Off Delay: Bogota and Cartegena Arrival

Lightening flashes from a friendly visiting correspondent on blog watch.

About Bogota

  •  ~7 million mostly kind and friendly souls living on a semicircular mesa/plateau at 8600 ft
  • Easy to spend lovely days exploring cultural treasures
    • Botero museum. Dedicated to and donated by Colombia’s most famous painter, who explores the fullness of life via full-figured people, objects, and foods.
    • Museo Del Oro. Lonely Planet lists this as a top Bogota destination. Bump it up to a top destination. Tens of pre-Colombian gold and ceramic works and how the kings, queens, and shamans of both genders used them. Outstanding. 
    • Saturday market. Near the business apt where we stayed. Stalls of foods, junky chachkas, and original handicrafts.
    • Fresh fruit, fruit juice, and food stalls. You can get fast REAL food here. Yum. 
    • Monteserrate. Mountaintop destination for the Catholic faithful. Take a small train to this hermitage from the 1500’s rebuilt over time. Visiting on a national holiday finds the church filled with families and tourists quietly soaking in the sanctity.  
    • A much safer city than reputed. Basic rules: Don’t get into taxis unless pre-ordered. Pre-order a driver for longer trips. Travel in pairs on local buses. Make sure the armed security guard is around when using the ATM. Don’t do anything stupid you wouldn’t do as an obvious traveler anywhere else in the world.

About arriving

  • Getting on On Delay requires jumping onto the gang plank. 
  • On Delay is gorgeous. And a different way to live. Imagine a rocking decked-out tiny NY apt on the water. Guests get about 3 ft square storage for daily living stuff.
  • First rule: One hand for you, one for the boat. Stay attached to something all the time so you don’t end up in the drink.

About other stuff you might wonder about

  • Jane, Tony, Gayle, and Pete are extraordinary individually and as a traveling band. 
  • Life with the band is an origami of time and space. Respect, good communication, humor, and patience are keys to good citizenship.
  • Colombia (spelled with two O’s) is emerging from a rough patch. The security guards, police, national army guards are on watch to ensure safety and promote peace.
  • People in Bogota were kind, generous, pleased to respond to une poquito espagnol, and very proud of their country. One often sees the yellow, blue, and red flag on clothes, cars, flags. Pride and optimism are in the air.

 

6 thoughts on “Off Delay: Bogota and Cartegena Arrival

  1. Wow! One of the best posts yet. What an intriguing summary of life and activities. I could’t even imagine what c O l O m b i a was like before. Now I have some pleasant thoughts about the place AND I know how to spell it.

  2. First response from fellow traveler and partner of Wren- we are having a blast! Despite my usual fear of altitude, high places, claustrophobia and of course some calamity like robbing- everything worked out in Bogota. From the first sparkle in Jane’s eyes upon my arrival, meeting up with Wren, Tony, Gayle and Pete for one of a bunch of great meals, to the artist Botero’s chubby people, to the beauty of the hilltop Montserrat church it was great. Arriving in Cartagena was crazy as the temperature and altitude went upside down compared to Bogota. I am still scared going down the gangplank but the two handed helpers on either side have given me the confidence to not fall in the drink! Haven’t seen any pirates but there was a pirate ship sailing past this morning.

    My interactions with the people of Colombia has been awesome- they have been kind and positive despite my poor Spanish- we both make the effort and have succeeded in coming together!

  3. Awesome post! So glad the world is so networked you’re managing to find bandwidth to keep us up-to-date on your most wonderful adventures. And very glad everyone is staying safe & well. Sounds like a marvelous experience was had by all!

  4. You realize there is a bit of a cognitive dissonance between “…a much safer city than reputed” and the list of “Basic rules”… One gets the impression that, if it was AS safe as reputed, you would have had to wear flak jackets and carry automatic weapons.

  5. Great blog! Looks like another addition to my long travel wish list! Thanks for sharing.

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