My canine carry-on, Coco from Cartagena -- how did that happen?

Meeting Coco at the Cartagena airport

I started volunteering at an animal shelter when I spent a few months in Belize in 2014. At that time Judy & Beth, whom I met when they picked me up at the water taxi dock, brought me to my house-sit, and then said to me on leaving, "We'll pick you up at 8 am tomorrow; we're going to the shelter to walk dogs." Um, ok. I like dogs. I like to walk. I like to volunteer. Works for me!

Since then, every visit to Ambergris Caye has had me at Saga Humane Society getting weekly quality time walking some of the most lovable & adorable pooches around. And my consciousness was raised so that I also became aware of Cartagena Paws, an organization in another country I visit often, which helps the all too numerous street animals in that city.

Both Belize's Saga Humane Society and Colombia's Cartagena Paws work not only to help abandoned animals, but they of course want these dogs & cats to have forever homes too. Many times those willing & best able to adopt pets live in the US or Canada, and so the critters lucky enough to be adopted often need help getting to their new homes. This is where travelers like me (& you?) come in handy!

Packing for a Purpose with donations!!

When flying from the US to Belize or Colombia, I usually bring an extra suitcase filled with Pack For A Purpose donations for the local community. That leaves me "light handed" on my return to the US, and so it was a no brainer to volunteer to be a pet escort. Cartagena Paws happened to have the perfect fit for me this trip -- my first opportunity to serve -- as puppy Coco needed to get to his new mom in Maryland at the end of June.

Coco, his four brothers & their mom had been found in an abandoned lot, obviously neglected and in need of help. They all received medical care, vaccinations, etc, and ultimately found families in the US; there were a number of different flight volunteers in June flying them to California, New York, Massachusetts, & of course Maryland.

I met Coco & his foster dad (& foster terrier brother!) at the airport the day before our flight, so customs paperwork could be processed. I volunteered to foster Coco for his last night in Colombia so we could bond a bit before our long travel day -- what a cutie! After getting a huge number of licks from him at the airport, Coco followed my every step in the apartment. I would be at the kitchen sink and he would lie at my feet; if I went the two steps from there to the refrigerator, he got up to follow me; of course if I was sitting anywhere, he needed to be curled up next to me. Adorable!

On travel day, Coco happily got in to his pet carrier, where he would be spending most of the next 11 hours (poor guy!). He was a jewel -- slept nearly the whole time and there was never a peep out of him. We cleared security twice and I carried him with me through the scanner while his carrier went through the X-ray machine; Coco didn't even try to wiggle out of my arms. Because of a customs delay on arrival to Fort Lauderdale, we had a very tight connection and so the poor pup didn't get a potty break but still no complaints (or "accidents") at all!

When we got to Baltimore, my first concern (after meeting his new mom!) was to get Coco outside & out of the carrier so he could do his business; it had been a long day! We went out to the sidewalk and opened the carrier; Coco walked out, looked around, but was seemingly so overwhelmed by it all, that he walked right back in to the familiar & curled up in his carrier. Poor guy!

Coco with his new brother

Coco is now in a loving home in Maryland with two boxer siblings, having the time of his life. A happy ending for Coco!

Now I know that there are some who are probably wondering about a couple of things, as I have heard & had these questions myself.

Aren't there dogs & cats in the US who need to be adopted? Why are we flying in animals from other countries as pets? I volunteer with an SPCA in Maryland, which is always looking for families to adopt their animals, so it is ironic that I have brought a puppy from Colombia who was adopted by a family in Maryland. But I have also heard from friends that it can be much more challenging to adopt a pet in the US. Adopting overseas could be a faster & easier process for some, funnily enough. Others may feel more inspired to help a dog or cat from another country; isn't it great those animals too will also have loving homes? I thought there were good balanced arguments for both sides about this here. One of the 'against' arguments calls for "dealing with the causes [of stray animals], such as neutering, animal control, and owner education." Definitely in agreement and Saga in Belize, and other groups also, do this as well. [2019 note: Cartagena Paws has also started a spay/neuter program.]

Shouldn't we be helping people rather than animals? Shouldn't we be helping both? And in some ways by helping animals, you're helping people too. Belize's Saga Humane Society, for example, has an education program visiting schools to teach kids how animals should be treated & cared for (animal abuse is not uncommon, unfortunately). And by teaching these kids compassion for animals, they learn more about compassion in general, with the goal of having a more compassionate society overall. [2019 note: Cartagena Paws is fundraising towards an education program also.]

Other thoughts/comments welcome!

Interested in being a flight volunteer for a pet? You can read more about it here. There is a list of organizations around the world looking for flight volunteers here, although it is a limited list; there are definitely more such groups out there, including:

*South America: several in this post
*Belize: Saga in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye
*Mexico: Tails of Mexico and The Ranch in the Lake Chapala area
*Costa Rica
*Turks & Caicos
*Thailand: Soi Dog Foundation; there are two Facebook groups (one here and another here) for those flying from Thailand to anywhere in the world, although mainly to Europe and the US/Canada.
General flight volunteer needs in this Facebook group.

*Shenzhen, China: Karuna Rescue (needs flight volunteers out of Hong Kong)

Learn more about Cartagena Paws in this Colombia Calling podcast!

A Delicious Night in a Colombian Jail

I have always been a bit curious about Cartagena’s women’s prison, located within the Old City walls just a half a block from the trendy Plaza San Diego (and a block from where I lived while teaching here). I have walked by the jail countless times, often seeing small signs of the women’s lives through the bars on the second floor above — sheets tied up to block the strong Caribbean sun, clothes hanging to dry, a hand of someone presumably gazing out at the sky above. The depressing sign above the entry states visitors are allowed Saturdays & Sundays, entering between 9 & noon and leaving by 3 pm. All a stark contrast to the charming architecture & Caribbean colors of most of the rest of the UNESCO world heritage site.

Reports state that the prison was built for 50 but now houses 180+ and is to be moved from its highly sought after (& high priced) walled city location; it is steps from the luxury Hotel Sofitel Santa Clara and numerous $$$$ restaurants.

"I believe in second chances"

Despite this potential imminent move of the Carcel de Mujeres de San Diego, Restaurante Interno opened its doors late last year and not only adds to the culinary offerings of the Old City, but is a prison rehabilitation program as well. It provides practical training for inmates so they have marketable skills upon release, plus funds other prison projects improving conditions & prospects for the inmates.

I was finally able to check out the restaurant last night & it was a delicious, while at times humbling, experience! The food was good and the setting pretty, despite the seemingly (although given the circumstances understandably) unwelcoming nature of the restaurant entrance -- a locked metal door which is opened and closed by a guard. The servers wear t-shirts that say "I believe in second chances" and plated food is passed to them from the kitchen through slots in a gate.

Top chefs donated recipes and helped train the women to prepare and cook them. A prison garden and bakery supply the restaurant, as well as provide additional training opportunities for the inmates. Those who work there earn (limited) funds to send home to families. Segundas oportunidades is written on the entry wall to the restaurant and referenced on the t-shirt backs of restaurant staff; "second chances" are being offered for these women.

For more information on this Cartagena restaurant, see the brief story on their site and also an AP article here. A quick search found similar type eateries in Italy & Britain too. Should you find yourself in any of these areas, give the restaurants a try! And maybe there are more? Please comment if you find one!

P.S. For those who are curious as to what the inside of the Cartagena women's prison looks like, see photos I found on Facebook here. 2018 update: video footage from the restaurant & inside the prison can be seen here.

Need your luggage fixed? Recommendation for you here

Ah, I’m back “home” in Cartagena for a few weeks. It’s been fun reacquainting myself with the maze of Old City streets, drinking tropical fruit drinks, eating coconut rice, catching up with people, watching the Caribbean fisherman, and sweating in relishing the heat….

But more on all of that in a later post. What I may be most thrilled about is that I brought here with me two suitcases which had been deemed throwaways and they are now back in full working order!!

Excuse the “country dropping”, but while traveling in Europe last year, I used my sturdy Rick Steves roll aboard suitcase. In Spain, the rubber tread came off of one of the wheels. “Ay perdone señora, but I am sorry, that cannot be fixed” I was told at repair shops I visited. No biggie; I dealt with the crookedly rolling bag. 

In Italy, while running from one train to catch another, one of the suitcase “feet” fell off. “Mi dispiace, signora, no repair possible.” Now I had a bag that stood even more lopsided—if I forgot to stand it up by a wall, the bag was on the ground. Could be dangerous should an unsuspecting toddler walk by; I need to do something.

In the U.S., a call to the Rick Steves store said replacement wheels and feet were not available, but they’d be happy to sell me a new bag. “But it’s still functional!”, as a London friend of mine said. She was right….why are we often told that the best way to "fix" a broken item is to replace it? I knew just where it could be fixed: there are guys in Cartagena who have a street workshop right in front of the ATM I always used.

Fast forward to now and my spur of the moment trip to Colombia. Not only am I here to update myself for my vacation rental work, and all the reasons above, but another goal was to get my bag working like new again!! I had brought along my sister’s “unfixable” roll aboard as well. Sure enough, went to my former bank & right in front of that I found Luis & his father, working away. A day later I had two fully functional rolling carry-ons.

So my recommendation to you? Come to Cartagena for sure — it’s a UNESCO world heritage site well worth a visit, easy to get to, & the exchange rate is currently in most tourists' favor. But as a bonus, bring your broken luggage along with you, visit Talabartería Luis & head home with a “new” bag!

Luis's father told me he has been working here for some 40 years!

They fix luggage, briefcases, purses & leather paintings. Located in front of Davivienda bank on Panama St

Still here...!

Ah, it's March, must be time for my annual blogpost. Yes, I have turned into not much of a blogger, eh?! But I'm still here, in the "south" (ie, Latin America)!

As a brief update:

I spent basically all of 2012 & 2013 living in Cartagena, Colombia, where I taught English at the Centro Colombo Americano. It was the first time I'd ever taught & I really enjoyed it; I'm also glad I had taken the one month intense ESL teaching certificate program (CELTA) in San Francisco before I left there--it helped a lot.

At Ciudad Perdida with niece Carolin & friend Luisa!

I was able to travel quite a bit in Colombia, both with friends (some living in Colombia, some who came to visit) and solo. It's a hugely diverse & fascinating country -- I highly recommend it! Just to mention some highlights: traveling with Spanish friends who live in Colombia (& whom I met during my junior year in Madrid 1981-82); when my "German niece" (from the family I lived with in Germany in 1978-79!) came to visit & we did the 5 day Ciudad Perdida hike with friends; and also when my sister & her 11 year old son visited me in Cartagena--my nephew said it was the best week of his life. I love being an aunt! :)

What 11 year old (& 50 something year olds!) wouldn't love a mud volcano?!

Surprisingly, there was so much to see & do in Colombia I didn't venture much outside of that country, beyond trips back "home" (which could mean a few places) for special events. But I did get to Peru for a couple of weeks--Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley are all that they say it is and more--and Ecuador for a month. While in Ecuador last July, I volunteered for two weeks on the coast in the fishing village of Puerto López, helping with a Spanish reading program in elementary schools, an after school kids' club, and teaching English.

When I decided that I was ready to move on from Colombia (after all, my 6 week stay there turned into over 2 years!!), I decided to go back to Puerto López to volunteer again. So here I am for a couple of months! I'll be moving on again soon, but perhaps I'll be back to Ecuador. I haven't yet made it to the Galapagos & that is definitely on my list.

And no, I haven't turned independently wealthy. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to help out with some vacation rental apartments, something I can do totally online. I started doing this with some apartments located in Cartagena's Walled City in 2012, and a few months ago was able to add on renting out vacation condos in Ambergris Caye, Belize. Check out my webpages, always works-in-progress:

www.VacationRentalsCartagena.com

www.Vacation-Rentals-Belize.com

The current plan is to travel more while maintaining the "rental business" thanks to the internet. Know anyone planning to visit Colombia or Belize? Please share my links! :)

Will try to make sure it's not another year before I update things again...meanwhile, I'll catch you on the road! (in Latin America? Europe? the U.S.? Who knows!!) Let the adventure continue.....Hasta pronto!

Teaching an English class on the beach with a fresh tropical juice in Puerto López!

Reading with kids in Puerto López!

Chocolate, flowers & kisses!

It's International Women's Day! Who knew? I never heard about it much I don't think before I lived in Colombia, but it's widely celebrated here. And it's today! I got chocolate, flowers & kisses (ok, one....on the cheek) from students. Not bad.

Here are some of Cartagena's celebrated women (many thanks to This is Cartagena for some of these photos):

La India Catalina: now a well-known symbol of Cartagena as well as Cartagena's International Film Festival, she was an indigenous woman kidnapped by the Spanish in the early 1500s from this area. Twenty years later she returned with the Spanish and served as an interpreter in helping to pacify the various tribes here. There is of course a bit of controversy surrounding her. Wasn't she really just a traitor? Did she really look like this statue--tall and slim--while all the other indigenous people were short an stocky?

La India Catalina stands right outside the old city walls, and just about all local city buses pass by here. Poor Catalina, she's normally looking out over some kind of urban transport chaos!

Gertrude, a sculpture by famed Colombian artist Fernando Botero, is more commonly known as "La Gordita", or "the fat woman." However, subjects painted and sculpted by Botero are not fat, but "voluminous." Gertrude is displayed in the Plaza Santo Domingo in the heart of the old city, a great place to have an evening drink at one of the many outdoor restaurants. In the maze that is the Old City, she's also handy to use as a place to meet (everyone can find her) or as a way to give directions: "If you're in the Plaza Santo Domingo, follow La Gordita's feet and go a block, then turn right."

"Noli Me Tangere" says this woman facing the location of Cartagena's old port. This is Cartagena roughly translates it to, "Back off, pirates! I've got this covered." :) Not bad, not bad. In colonial times, Cartagena stored a lot of the Spanish empire's riches and was often the site of enemy attack.

La Palenquera statue stands along the waterfront outside the old city, with the Bocagrande Peninsula in the background. As mentioned in previous posts, the women of Palenque, a pueblo outside of Cartagena originally founded by escaped slaves, have become a symbol of Cartagena. They wear brightly colored dresses and sell fruit and sweets carried in large bowls on their heads throughout the walled city.

Above is Maria, the aunt of one of my students, with my mother and me in January. Those bowls are *heavy* and the women normally carry them on their heads...I don't know how they do it!

Feliz Día--Happy Women's Day!

Bocachica Revisited

Our group led by our fearless guide on the left!

Last weekend was a holiday weekend (Dia de la Raza, aka Columbus Day in the U.S., was celebrated on the Monday) and the occasion to return to nearby places I'd already been to but wanted to get to know better. San Basilio de Palenque was one place; Bocachica and the Island of Tierrabomba was another.

I really wanted to go for a long hike on the island but at the tourist office was told that wasn't possible. But then I learned that the parents of one of my students was from Bocachica; I told her that I wanted to go on a  l o n g  hike, like from one end of the island to another, and asked her if it could be done. She said of course and arranged for someone to lead us.

Bocachica Foto by Norell

So, 8 of us (3 Colombians, a Colombian-American, 2 Yanks, a Mexican-American, & a German; love the international groups!) met up on Monday morning at 8:30. Of course the trip to Bocachica was only 20 minutes by boat, but for a variety of reasons, we didn't get there til 10:30. This is Colombia! 

Fort San Angel Rafael

We met our guide, German, at his home. He is a native of Bocachica & is involved with an organization that's working to preserve the old Spanish forts & ruins on the island. He was really informative & a very nice guy. There are 1600 people who live on the island in 4 small communities, all very poor. What is happening though of course is that the wealthy (individuals and companies) are buying up some parts of the island & during the course of our day we all of a sudden came across an area where there were luxury homes & hotel like places right on the water. What a contrast. In addition, the Colombian government owns some of the land there & a naval base, currently located on some prime real estate in Cartagena's Bocagrande area, will be moved to the island in the near future.

BATS!! Foto by Norell

German started out by taking us through the town of Bocachica, up a hill to a fort called San Angel Rafael. The fort had a really nice view all around, had been restored about 12 years ago, & had an escape tunnel that led down to the beach! We didn't escape. We entered just the opening of the tunnel and encountered BATS which was kind of creepy, although three of the local girls who followed us in to the fort had no qualms about going through all of the tunnels that we had been a bit nervous about. After enjoying the history & the view, we wandered down to the other fort that I'd already seen during my last trip. I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to see new parts of the island or get my long hike in, despite the fact that German had said a few times "get ready to WALK!" I didn't need to fear...

Blowhole!

Once we left that other fort, we started to really hike. We went all along a black coral bedded coast and passed some other old Spanish defense battery ruins, a blowhole where water at times shoots up to 10 meters high, as well as luxury homes. It did seem a little disconcerting how the luxury homes contrasted with the houses in the villages; it was apparent, too, that the fences built around these homes that reached nearly to the water had blocked off paths that previously had been used by the locals. But the coast was gorgeous....

After lunch & a quick dip for some, we started heading inland and up. This is the rainy season on the Caribbean coast, which means that (normally) brief but heavy rainstorms are fairly frequent. We connected with the one road (dirt) that went across the island, which of course was very muddy due to the rains. A few people on motorcycles were coming at us from the other direction and were having a hard time getting through; the smart guy on the burro had no trouble at all though!

We're going to get muddy!

Our goal was another small village on the "Cartagena" side of the island, from which we'd see a view of the city and be able to get a boat back home. We made it there at about 5 pm, 7 hours after we started. One of my fellow hikers from Cartagena said that it was the best hike he'd ever done. We were muddy and sore, but it was really good, beautiful, and interesting. 

From where we had arrived, we had a great view of the Cartagena skyline. In the foreground, just below where we were standing on Tierrabomba Island, you could see the very humble homes that people live in, then came the bay, then the luxury high rises of Cartagena. The discrepancy is always shocking. Wikipedia cites a World Bank study saying that Colombia is "among the most unequal Latin American countries in terms of wealth distribution" and a recent article in the local paper said that the GINI index (which measures wealth inequality) had risen by 10% in Cartagena in the past 16 years. That inequality was glaringly obvious to me this weekend.

Compare: homes in the foreground with those in the background

I got my hike in, but got a lot more too.

For more photos of Bocachica and Tierrabomba Island, click here.

Cannons, Carriages, Chivas, Carts & "Cometas"

The cannons are a great place to hang out!

When I look out of my apartment, I have a direct view to the top of the old city wall. Of course, being the protector of Cartagena, the wall was armed with cannons, some of which are still there. The last part of the wall to be built was called "Las Bóvedas," 23 large vaults originally used to house military while protecting the city, but which are currently nice craft shops. My apartment is not far from Las Bóvedas, a popular tourist destination, and so I often get to hear the clip clop of the horse carriage tours that people take in the walled city; hearing that you could almost imagine what it might have been like when horses were the only mode of transportation. But then along comes the next popular way to tour Cartagena: the Chiva party bus with their music & cheering party people. Sure, I did a "Rumba en Chiva" during the November Parties last year but hmmm....never thought about the people who lived along the route :). Well they end by 10 or 11 so it's not really so bad, and they definitely DO sound like they're having fun!

Clip clopping towards Las Bóvedas

Beyond the clip clopping and the "rumbas", there's a lot more street life to listen to--the fruit & vegetable vendors pushing their carts and calling out their goods and prices (papaya! papaya! a mil a mil a mil a mil!); the newspaper guy telling you what paper he's hawking; the guy pedaling his pedi-cart selling rolls who bangs on the metal top to let you know he's there; there are actually different types of vendors who have different patterns of "banging", but I've yet to successfully differentiate one pattern from another--I need to pay better attention! I do, however, have my basket ready with a rope tied to it. When I hear someone coming by selling what I want, I can now go to the balcony, call down, negotiate the price, pass down my money and bring up my purchase. Haven't done it yet, but I'm prepared!!

Let's go fly a kite!

And it's kite season!! There are tons of "cometas"to be seen out my window recently. There have always been a few but it seems to be more lately. I had noticed them across the wall but it never occurred to me to see where the kite party was really happening til I noticed another friend's blog post about it. So I went out a different way & lo and behold, there was a huge kite party going on! I need to alter my route more so I don't miss out on stuff like this!

More kite flying photos here.

I'm in a horse carriage here!

Bocachica...and ghosts??

Last weekend I visited Bocachica with some friends. This is a small village on an island in the Cartagena Bay, just a 15 minute boat ride away. There's a small but nice and uncrowded beach here right next to one of the forts that helped protect Cartagena from the enemy: the French, English, Spanish, and/or pirates, depending on what point of history we're talking about. The San Fernando Fort was built on Terrabomba Island just at the opening of "Boca Chica", or small mouth, through which ships could enter Cartagena Bay from the Caribbean Sea. On a small island on the other side of this passageway, the Battery of San Jose was built. A large, heavy chain was strung between these two structures which was used to impede passage of those they didn't want entering. (There is also "Boca Grande", or big mouth, but that entrance had been blocked at one point accidentally via sunken ships and at another point on purpose in order to more easily protect Cartagena; it is still blocked to large ships.)


This weekend I finally visited the Naval Museum of Cartagena. There is a TON of information there on the history of the Spanish coming and taking over the land; Cartagena as a principal stop on the trade route between the Americas and Spain; Cartagena as a principal slave port for the Americas; and the intricacies of what was going on with the various European crowns, i.e., who was marrying or not marrying whom which caused or stopped the various wars (which also affected what was happening in the New World of course). In addition, they talked about how the fortifications were made, and one of the ingredients in the walls is horse doo doo, how can that be?? And just to add a little spice to the museum visit, it's haunted! I had read about this in the local paper a few months ago and there were displays telling about the different paranormal visitors: there's a ghost who often pushes people down the stairs, a couple who roam the upstairs balcony, a headless pirate who's been seen at the helm of one of the ships, and more. I didn't sense any of them during my visit, but perhaps I should go back at night..... :)

More photos from Bocachica can be seen here.

Here's mud in your eye!

At the castle

San Felipe Castle viewed from Manga, just outside the old city

I took advantage of my former TNT colleague Frances's weeklong visit to do some things I hadn't done at all or since my initial visit to Cartagena 3 years ago! Not only does Cartagena have a 400 year old wall that encircles the old part of the city, there are also various defensive forts around the city leftover from colonial times. Frances and I visited the famed San Felipe "Castle" where I learned that George Washington's older half-brother Lawrence had been among the British troops that attacked this fort in 1741. He was there as a colonist who had volunteered to fight with the British navy, led by an Admiral Vernon. Later, when Lawrence inherited a Virginia estate, he renamed it Mount Vernon, after this admiral whom he admired. We Yanks now know Mount Vernon as George Washington's plantation home. Funny how surprising connections like this one come up; who would have thought there was a connection between Cartagena and Mount Vernon?

Enjoying a typical lunch at Playa Blanca: fish, coconut rice, & fried plantains

But I digress....back to the fortifications! This castle is readily seen from various points in Cartagena. It truly is impressive all of the huge walls and forts that were built around this city. I'm working on visiting more of them as well as learning more about their history.

We also took a day trip out to the Rosary Islands, a group of 27 islands which apparently from above look like they are linked together like a rosary. It is a protected area with some good snorkeling. We happened to go on the one day in the 6 months of my stay in Cartagena that it was cloudy (and it even rained), so the visibility for the snorkeling could have been better, but still it was good seeing colorful fish, coral, and touching a sea cucumber (icky feeling!!) . We then spent a few hours on a nice beach out in that direction, Playa Blanca, which was jam packed for the three-day weekend. Who knew that so many vendors could be around offering you so many things...jewelry, water, food, there were even "bars" in wheelbarrows; they'd make you a cold drink in nothing flat. Coco Loco, anyone?

Just floating....

The next day was the ultimate in Unique Things to do Around Cartagena: a dip in a mud volcano! The Totumo Mud Volcano is only about a 40 minute trip outside the city but I hadn't yet been; a group of us went and it was pretty surreal. You are literally floating in what they say is an over 2500 foot deep pool of mud. You have the option of getting a brief massage while floating on your back (& then your stomach, keep your face up!) and can then hang out in the "bath" as long as you like. Later, they wipe you down as you get out and then you hop into the lake to get cleaned off, with the help of local women if you like (who are very aggressive in getting you cleaned up, your suit doesn't stay on with them!!).

And I did get mud in my eye. My advice is: don't! (Although the people at the volcano are experienced in helping you get it out should it happen....still, it's sore for a few days!)

We are avatars!
(Which one am I?!)

More photos can be seen here.

How you may be treated when you come visit me in Cartagena! :)

President Juan Manuel Santos at the Film Festival opening.

As my college friend John can attest, you will be treated EXTREMELY well when you come visit me in Cartagena.

First, I'll make sure that your hotel room has a bathroom so large that everything echoes off the tiles. And you'll certainly need a second bathroom of that very same size in that very same hotel room just in case there's a problem with the first one.

Then of course I'll make sure that Isabella Rossellini & dreamboat Gael Garcia Bernal are staying in your hotel. I'll make sure that Gael wanders around the garden lobby a couple of times while we're sitting there having a drink, too, just so we can admire him. Juan Manuel Santos (the President of Colombia as we all know) will have lunch at the very same restaurant as you and he will speak that night at the opening of the Film Festival. You'll be sitting a mere 100 feet from him, as you can tell from the perfect photo above.

You'll want to be sure to invite me to the exclusive International Film Festival of Cartagena party, because with my excellent Spanish I'll order drinks for you. The vodka on the rocks you asked me to order for you will come with juice in it. Your next drink, which you really want to be a Johnny Walker (& which was requested of the waiter), will be a vodka on the rocks. But at least without juice!! You try again for a Johnny Walker only to be told by the waiter, with the help of my excellent Spanish, that they don't have any, so another vodka on the rocks it is. Finally you go up to the bar yourself & use your own excellent English & sign language and return with a Johnny Walker.  (As a side note, there was never any error in the drink orders I made for myself. Also in my defense, the great salsa music was very loud so hard to hear anyone talking, much less ordering drinks! :)

As compensation for my poor ordering abilities, I'll score for you a mojito popsicle.

And if you complain about anything, those torture instruments from the Spanish Inquisition come in handy…..

In the Museum of the Inquisition

In front of John's hotel in the old city

Of course, it helps if you a US film producer invited by the Colombian government to get this kind of treatment when you visit, but I'll certainly do my best....! :)

Hasta pronto?!

Teacher, Teacher!

That's what they call me: "Teacher." A student wants to ask a question: "Teacher, what does this mean?"; they see me in the hallway: "Good morning, Teacher!"; they see me on the street, "Hi, Teacher!" When I was doing my course in San Francisco learning how to be an English language teacher, many of the students there also called me "Teacher", but I thought it was because there were so many student teachers who changed every day and they couldn't remember our names. Of course now I realize that for most of those students, that's how they would address a teacher in their home countries. Here in Colombia it's customary to call your teacher, whether high school or college/university, simply "Profesor" (for a male) or "Profesora" (female), or "Profe" for short, so English language students will just translate that and call their teachers "Teacher." As we're teaching US culture as well as the English language, on the first day of class I told the students that in the US in a school like this they would likely call the teacher by his or her first name and they are welcome to call me "Barbara", but very few actually do.

I'm getting used to the "Teacher" moniker, although sometimes I wish I could call them "Student" because there are so many & it's hard remembering everyone's names! And many of the students' names are not "typical" Spanish names like Carlos, Maria, Sergio, Juana, etc.; there has been a trend in the past it seems (from the ages of the students) 20-30 years in Colombia to name kids with "different" (often taken from another language) sounding names, the famous example is "Usnavy" as a name, ie, U.S. Navy & pronounced "Oosnavie." I don't have anyone by that name in my class, but it gives you an idea. "Lady", often spelled "Leidy" or made plural and with an addition, such as "Misleidis" or "Yusleidis" is another example of how a word in another language has been taken and made into a name. Or there are different spellings of "foreign" names, such as Deisy, Jhonathan, or Brayan, or brand names (Westinghouse, Freixenet) become first names.

Beyond trying to learn names (which I've successfully done in my current classes, but class groups change every four weeks), the first two weeks of classes have gone fine! I'm teaching two beginner classes and one advanced; with the beginner classes I sometimes use Spanish but not with the advanced. So in one respect, teaching English is not that great for my own Spanish learning, but I'm learning more and more each day about teaching and about the English language. In a truly geeky way (that my mother and friends Dave, Lisa, and Maureen, among others, will especially appreciate), I love learning all the "whys" of English grammar as I prepare for classes, figuring out the answers to students' questions, using various resources and my Spanish knowledge to try to anticipate what their questions will be, and I hope to fascinate you all with these details someday when you come visit or when I next visit you!! :)

The Centro Colombo Americano is the white building on the left with the US & Colombian flags. The old city wall is straight ahead and the Caribbean Sea just beyond that!

This coming week is the Cartagena International Film Festival here, the most important film festival for Latin America. A Hamilton College friend has been invited to participate so I look forward to seeing him & getting an insider's view of the Festival!

More photos of the Centro Colombo Americano in Cartagena here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No, Thanksgiving's not celebrated here, so no turkey, parades or football for me today! But lots to give thanks for. I spent this morning in La Boquilla, a disadvantaged community by the beach about 10 km/6 miles north of Cartagena's center. It's amazing the difference--you ride the bus along the coastal road, and just past the international convention center, expensive apartment buildings and fancy hotels, the bus takes a left turn into another world. Here most of the houses are mere shacks with many people and multiple generations sharing one small home. I only get the very briefest of glances into the houses as I walk by, but it's incredible the discrepancy in the standards of living. The people in the highrises, if they are on the "right" side, have views from their balconies that give them a bird's eye view of how the other half lives.

The playing field attached to one of the schools.

I've volunteered at a school in this area a few times painting, serving & helping little kids eat their lunch, playing with the kids and teaching English. The hot noontime meal that they get at school is key for them. At this one school they're given uniforms also, which may be their best set of clothes. Despite it all, these kids seem very happy (see the photos below!), although I know I am not even scratching the surface of what their daily lives are like. You can get a better view of what life is like for the kids and families in this area via these 6 short (2-3 minutes each) videos on "The Beach Children." There are also few more photos of the kids and the area here. It truly makes you thankful.

A few kids finishing up lunch; this kids in this school range in age from 1 to 14. The roof in this open-air area is made of dried palm branches; it's amazingly good at keeping out the heavy rains!

This week, through a friend who's donated a lot of his IT expertise to this place, I connected with a community organization which is, among other things, working to help the local population develop marketable skills. For example, this morning I observed a class where about 25 adults were learning to set a table properly in order to work in a restaurant. The group has also set up time in their computer lab for locals to come for several hours in the afternoons to take free government sponsored online, self-paced English language courses. Each day next week I'll be to be the "go to" person in the lab to help answer any English-related questions while they are there taking the course. While a poor area, it is located on a beach that is frequented by locals and international tourists alike, and of course the convention center and hotels are nearby. So learning to speak English is an important skill to have, and having the computer lab--with highspeed internet!--available right in their community provides them with the access to these free classes.

Kids fooling around with the camera.

My Thanksgiving dinner will be fish, not turkey--I am on the Caribbean Sea, after all! But appreciating you all and how lucky I am.


Happy Thanksgiving!

I live in a maze

The fruit here is amazing!

The old wall not far from my apt

Something you might unexpectedly run into

While Cartagena is the 5th largest city in Colombia and has nearly a million inhabitants, most of my time has been spent in the historic center of Cartagena, which is probably an area roughly 3 miles around. Much of the old city is circled by the Spanish fortress wall from the 17th & 18th centuries and packed with narrow streets filled with people going about their daily lives, tourists gawking, street vendors hawking their wares (a lot of crafts, t-shirts, etc, to foreigners, as we are abundant here; but also fruit, guys carrying around thermoses of Colombian coffee, candy, sunglasses, the cell phone minutes mentioned previously, and other things to everyone), and the ubiquitous yellow taxis. There is always life in the streets--great people watching, great things to see. As most people don't have air conditioning, the house doors and windows that face the street, although gated, are often open to let air in. It means you have often perfect views of the sitting room & beyond, which as a observer I love (although would probably not like being on the other side as much). While this old town is a relatively small area, after 4 weeks here I am not always 100% sure where I am or if I'm heading down the right street. The streets change names *every* block, even though it is (in my mind at least) still the same street. This means that for the most part, people don't say what street something may be found on, they'll say instead what it's near (the Cathedral, x store/restaurant/bar, the Plaza Bolivar, etc). I'm still figuring out where the important landmarks are and am getting so that about 90% of the time I'm actually going the way I want to go, but it's fun getting lost in the maze and still discovering new things.

The bits outside of the walls that I have ventured out to are mostly adjacent to the old town. There are two small peninsulas to the south of the old city, Manga and Bocagrande, which are mixed residential/business areas with a lot of new buildings. Walking along the water in those areas also gives you great views of the bay and the Caribbean, depending on where you are.

And heading north from the old city (& I'm sure other directions as well), I've seen some mixed areas--some suburban type residential areas, but some also very poor. This photo was taken not far outside the old city wall, showing some of the really squalid housing some people live in. And imagine what it's like during the heavy rains. The various sections of Cartagena are given numbers, 1 through 6, depending on the relative wealth of the area, and your number determines the cost of various services (water, electricity, etc). The center of the walled city is designated a "5", the second highest/wealthiest, and these shacks on the water are a stone's throw from that wealthy area...I wonder if this area even rates as a "1." I've also been volunteering in a poorer community north of the city; more on that in a future post.

For more city shots, click here.

Mas fiestas!

Towards the end of the Independence Day Parade

And the parties continued...! I realized only after my last post that the kids (mainly) covered in blue (chalk), black (motor oil?!), etc, ask people for money & if they don't get a coin, threaten to  throw paint or chalk on them or hug them (& thus "color" them). It's basically meant to be all in good fun. For a couple of the people I asked if I could take their pictures in exchange for the coin "donations". The guy above right is wearing a traditional Colombian hat called a "Sombrero Vueltiao", which, if one of the real hand made ones, is a true work of art. The group on the left all assembled themselves for the photo after I asked just one of them for a picture. Anything for fun! I still am not sure why I saw on a couple of different occasions grown men walking around dressed like babies: in humongous diapers with pacifiers. Will have to figure that one out later. A lot of people were covered in splotches of white powder, too--in addition to selling huge cans of spray foam (shaving cream-like) all over the place, vendors were selling boxes of cornstarch too -- the weapons of choice for the Fiestas Novembrinas!! :)

I must say that despite several days, well, nights, actually, of seemingly straight mayhem (and fun), the old town cleans itself up pretty well. Each morning the cans, boxes, cups, etc, that had been strewn around the previous night were for the most part gone.

Getting ready for the next street party; these smart people on the corner are charging for bathroom use!

The real reason for the parties: statues of the revolutionaries and flags of Colombia and Cartagena.

After days of dodging shaving cream, cornstarch, and "colored hugs", it's back to reality tomorrow--the parties are over (for now!). 

For all of my Fiesta Novembrina photos, view the slideshow here.