A long day with near disasters, and a new day with street dogs

In our trip from NYC to Colombia little went as planned. We left the apartment to face the 18 degree New York morning before 5 am, and as we rolled into JFK we came to an unsettling realization...Our flight left from LaGuardia not JFK. Hurriedly, we grabbed the first cab and made it to LaGuardia in time to purchase a sandwich and board the plane. Our pockets a little lighter from the mistake.

Second flight.
We thought everything was going according to plan, but as we exited our plane in Fort Lauderdale we heard the final boarding call for our flight to Cartagena. Again we rushed through the terminal and just made it. We just had to skip the lunch that we both badly needed, and Spirit Air serves no food and makes you pay for everything (but at least the tickets were cheap).

Cartagena.
When we arrived in Cartagena, there was a nice breeze as we approached our immgration agents. [f] had no problem getting the 60 day visa when she explained our plans, however I was not so lucky. The agent refused to give me a 60 visa and instead gave me the inadequate 30 day visa. Likely, it´s going to cost money and time for me to try to get this fixed. After we left immigration our ride was waiting for us, but instead of taking us to our hotel, they hurried us out of the car at our homestay, which we´re not staying at until next week. After about an hour of iced tea and awkward confused conversation, our host got us a taxi and we finally arrived at our hotel. Completely overwhelmed by our new environment we dazedly found our way to a suitable restaurant where we enjoyed our first Colombian-made meal of Vindaloo indian chicken, and housemade german sausage...We both slept soundly and trusted that tomorrow would prove more relaxing and enjoyable then the day we had just been through...

Hola- as they say here. It´s day two of our stay in Cartagena. After a thorough night´s sleep, we woke up ready to give it another go. Our hotel provided a simple but pleasing breakfast of bread and fruit so we were able to start our day off well. Our goal for today was to orient ourselves a little better to the somewhat unusual street structure, and to find our language school in prepartion of our expected 8 AM arrival on Monday morning. We were able to easily work our way to the other side of town this time, and succeeded in finding our way back just as easily, with the occasional detour for camarones (shrimp cocktails- not the tiny little U.S. shrimps), and ferral dog watching (they all seem to be at various states of pregnant and nursing, which isn´t surprising as the male dogs´ bits are huge). We haven´t seen any cats yet- I imagine the heat would make any sane cat promptly commit suicide. For lunch we headed to the Cafe Mulatta where we enjoyed a starter of fish-part soup (we each got an eyeball, a couple of fins, and a lot of bones). We lucked out with our entrees. Our language skills are pretty minimal (non-existent for me) so ordering food is still somewhat of a challenge. 

We´re spending our afternoon back at the hotel, and plan on heading to Plaza de Santo Domingo this evening to catch some of the festival happening this weekend. Tomorrow, we plan to take in the beaches for a little while in Boca Grande- and maybe find a wi-fi hotspot.

Finally a post from the other person involved in this thing

I've decided to knock one more thing off my to-do list before leaving the country, and add my voice to our blog. [m] and I arrived in NYC yesterday evening, after spending several days in Sonoma in an attempt to acclimate Henri to his new surroundings (as of this moment, he's in the beginning phases of snuggling his new doggie roommate Chance, and is no longer exclusively hanging out in the hall cupboard). We spent our first day in NYC in Manhattan visiting the Met, wandering through Central Park, looking at stores, and eating at the Beard Papas (they've all closed down since last year with an exception of one- damn economy!). We left Manhattan empty handed, and headed back to [m]'s sister's place, where she fed us lasagna and cake (incredibly good lasagna and cake). And now we're up late, watching TV and playing board games. We've yet to fully decide on our activities for tomorrow. We may go to another museum, but the weather's supposed to drop quite a bit, and we're not fully prepared. Also, I'm finding the constant swooshing of my nylon travel pants to be unnerving in the quiet of museums, so I may prefer to stay in louder environments and try not to think about the many well dressed people surrounding me, wearing narrow, stealthy, cotton based pants.

On Friday, M and I will be having another very early morning, as it will take us nearly 2 hours to wind our way under NY to JFK where we'll be catching our flight to Cartagena. Regrettably, I haven't listened to a single one of my Spanish tapes, so I won't be able to ask for any one's telephone number, or proclaim that I am single for at least a few days. I'm not sure why the Spanish instructions feel the need to cover "how to hook up in Spanish" in the first lesson- but maybe it will become apparent once down there. At this point, I'm just hoping to be able to find food, and also hoping that our hotel and host family both have air-conditioning.

Horrible weather, fantastic cat.

I-5 south was closed due to snow. Instead we were forced to drive from Portland to Sonoma via Crescent City and Hwy 101. It took 16 hours, half of which was in pouring rain, instead of the usual 11 hours.

And while the drive definitely was not a lot of fun, Henri managed to take it in stride, he never complained once, and avoided making any kind of mess or disturbance. At least now I know that our cat can handle long car rides.

Graduate Applications Completed

As of this weekend, all of my graduate school applications are complete. Thank you to those who graciously provided recommendations, for I would have no chance to progress academically without your help. And while I have my definite preferences, at this point all I can do is wait and see what kind of offers, if any, come back. So as I anxiously await the results, I remain optimistic and excited about the opportunities ahead.

One of my prospective professors gave me solid advice, it was to forget about grad school for the next few months and go enjoy myself in south america. So that is exactly what I intend to do.

A few days closer...

It's unemployment week 2 and the bags are pretty much packed and ready to go. We're traveling in South America for 4 months, and I'm pretty happy that we'll both manage to have backpacks that come in each at 30lbs, 40L (including sleeping bag, small entertainments and books for the journey).

A few more days in Portland and we'll tape the final boxes closed, load up the cat, Henrik, and embark on the 11 hour drive to CA. Undoubtedly this journey will leave all of us angry and sick, but hopefully not too covered in cat vomit and feces.

(the new picture in the title bar is Cartagena, Colombia)