleared through customs after being interrogated for about 5 minutes as to our intentions in Colombia( No I am not a relative of Pablo Escobar)

The airport had a little bit of a "police state" feel to it. It reminded me a little of Athens circa 1969 when as a small child I remembered the armed military presence that greeted me all those years ago, machine guns clicked and ready to go.

Bogota airport is ordered Kaos. We began our search to get money and find a taxi. We did both and were on our way to the hotel.

Within moments we felt we were somewhere unique. We could already feel the friendly spirit of our driver and the music on the radio was Colombian and free spirited, not some turgid America Pop singer worbling away as we had found to be the case in Brazil.



Pulling up outside our hotel we were greeted by the staff and ushered to our room. We opened the door of our room to climb a spiral staircase to where we would sleep.

Our room was beautiful, crisp with modernity but not sterile and a terrace balcony with a direct view over the Andes. On this terrace sat a little round pot with a beautiful Kangaroo Paw Plant( Native to Australia) in full bloom. How nice was this. We felt in high spirits.

We now had the task at hand of trying to cash the dreaded America Express Travellers cheques. After touring most of the surrounding Cambios and a visit to CitiBank we were getting a negative response. Finally we went to the bank of Colombia. There we came across one of the friendliest and most professional bank tellers any where in the world who also spoke English and informed us that they do cash them but the teller who is authorised had just gone to lunch. Mind you this was 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon. I thought to myself that's dedication.

We were informed to come back just before 4pm. We did and the authorised officer called us down. After much paper work and being finger printed we had cash in hand ready for our time in Bogota.

The staff left a lasting impression of how friendly and professional they were. This was fast becoming a feature of the Colombian people as the staff at the hotel were also naturally friendly and very professional.

We went back to the hotel, had a rest and went out about 7:00pm to the main shopping restaurant precinct. We quickly looked through the shops which we were a bit over after Brazil and went for dinner at a nice restaurant. Later we strolled around the neighbourhood listening to Latin music coming from the bars. We really felt like we were somewhere truly different, Truly Magical