Gracias Colombia

Holidays are tough when you're abroad.   I miss being with family and friends the most during this time of year, so it's important to remind myself of how special our life is here. In light of the Thanksgiving season, I decided to make a list of the things I'm thankful for while living in Colombia.  There's a lot to be thankful for. Here's the list in no particular order:

1. Mountain views while biking to work.

View of the Farallones on my Friday bike ride to work. 

2. Having a classroom that essentially allows me to work outside all day!  I've had cats, birds, spiders, and squirrels wandering my room. One day I even found an owl perched on my desk!  I'm not sure I could ever go back to having a classroom with walls.

 3. Views like this to hike to on the weekends.

4. This adorable and terribly spoiled cat.

5. Shopping beers.  Most grocery stores have coolers full of individual beers scattered around the store so people can enjoy a beer while shopping.  It sure makes shopping more fun. 

6. Fresh FRUITS and VEGETABLES for CHEAP!

We got all of this for less than $5. Look at all those limes!

 7. COOL BUGS!

Found this guy on a tree in our apartment! 

Transparent butterflies! 

8. Learning salsa! Although we've got a lot of room for improvement, we are to the point that if ANY music comes on, our hips immediately scream "salsa!"

9. Fritanga everywhere!!!  AKA Fried food!  Empanadas, papa rellena, patacones, yuca frita...our health doesn't thank us but our stomachs do!

Aaron getting some empanadas for a pre-climbing breakfast! 

10. Ciclovida!  Every Sunday they block off streets from 8am-1pm for walkers, runners, rollerbladers, and cyclists.  There are vendors along the way selling fresh juices and large vats of sancocho de gallina (a chicken soup unique to this region of Colombia) cooking over street fires. Perhaps the best part are the rumba (dancing) stations along the way where people young, old, male, and female literally bring David Bowie and Mick Jagger's lyrics alive:

It doesn't matter what you wear,

Just as long as you are there

So come on, every guy, grab a girl,

Everywhere, around the world

They'll be dancing, dancing in the street 

Stopped for a fresh zanahoria-mandarina (carrot and mandarine orange) juice along our bike ride! 

The Magic that is Cartagena...

Entrance into the walled city.

Cartagena.  A place where Gabo's magical realism is alive and well.  A place where appetites of all kinds run wild.  A place where the pulse of Colombia is felt on a spectacular level.

Aaron and I headed to this popular tourist destination over Semana de Receso in October to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary.  Cartagena proved to be the perfect place to wander and simply bask in each other's company.  This isn't our usual kind of adventure trip, but it sure was a nice change of pace.

We stayed at Casa Baluarte, a simple yet stylish accommodation in Getsemaní--about a 10 minute walk from the Old City.  It included breakfast and air conditioning (the latter being an absolute must in Cartagena). We certainly weren't used to the heat and humidity--poor Aaron came back each day with sweat marks in places we didn't even know people could get sweat marks!

Ready to explore!

We spent the first day strolling the perimeter of the walled city.  When I say strolling the perimeter, I mean literally walking on top of the 4km fossil studded wall for most of the way around.  The majority of the wall provides a stunning view of the Caribbean. The sea breeze offers a much needed respite from the horrendous heat. Of course, it also helps to grab cold beers and a hat from the countless vendors along the way to cool off, too.

Enjoying the sea breeze!

Ya, apparently that little lookout was now a makeshift bathroom. Needless to say, Aaron didn't stand there very long.

Local soccer game next to the wall with the modern Cartagena in the background. 

Aaron was really excited about all the coral and fossils found in the wall.

People nestled themselves into every nook and cranny in the wall. 

Watching the rainy sunset in one of the nooks.

From there, we wound our way up and down the colorful colonial streets and "oooohhhed" and "ahhhhed" over the vibrant colors and gnarly flowering trees which seemed to grow perfectly out of the cement up to the balconies which twinkled pink, purple, and blue.

Typical view of the Old City streets.

Someone put some clothes on her!!

Lots of cool street art.

The teenager in Aaron always seems to come out when we see a Botero statue.

Now, let's talk about the most important part of Cartagena--the ridiculously good food!  Because we live in Cali, we eat a lot of Colombian food. Therefore, we were on a mission to find anything that we can't find in Cali.  Ceviche, Patagonian lamb, Peruvian lomo saltado, Thai curry, kabobs, and real beer! We literally walked around for the sole purpose of finding the next delicious thing to eat and drink.  It was fantastic.  I think one night we literally had 4 dinners.  Here are a few of our favorite places to check out!

La Cevicheria: Probably the most famous ceviche place in Cartagena. It certainly lived up to the hype--we came back twice! 

Ceviche Peru: A more budget option to La Cevicheria in Getsemaní and, dare I say, pretty darn close in taste. Aaron had the ceviche and I had the lomo saltado--both fabulous.  

Marzola Pariilla Argentina: We stumbled upon this place and the outside caught our eye. It's eclectic, delicious (I mean seriously, they serve grilled bread with chimichurri when you sit down), and efficient.  We will be back! 

The Beer Lovers: If you've been living in Colombia and only drinking Poker or Club, you really deserve to go sit in this air conditioned pub, eat some peanuts, and drink a Duvel.

After galavanting around the city for a day, we decided to head to the beach.  We had heard mixed reviews about the beach in Cartagena, but everyone we spoke with said the islands surrounding Cartagena have stunning beaches.  We took an hour bus ride to an island called Baru which is connected by a bridge to the mainland.  You can take a boat or a bus, but we had heard the bus is more reliable and it was a preventative measure as Aaron tends to get sea sick.  We spent the day on Playa Blanca.  It was a beautiful white sandy beach dotted with restaurants and hostels offering umbrellas, coco locos (coconuts full of a questionable mix of alcohol and delicious coconut milk) and fresh fish lunches (mas o menos 35,000 pesos per person).  We followed the advice given and walked far down the right side of the beach to avoid the large crowds, found ourselves an umbrella (30,000 pesos for the day), and exhaled.  A lot of blogs you read say that you should only go if you are going to spend the night because the beach is less busy, but I would argue that unless you are a real beach person, a day trip is the way to go. It's a nice way to get out of the city and break up a city studded visit to Cartagena.

Relaxing on Playa Blanca.

Before: "Which one would you like for lunch?"

After: SO delicious!

 There could definitely be worse places to read for grad school. 

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Cartagena.  For tourists, it's much more English friendly than other places in Colombia.  For expats, it offers luxuries we can't get in Cali.  We will be back!