When John and I met, I had just moved to his home town in south Alabama from the Caribbean and Argentina. He had never left the country nor flown in an airplane. But we got along like two peas in a pod and soon we were hanging out all the time. About six months after we started dating, my family moved to New Zealand. Yes, I know, but please hold the questions till later. We were only in New Zealand for three months before heading back to Japan where we were going to revisit our “hometown” of Nagayo. My sister and I had spent our childhood growing up in that small town outside of Nagasaki.

As My Mother Frantically Yells "Which One Is Mine?!"

We were the only foreign family in the neighborhood, my dad worked in a Japanese company, and my sister and I went to the local kindergarten and elementary schools (except for the two years where Mom home schooled us in English as we were in danger of forgetting). While there, John decided to make his first overseas trip and visit me. He got his first passport, bought his first plane ticket, flew across his first ocean, and navigated through three Japanese airports on his own.  Not only did this experience open up John to a whole new view on the world but it also allowed me to experience something I had almost forgotten, the absolute thrill of experiencing a new place for the first time!

A Ninja, what more can be said?

Just another normal day in Japan...

Keep going, the top ten tips for staying a happy team/couple coming right up!

After Japan my family moved to Cebu, Philippines for about a year where John came for a visit as well. Hop & Jaunt never would have existed had not the most convenient of coincidences happened! It just so happened that when my family moved back to the States, the town we moved to was only an hour and a half drive from John’s college town. So as history shows we picked up where we left off, not without a few awkward re-introductory conversations. Ever since then, while at university and while toiling away at our first real jobs, we talked about how great it could be if we could go traveling together. And as you can see from this blog, we finally did embark on not only a trip but a whole new lifestyle!

Since last April we traveled together for 8 months, that’s roughly 240 days, or some 5,760 hours within reach, sight and smell of each other! How did we do it? And more importantly would you want to do it? Would we do it again? Yes we would, and here are ten tips for a happy trip before, during, and after with that special someone:

Tips For Traveling Couples (or for people that spend an exorbitant amount of time together)

#10: Make Sure You Actually Like Each Other

Cannot over stress this point, there is nothing more fulfilling than sharing the best time of your life with your significant other while traveling. But there is hardly anything worse than finding out you can’t stand each other three weeks into a sixteen month round the world trip with ticket already purchased. That may be an extreme case, but trust me; you’ll be spending most of your waking (and sleeping) moments within inches of each other. That “cute” habit he/she has better be cute, because your partner’s little tics are going be magnified over and over again. But the same applies about that weird thing you do. So have some patience with each other, and make sure you like to spend time with your partner before heading out into the sunset.

#9: Agree On Your Traveling-Lifestyle Before You Go

Make sure you both have a good understanding of how you’re going to travel. The budget would be a huge factor in this issue but so is each partner’s personality. Are you a couch-surfing, backpack toting, not a hot shower in sight type of traveler? How about your partner? Or are you more into seeing the sites with swank and style with a cocktail at the rooftop club for a night cap?  Is your partner not happy unless their “doing” something every waking moment? Or is chilling at the cafe by the plaza all day suit them fine? Being frank about your expectations for your travel life-style is a biggie. I’ve seen some unhappy spouses either being dragged around or trying to drag around their partners.

Living The Good Life...We Named The Mouse Jenkins

#8: There’s Two Of You: But Not Everything Has To Be Doubled!

One of the not so pleasant aspects of traveling together is that you’re paying for everything twice. Specially if you’re already at the stage where it’s all just one account anyway. Things can add up quickly. So when you get a chance to get two for the price of one, you’ve gotta jump at it. Yes, we can share that American sized dinner! And this fugal planning applies not only to deals on the street but for how you pack as well. While you need to both pack your essentials, you also have more space if you share. You only need one medical kit, one clothesline, one camera, one laptop, and one set of shampoo-conditioner. While if you were alone you would also need the same things with two people you get extra space for some more goodies. But do bring your own toothbrush…

#7: Don’t Forget The Couple Shot!

When traveling with a partner it’s easy to get your picture next to that amazing site. It’ll be my profile pic! However, don’t overlook the obvious; get someone to take your picture together! I know that sounds dumb, but trust us, when we got back from our trip with several thousand photos and we were to be interviewed they requested a photo of the two of us on a boat. Well we did spend 7months of the trip on a boat, and we have several hundred of either one of us on a boat…but did we have a couple shot? No.

One Of The Few "Couple" Shots We Took

#6: Make Some Friends!

Meeting new people is one of the best things about going to new places, however many couples have a hard time “meeting” people when they are together. Make an additional effort to open up and talk to new people, and keep your jealous tendencies at bay. The good thing about part of a “couple”  is that it already takes off the whole social pressure between gals and guys. You can start making friends without thinking too deeply about every comment they make. Other couple friends can actually come in handy in places where it may not be wise to roam alone, you just pair off and let the girls go do their thing and the guys their own. We knew of two couples that both traveled with kids and they had it worked out perfectly where they could swap off kids and spouses depending on who needed to get away. Some nights the ladies watched the kids and hung out, other nights the girls would hit the town while the guys watched the kids. Or when a couple needed a night out on their own, voila instant baby-sitters! All I am saying is don’t let the fact that you’re both together keep you two from making new friends. We’ve made some of the best friends in our life while traveling.

#5: Space, Give Me SPACE!!!

There are times in a person’s life when you just need to be alone. These times could be for emotional and mental reasons, or it could be for very practical ones like going to the bathroom. Either way when traveling together, especially in a new area it’s natural that you spend the time together. After all, that’s why you bothered coming together, right? Try adding quality alone time in to your routine. John is a morning person, and to put it extremely light I AM NOT. So many mornings John would have his alone time just because I was “out” sleeping. Or on the nights when the insomniac in me re-surfaces I get hours of alone time when he’s out. The only down side is that John has no problem with waking me up after he is done with his quality time!

When We Had The Balcony This Would Be The "Quiet" Spot

We'd Take Turns!

#4: Learn New Things Together!

The whole fun of traveling with a partner is to share the experiences together. While at home most couples have their own hobbies and things “they do”, while out of your normal habitat learn something new together. Whether it be a new language so you can both navigate the country better or a new sport that you’d never think about trying back home. Not only will you have a shared experience but something you can keep sharing together long after the trip may be done. John and I took windsurfing lessons together and had so much fun laughing at each other just trying to stand up. Eventually we got to where we were trying to race around each other, and that’s more fun when you’ve got friendly competition!

#3: Plan Together Then Delegate!

The planning stage is exciting. You’re researching all the different things you would like to see and do. You’re making plans and saving, you have a million things to take care of before the day. This is where having a partner can be so great. You’ve both got different skills and temperaments, think like a pro-team and start lining up your strongest players for the different tasks (don’t ask me which sport I am referring to here, people it’s a metaphorical metaphor! Just go with it.) I’m more of a “big, over-the-top, the sky is not even close to the limit” type of dreamer and planner, while John actually lives in the real world so he’s just naturally better at planning the more mundane, ahem, detailed tasks.

#2: Don’t Forget To Date!

Sure you’re together 24/7 and you feel like you can hear his/her thoughts in your head, but step back and take the time to be a ‘normal’ couple. Make sure you budget to be able to splurge on date nights once in a while. There’s nothing more refreshing than getting a bit spruced up and dining out at a nice restaurant, or to watch a new movie with air-conditioning, or to just get a room at a swanky hotel that has running hot water to re-kindle the spirit and your relationship.

A Horse Drawn Carriage Ride Is A Good Date Night Option!

Or a Lobster Dinner Right On The Fisherman's Porch!

#1: Laugh, A Lot, Even At The Worst Of Times!

Traveling, exploring, and experiencing new sights and sounds is supposed to be fun, or why do it? Don’t forget your sense of humor at home. Traveling is not always exciting, it can be downright horrible at times. Things go wrong, it’s difficult at times, and it can become very stressful as well. When your alone you have to deal with these emotions too, but if you’ve got a partner you can share the burden, so do it! Realize that it’ll get better and find something to laugh about, it’ll make the otherwise tedious moments fly by!

John Ride Around On His Red Macho Scooter Still Makes Me Laugh!

I hope that these traveling couples tips will help you and your partner not only weather the hard times but to enjoy the best of times together happily ever after! Happy Belated Valentines!

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John and I have been back since Christmas and we’re staying at his family home in Andalusia with his parents. We are not sitting around watching TV though, we are starting on phase II of operation Hop & Jaunt world domination via friendly fire! Long name but basically it means we have finally found the cojones to start a project we’ve always dreamed of doing: starting our own design and advertising business. Initially a home business but hoping to take make virtually anywhere with us with the power of the internet! The goal is to be location independent and to try and make money online as much as possible. We’ve always been designers, both of us having been caught doodeling on our notebooks since grammar school. Until recently we just thought we needed to be “grown-ups” and have a regular office job with an actual paycheck, insurance, and a commute, preferably with a cranky boss or two thrown in. It was while we were out that we had a chance to meet other designers , bartered with our work, dabbled in freelance, and slowly but surely realized that our parents were right, we were pretty good at this. Most importantly we realized that we CAN do it. So starting this year we have made concrete steps to open up our own free-lance design shop and on-line business! Our ultimate goal is to become our tagline:
“traveling designers.” Setting up shop where ever our laptops plug in, preferably in tropical climates but we’ll start one step at a time. 2010 the year that shall Hop & Jaunt!

Current Office Of Hop & Jaunt: Aly Planning The Next Adventure During Break! Don't Ask Why There's Milk AND Wine On My Desk..

We're Back In America

For those of you who have been following our blog for a while you might recall that the first sailboat we were on, Quercus, was my parent’s sailboat. We had met up with them in Grenada and sailed together through the Venezuelan Islands to Curacao. While in Curacao they sold Quercus and headed back to the good ‘ol U.S. of A. Once I get a hold of our old photos I will introduce you to my family but let’s just say for now that my parents are one of the original adventurers, having sailed, lived, and traveled around the world for the past 25+ years. My parents bought a small wooden boat in the middle of the Pacific, and in 1986 when I was two and my sister was still in my Mom’s belly they packed their suitcases for the first of a thousand time.

In the Micronesian Islands, Carolina Islands, on a small remote island called Yap my sister was born. She was the second white baby to be born there and the first white girl, there was a French missionary boy born there some decades earlier. From there they sailed to Japan, where a short visit turned into a ten years. Argentina, Caribbean, New Zealand, Philippines, and another three sailboats and fifteen years later they find themselves in South Carolina. Mom is an avid and very talented photographer and she’s got some amazing photos from the Caribbean and around the U.S. on her website here.  My father is now beginning another new adventure, where he will combine his business savvy and never ending wealth of knowledge about everything sailing, cruising and boats to become a yacht-broker in Charleston, South Caroline. So all of you future world cruisers, you know where to go to get started on your own adventure on the high seas!

Here's Donna! Aly's Mom

Skipper On Watch

s/y Quercus

One Of Our Favorite Pics By Donna!

All the photos were taken by Donna (except for the one where she’s in the photo of course, but it was taken with her camera!), check out her mouth watering photos from the Caribbean here.

The travel bug is infectous, and once you catch it, it’s in your system for good. Many have become expats after their first taste of the world around them. My family has lived in roughly a half a dozen countries while I was growing up, other travel bloggers I know online have also chose this lifestyle after not being able cure their wonderlust. Abby Tegnelia left Los Angeles to live in a small beach side town in Costa Rica where she is a writer for over 15 magazines as well as for her fun blog, The Jungle “Princess.” Freelance writing is a popular, if not extremely difficult, method to have the freedom to live where and how you like. Many popular travel bloggers and writers never seem to be in the same spot for more than a min. before their off again! Matt,  from Nomadic Matt and Craig and Linda from Indie Travel Podcast come to mind.

Cruisers are a group of travelers in their own category, much like the RV-ers,  as they are able to take their home with them where ever they go. Some are just wondering, others, like our South African friends were sailing for the purpose of looking for land to live on one day. Patrycja and Mikolaj, a Polish couple we met in Curacao had hitch-hiked from Europe to the Caribbean on sailboats and found work until they were able to buy their own little floating home: s/y You-You!

The lesson to be learned is that it’s not really just about the travel, or what you see, it’s about how the combined experiences affect you. You don’t have to cross the Sahara on a camel to change your life (though that would be amazing..), it’s not even about the traveling so much as creating a mindset that opens you to new experiences.

If you are thinking of ,or ever wanted to try, going off into the big blue world for a while, don’t let the doubts about the future put you off. The actions you take to get there will naturally cause the reactions that will open up new doors!

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Let us know what you think, we’re still working out some of the kinks so before we say “I Do”. Are there any objections to this union of the new design and Hop & Jaunt? If so,  speak now or forever hold your peace!

Home page with links to the 3 different sections, featured slider, flickr photos

The Blog Home Page

The post page

The main portfolio page with rotating images from different projects

This is the basic lay-out of our indivisual category portfolio page

This is the idea of the design so far, we’ve got a few kinks still to work out but if you have any suggestions let us know we still have a little time to change!

To leave a comment click on the title of this post, and scroll to the bottom of the article.

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Life Aboard & Abroad

Since we’ve been back stateside, we have had plenty of questions about life aboard a sailboat.  So we’ve decided to answer some of those questions in todays blog by describing what life aboard was like for us.  Feel free to post new questions in the comment area below and don’t forget to help us win a trip to Argentina by clicking here!

Life Aboard:  The Day Begins

The sun is nature’s Alarm Clock.  It happened every morning despite our best efforts to crawl further into the shadows of our bunks.  Still, there was no hiding from the sun once it rose high enough to shine through the open hatches.  But it was a nice, gradual way of waking up.  Nothing like the annoying screaming of my alarm clock now.  But thinking back on the size of my small quarter berth, I don’t think I’ll ever complain about having a small apartment again.

Sleeping soundly in my bunk.

Once we had crawled out of our bunks and had a good stretch it was time for a shower.  Nothing shocks you awake like diving off the boat into cool Caribbean waters.  I miss personal hygiene being this simple.  It was as easy as falling over board.  Since most bathing was done outdoors, modesty really wasn’t a practiced concept in most anchorages.  Eventually, we got used to seeing our neighbors’ bare asses …and having them see ours.

Our morning shower.

Shave Optional:  On days that I deemed a good shave necessary I would shave with a bucket of saltwater and a dull razor.  I definitely don’t miss this.  Its unbelievable the amount of hair that gathers all over the boat.  It was a daily chore just having to sweep it all up.  So it was just easier to do all my shaving over a bucket.  Thats probably why I didn’t shave so much.  And I have no idea how Alyson managed all her shaving.

Next comes a saltwater shave from a bucket.

Transportation:  Life without a car

Its strange.  I love to drive, and I drive a lot.  My ole pick-up truck has covered a lot of ground in the past 10 years, and I would definitely rather drive 1000 miles than fly the same distance.  That being said, I didn’t really miss having a car at all.  As a matter of fact, life without a car forced us to plan better, be more resourceful and more outgoing.  Which in turn, led to new friendships and experiences we would not have made otherwise.

the Dinghy:  Our dry way of getting to shore.  Even though we got along fine without a car, there was no living aboard without a dinghy.

Going for a Sunday Drive

There never seems to be any good, free dinghy docks in the Caribbean.  Most are dangerous, falling apart, or costly.  Even though this one in Curacao was so small, it was probably one of the best kept we saw.  Trying to get a parking spot here on grocery day was a nightmare though.

Trying to find a parking spot.

We always did a ton of walking which we really enjoyed.  Especially since we didn’t have a busy schedule we could take all the time we wanted to explore on foot.  As long as we made it back by sunset.   Even now Alyson and I look for excuses to walk places instead of driving.

Going to town.

Public Transportation in the southern Caribbean and South America rocked! Although we had to learn to be more patient and arrange our plans a little better, it was still a nice way to get around. We survived off the bus systems in Curacao, and the Maxi-Taxis in Grenada are great, but no one could beat the efficiency and cheap prices of taxis in Cartagena.

We have literally spent hours a day waiting for buses.

After months of travel, distance became a relative concept. It wasn’t long before walking miles for even the smallest things became no big deal.

Here we walked nearly 2 miles to get a Cold Drink.

And for those occasions when we needed to cover great distances, we could always rent a car or scooter.  It was on these days that we got the need for speed out of our systems.

Alyson with our rented scooter.

The Bare Necessities

The most basic necessity of life:  Water…for coffee

Every few days (depending on fresh water showers and consumption) was water day.  This meant having to replenish the boat’s water tanks with clean, fresh drinking water brought from shore.  This experience really taught me a lot about the importance of water conservation.  Especially, since I was the guy having to haul all the water back to the boat.  Here I am topping up the tanks.

Doing laundry on a boat is all about how long can you go without having to do it.  Its a hassle.  It takes up a lot of fresh water if you do it aboard, and still doesn’t come out that clean.  And if you take it to the laundry mats ashore you could end up spending a bundle…because you’ve waited so long to do laundry that you have to wash all your clothes now.

For this reason, many sailors prefer to just stay naked when aboard.  Or at the very most they just wear a  swim suit each day.  A few times, Alyson and I were able to do some impromptu laundry during the afternoon rain showers in Curacao.

Alyson drying our laundry.

We get a lot of questions about buying food. We just went to the grocery store and purchased food with our debit cards. The same as anywhere else. Every once in a while, we would visit the open air markets to find new and interesting delicacies. The brown root looking vegetable in the photo below is a Yucca plant, and it tastes amazing when cooked like a fried potato.

Going to market.

We ate pretty well, but most often when other people cooked.  On the days when we felt ambitious enough, we would make some pretty good meals in the galley though (including Hayashi-Chuyuka, Chicken Tikka Masala, and Po-Boy Sandwiches.)

Alyson pulling one of her homemade pizzas from the oven.

We ate a lot of seafood.  Catching fish off the boat is like having a pizza delivered for dinner.  Free food without even having to leave the house.  One of our favorite ways of preparing the fish was Sashimi style.  This eliminates even having to cook it. Bonus!

Fishing with Paul on SunRunner.

Here are three pretty Bonitas caught, cleaned and ready for the cook.

An easy dinner tonight!

And on nights when cooking on board was too much of a hassle, we could just go out to eat.

Going out to eat.

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So now you’re asking me what it is that you want me to do, right? It’s pretty simple, if you have a facebook account just sign up to this fan page and “like” our photo. This is the photo we have on there. That’s it! We need to get over 50 “likes” to win. Thank you in advance for those that give us a boost!

"we need a good lesson..."

Click Here: Bueno, entonces…fan page

Contest Ends This Friday

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But before you cringe let me also say that it has music, and dolphins jumping, and oceans, and an amazing car race with scantly clad women….OK the last part is a lie.

It’s a video re-cap of our sailing journey across the southern Caribbean from Grenada to Colombia, over 1000 nautical miles, 7 months, and 2 sailboats later.

So go pop some pop-corn, sit back and relax!

Sailing The Southern Caribbean from Hop & Jaunt on Vimeo.

It’s also on YouTube if you have a preference.

I think your pop-corn is ready now.

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Untouched Kitchen

It had most of the utencils needed

Nice Design

The truth is that we had grown accustomed to eating the ‘typical’ food of the city at as local a price as we could get them. There was not many meals that we could make that would be as good or as cheap as a Chorri Perro (giant hot-dog with crushed potato-chips, four different sauces, and melted cheese) or bbq chicken and vegetables on a stick, or even a plate of beef steak and potatoes from the street vendors at our local plaza (square).  The truth be told we were quite happy to save our money by going out to eat everyday. We tried street vendors, local lunch dinners, and on a special occasion we even splurged on a five-star night out. Today I’ll take you on a mini culinary tour of the city of Cartagena.

Ironically though we ate out for almost every meal, even coffee was available by waving down a coffee man on the street, we don’t have as many photos of the food as one would think. I guess it felt so ‘normal’ that we never really bothered. But We should have enough to at least  give you a little appetizer.

On of our favorite plazas was Plaza Trinidad, it’s a small community centric area with the church overlooking the square. While it’s a sleepy place during the day with a few men resting under the shade it picks up at sundown as the neighborhood families come out to socialize. There are usually four to six stands that set up here after dark, though it is one of the smaller tucked away squares there are still a couple of sit-in open air restaurants to choose from as well. In fact, some say that one of the best pizza parlors in town is right off this plaza, Antonio’s. We ended up there a few nights as well, and indeed it is very very good pizza, specially considering you could order a large pizza and a couple of beers for around $10. At the plaza your typical evening choices where: beef steak, hot dogs, meat-on-a-stick, fresh fruit smoothies, a grill with the self proclaimed best hamburgers in town, and the more normal arepas, empanadas, and patacones.

Arepas are made from cornmeal and flour :photo taken from La Casana Hostel

Fresh watermelon for a hot day

Lunch Special all this under $5 for two

Typical Colombian Lunch

John loved having steak for lunch!

Our Local Meat-On-A-Stick Lady's Stand

Waiting for Supper

Meat-On-A-Stick-Stand

Cartagena: Plaza Trinidad on a quiet Sunday night

Everyone's inside for Mass.

Neighborhood Mini-Mart, they have everything and more

One afternoon we decided to take Valencia, an adorable and energetic 7-year old that was living at the house with her mother, on a walk with us. Her mother worked nights and was thus tired during most of the day. They had moved to the city from a small town six months earlier, and since her mom worked nights she wasn’t allowed to go to the square alone to meet the neighborhood kids. Because it is so hot here, most of the families bring their little ones out to play at the plaza after sundown. So she had to spend a lot of time inside at the hostel, and thus always befriended the guest. Since I spoke Spanish and am a sucker for little kids we soon became good buddies and would take her to the square at nights to play and make friends. This particular day we thought we would let her come with us on our customary city roam. On days when we had not much going on, we would take the camera and just roam the city. She was so excited, she had not been out of the neighborhood since getting here. She had not even been to the historic downtown, a ten minuet walk away.  So off we went. First we stopped by Plaza Trinidad as there looked to be something going on. From our hostel we could tell that there looked to be a stage being built and banners where going up. When we got there we realized that it was not a stage, but a ring. The local neighborhood boy’s boxing club was having a tournament. As we arrived two boys were getting in the ring. They had the look of utter concentration and determination, each complete with a doting coach rubbing their shoulders and inserting their mouth guards. They couldn’t have been much older than Valencia. The bell rang and BAM! the match started. I was thinking how cute and little they were a few seconds ago but when the match started it might as well have been two three hundred pound professionals out there. The crowd got into it cheering with each punch thrown. The fighters were giving it their all. After a few great right handers by the red corner boy the bell rung and the winner was announced. What impressed me the most was that as soon as the match was over their serious faces broke out into a smile whether they won or lost and both gave each other a sincere handshake and hug. It is always nice to see genuine good sportsman ship.

Boxing Day at the Plaza

Pep Talk from Coach

At the red corner....

At the blue corner...

Are You Ready To RRRRUMBLE??

Winner

I know we got a little side tracked from our food wanderings, but in this city you never know what you might walk into. Just on time Valencia pipes up with what we considered her catch phrase “I’m hungry.” Off we go again in search of food and entertainment for our seven year old buddy, the boxing match would be here all day anyway working it’s way up the to the 17-18yr old gran finale matches.

Valencia getting hungry and bored after a few bouts

As we walked along Valencia announced that she wanted to go to a zoo! Well, we’ve didn’t even know that the city had a zoo…but a park near by used to have a zoo in it. So we walked to this old park that was built in 1811. Walking through this large and shady plaza you could almost see the rising and falling rhythm of the city. The park looked run down and ancient at the same time that you could tell it has recently been renovated and new interest and care is being put into the park. I had a feeling that until recently the park would not have been as nice a place to come as tourist, specially with a child in tow. Now there is a police station in the middle of the park and it is definitely safe during the day and worth the visit. It has many play areas for kids, including a skating track, and it’s not hard to imagine where the cages for the zoo must have been as the path winds around.

The Park is only a few blocks away

1811-1911-soon to be 2011 as well

Timeless Beauty

As we entered an open plaza there were not only food there but there was some sort of food stall competition going on. There was a band playing in the center and in a semi-circle around the band where stall selling traditional Colombian tamales. Colombian tamales are a different from the typical Mexican tamale in that it tends to be larger and is wrapped in a banana leaf.  We selected a table and sat down. We figured since John and I weren’t that hungry yet and since Valencia is such a skinny little seven year old girl that one order should do the trick. We obviously don’t hang out with kids enough, as we completly underestimated how much and how quick a hungry kid will eat! While I was busy snapping a few pics and John ordering something to drink she was already decimating the tamale! John who was now also getting hungry had to grab his fork and start scarfing down. I ended up having to elbow her away to grab a bite!

John and Valencia with the tamale

John trying to get a bite

After the tamale that day we also fed her a corn on the cob, candy, nuts, ice cream, and pizza for dinner. I think she knew that we would be easy babysitters and I bet she dosen’t get away with all the treats normally. But we all had fun, we had even gone over to see the carriage-ride horses.

Valencia and Aly bonding with the horse

Vale loved horses

We ended walking around the city until seven or eight o’clock when she finally she got tired and cranky and wanted to go home and see her mommy.   But as soon as John lifted her up and gave her a piggy back ride she returned to all smiles all the way back home.

On some days we feel like something different and once in a blue moon we will treat ourselves to the finer things in life. Cartagena has many options for every levels of your dining budget. One night I had this craving for Thai food, and after a little googling found that there was indeed a restaurant in town that served Thai. Cafe San Pedro is located right in front of San Pedro Cathedral and it’s patio seating makes for a great view of the beautiful church. The first time we went there Mass was going on inside and you could hear the music and sermon floating through the air. We had ordered Pad Thai and it was excellent with an assortment of seafood such as shrimp, squid, and muscle thrown in as well! Ummm yummy.

Cafe San Pedro

The Patio Seating as Cafe San Pedro

Once in even a longer blue moon John and I will flex our culinary muscles and create our own five-star dinners!

Making Magic

Five Start Treatment

But that was when we were on the sweet luxury yacht that we were boat-sitting. When we were staying at the hostel we ended up hanging out a lot at our “bar”. Scooter’s Pub was just around the corner from us and we immediately liked the cool vibe once we walked in…even if we were the only customers. We ended befriending Manuel, the uni-cycling DJ-ing bartender, and Leo a romantic souled Borat-impressionist. The food turned out to be just like in England…terrible! (Sorry all my Brit friends!) But the atmosphere was great and since the bar was never crowded it became a club house of sorts where we would all hang out and play. It was our version of Cheers!

Scooter Dishes

Scooter's Pub

Manuel, the spinning bartender

Aly Uni-Cycling: did you know I once had one as a kid!

John Trying As Well: He thought it would be easy...ha!

Hop Jaunt Crew & The Scooter Crew!

Well I hoped you enjoyed my meandering tour of eating and playing in Cartagena. Next time I’ll try to stay more on course!

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 The Hop & Jaunt crew explore the largest fortress of the Spanish Main.

Its been nearly a month since we left Colombia.  Alyson and I are really missing the tropically warm climates and bustling city life.  So today we are blogging about one of our favorite afternoons in Cartagena when we visited the “Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas:  The largest Spanish Fortress in the World!”

The fortress is really an impressive structure.  It can be seen towering on its hill looming over the old city and water front.  It’s a massive construction, but it needed to be.  In the days of Spanish Conquisition in the New World, Cartagena was THE major port for exporting gold back to Spain.  That meant that nearly all the gold in South America had to come through Cartagena to make the jump to Europe.  As anyone can imagine, this made Cartagena the jackpot for pirating.  Pirates plundered and attacked the city numerous times.  Most notoriously was Sir Francis Drake, the famed English privateer.  Eventually after numerous attacks and ship loads of stolen gold King Ferdinand of Spain ordered the fortress to be built.

It took over 200 years to build it.

Although you can see the castle from anywhere in town we did have some trouble getting to it.  First off, we didn’t know the actual name of Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas.  We just called it the Big Fort.  So when we got into a taxi cab we had trouble giving directions to the driver.  Neither of us knew the Spanish word for “Fort”.  We drove around in circles for nearly 15 minutes babbling to the driver about how we wanted to go to the “Big, Old, Building”.  The poor guy was so confused.  He kept staring at us through the rear view mirror asking, “Que?”  Finally, I remembered the word Castillo and he instantly knew what we were talking about.  He had a pretty good sense of humor about it.

Entry into the fort is about $5 US dollars and its definitely worth it.  One great way to spend an afternoon in Cartagena is just walking around taking pictures, and the Castillo is a pretty awesome place to explore. 

Alyson camera ready at Castillo de San Felipe. Our photo tour begins.

Guard tower at the corner of the wall.

At the top of the wall, there are several entrances into the fortress.

After climbing the long pathway to the top of the fortress you are free to explore as you like.  There are several door ways which will lead you into the different tunnels and passageways of the castle.  Some tunnels lead to other entry points on the top wall.  Others lead deep, deep down into the dark, damp recesses of the castle’s underground.  Definitely, make sure you bring a flash light.

This place would make a great hideout in the event of a zombie uprising.

Ain't no zombies gonna get me in here.

Down we go into the inner passages.

Into the depths we descend. Notice how steep is the stairway.

The cool dark tunnels are a great escape from the midday heat.

Its fun to explore the ghosty old tunnels.

Alyson has the camera, but I'm taking all the pictures.

The tunnels were designed so that rain water would run down into them via brick gutters along the top wall.  The water in the tunnels increased the acoustics of the passages so that the footsteps of approaching persons can be heard from great distances.  Also so that military orders could be yelled from one end of a tunnel and easily heard at the opposite end.

Check out these videos:

The tunnels lead us out onto a large open expanse of the wall over looking the city.  The view was incredible.  I have to say that I really miss that Caribbean winter weather.

Overlooking the city

A nice view of the city.

Cannons, like this one, surrounded the fort's top wall giving them a near 360 degree area of fire.

The soldiers' barracks...or something like that.

The mighty fortress

Alyson checking the map.

Eventually, we found our way back inside. We decided to explore the deepest depths of the tunnel.  Its rumored that the underground tunnels run all beneath the city.  Hidden passageways, so people could flee a burning city during a pirate attack, lead from the old town to the fort and possibly up into the hills.  I believe they recently discovered an new hidden passage beneath one of the cathedrals within the old city.  We wanted to see what we could find.  I expected the interior of the fort to contain some giant rooms.  Its what I expected from its enormous size, but the most we found were a maze work of tunnels aligned with storage rooms for ammunition and soldiers.  

We sneak away from the crowds to explore some unlit tunnels on our own.

The passages go down, down, down. The air gets stuffy and the temperature drops dramatically.

The underground network of tunnels.

Leading the way.

These ducts for air and water show how far down we've gone.

Eventually, we reached a level that wasn’t intended for tour use.  There were no more electric lights installed and the passage ways were as dark as pitch.  We couldn’t see anything.  We had to maneuver our way through by feeling the wall and flashing our camera every few feet.  It was pretty erie.  We kept wondering if something startling would appear before us when we next flashed our camera.  Definitely, if I go back I will take a flash light. 

One dark tunnel way came to this dead end with some ray of sun light. We literally followed the light at the end of the tunnel.

Eventually, we had to give up our exploration and return to the above world.  The floors of the tunnel were flooded with water up to our ankles and brick work in the floor was less and less stable.  Plus, not being able to see anything was starting to freak us out.  It was kind of a thrill though.

When we re-emerged above we noticed that people were setting up for a dinner party.  The whole fort was being decorated for what must surely be one of the most expensive weddings ever.  A good choice on location though.  Cartagena is reknowned worldwide for its beautiful wedding scenery, and people from all over the world come here to tie the knot.

Wedding Feast

and concert...it must be incredible to party up here at night.

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed.

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It was hard to relax on the five hour flight back to Houston.  We would have to go through a baggage inspection again once we landed.  My mind kept wandering what reason could the Colombian Police have had for searching our bag?  Had the used suitcase we purchased in a back alley been used to smuggle something before?  Maybe a dog or machine had detected something which warranted a formal search.  I was dreading that the US customs officers would have the same suspicions and we would have to go through the process again.  And customs & immigration officers don’t mess around in Texas.  Suppressed memories of a strip search in a Florida State penitentiary suddenly came back to mind.

We were also dreading the possibility of endlessly long lines and multiple flight delays.  Thats the sort of thing you expect when flying the day before Christmas Eve, right?  Packed airports, delayed and canceled flights, lost luggage.  I always hear people complain about how terrible flying is in the US, and how it’s exponentially worse during the holidays.  We were expecting the worst possible scenario ever …and maybe an arrest.  We only had an hour to make it through immigration, pick up our checked luggage, go through customs, re-check our bags and find our next departure gate.  ”We’re not gonna make it” we agreed.  We were prepared to make a mad dash off the plane once we landed.  

Finally the plane touched down.  The doors opened.  We grabbed our carry-on bags.  And we ran off the plane…right into an empty airport.  It was amazing!!  There was no one there.  It’s like everyone decided to stay home this year.  I’ve never had such great service.  We made our way through all the checkpoints with no lines and no waiting.  Our bags were practically waiting for us at the carousel and no one even glanced at our luggage.  We made it to the next gate with time to spare.  We got out the laptops and surfed the web while we waited for our flight to Atlanta, which was right on time.  I was impressed.  That being said; however, we are soooo happy  we made it back before the whole Amsterdam terrorist fiasco on Christmas Day.    

Alyson, all our luggage, and I made it to Atlanta’s Delta Hub safe and sound.  Now we just had to cross that Alabama state line before Christmas Eve.  Here is where the hero of our story comes in.  No one in my family knew we were returning for Christmas.  No one ‘cept one man.  Twas my taller, funnier, hell raisin’, cadillac drivin’, tattooin’, trailer park residing, ladies man, cousin Griff.  We had let Griffin in on the secret weeks before in an attempt to secure a ride back from Atlanta.  He’s awesome.

Griff Saves Christmas! My cousin Griffin picks us up from the Atlanta airport.

We loaded our bags in Griff’s white Caddy and headed for the land of cotton.  Here are a few interesting facts about our great state (Feel free to post your own interesting facts about Alabama in the comment area below):  Alabama is a Creek Indian word meaning “Tribal Town”.  The state has one of the largest concentrations of caves in the world.  And no, Alabamans aren’t a bunch of tribes living in caves.  In fact the first rocket to put a man on the moon was built right here in Alabama.  And speaking of rockets, the largest fireworks warehouse in the world is located in Alabama at Shelton Fireworks.  We passed by it on the interstate. 

Our first night back in Alabama we stayed with Griff.  He owns a house trailer at a place called Ridgewood in Auburn.  And guess what?  It’s the largest trailer park in north america (most likely the world)!  The wonders cease to amaze.  We did a lot of catchin’ up over a dinner of fried chicken and sweet tea, but mostly we were kept entertained throughout the night by a little Heaven Hill Party Liquor and Griff’s hilarious stories.  I’ve never met anyone with a more genius sense of humor.  Griff’s an amazing graphic artist, too.  Graphic designers always have plenty to talk about with other graphic designers.  Its like meeting an old friend at a 20 year class reunion.  If he looks familiar it may be that you have seen him on the cinematic screen.  I believe his most recent appearance was in Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2.

Griff in a Pablo Escobar hat we brought him from Colombia.

We arose early the next afternoon.  The long trip from the day before combined with the freezing cold temperature and  a late night put Alyson and I in hibernation mode.  We never knew an air mattress could be so comfortable.  It was the night before Christmas, and before making the drive to Andalusia (my hometown) we stopped by the iHop for a pancake lunch.  It was a blistering cold day with a damp drizzle  falling from the bove.  The IHOP workers were merrily lurching about donning their festive Santa hats.  It was just like a Christmas card.

Merry Christmas from IHOP! Artist Rendering

 We began to discuss ways of making our surprise entrance that evening.  We wanted to wait for the perfect moment when the entire family would be gathered around the Christmas tree.  Many ideas were suggested but in the end we decided to pull the old “giant gift box with people hiding inside trick”.  Griff knew a few places where we could get some big boxes.  He’s a man of many resources.  So we paid our bill and left IHOP to the cheery farewell of, “Finally, they’re gone”.  

Riding home in style in Griff's Cadillac.

The two hour drive home passed by quickly.  Griff kept us laughing nonstop with his Bing Crosby Christmas Special impressions.  I wish we had it on video.  We only had to make one quick stop in Montgomery to grab some big cardboard boxes.  Unfortunately, though the rain hadn’t subsided and we were running a bit behind schedule.  This was going to make it difficult to pull off our surprise plan.  So we quickly devised an alternative.

When we arrived at the house everyone was already there.  They were waiting for Griffin before opening presents, but weren’t expecting Alyson or myself.  We decided that Griff should walk in doing his Bing Crosby impression.  He would get the whole family to sing a Christmas carol while Alyson and I waited outside the front door.  Once they finished singing, we would knock and Griffin would say in his Bing Crosby voice, “Oh! A knock at the door.  You know I love it when friends and family drop by for the holidays”.  Then he would open the door and we would be standing there like the surprise guests on some old Christmas special.  That was the plan.

So Griffin went in.  Its not really that common for people to just walk around singing Christmas carols, so when Griff came in saying in Bing Crosby voice:  ”Merry Christmas Everyone!  Let’s all sing a Christmas Carol.  Oh you know Dasher and Dancer and all of those reindeer…but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all…Frosty the Snowman…was a happy jolly thing…with a corn cobbed pipe (hey whatcha got in that pipe Frosty?) and two eyes made outta coal.  Yeah!”  The family began to exchange worried looks and whispering, “Oh, God.  Griffin has shown up to Christmas drunk.”

While the entire family stared on at Griff questioning his sobriety, Alyson and I waited by the front door for our big entrance.  With all eyes watching Griff threw open the door and all ear drums were shattered by the excited scream of my mama.  The next few minutes were a whirlwind of hugs & Merry Christmases.  I’ve always wanted to make a surprise homecoming on Christmas Eve, and in reality it’s just as nice as I had imagined.

Surprise!

John's sister Mimi can't stop smiling.

My brother Justin opening the Christmas wine.

Cousin Matt and Cousin John sporting the Colombian look.

A Christmas Reunion: Alyson, John, Mimi, Justin, Tamara, and Dave.

John's family

Dave & I a putting together the toys for the kid's.

Griff as BumbleBee, "I should have been a Volkswagen"

We made it!

Christmas Eve turned out great.  We had good food, lots of stories to tell, and great family to share it all with.  We will be staying in Andalusia, Alabama for a little while.  We have some major plans to improve the website and add some very cool new features.  So keep checking back.  We’ll fill you on our continuing adventures.

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Flying To Bogota

We flew out of Cartagena without a hitch and in a few hours found ourselves racing through city highways and traffic as our yellow cab wound it’s way through Bogota to our hostel.

Airport Vendor in Bogota

Handy Translations For Tourist In Bogota Cab

We arrived in the hostel by 3:30pm and we had to be at the airport no later than 5:30 am the next morning. With such limited time we wanted to hit the city fast to see as much as possible. After checking in we realized a few things about our immediate surroundings: 1.) Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was the nicest backpacker hostel we have been in, and 2.) It was CHILLY in Bogota at 60F! It was a little worrisome that it was already feeling freezing to us at 60F when where we were going in the U.S., even though in the South, was a nippy 30-40F! I guess spending 8 months where the temperature never dropped under 70F had seriously damaged our sense of hot and cold.

Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was created by a backpacker who fell in love with Colombia and wanted to create a hostel where all the needs he had identified while traveling where put into practice. The results are quite nice.

Cranky Croc Hostel

Aly at the Cranky Croc Hostel

Our Room At Cranky Croc Hostel

The hostel itself is in the historic university area of the city, easy walking distances from most of the major sights and sounds of the capital. The building is historically colonial in style with several room options. We opted for a private room with a shared bathroom as we were only going to be there one night. As it turns out, since the bathroom was right next to our room it made no difference if we had paid more for a private loo. There were several communal areas, a large communal kitchen, a TV room, and an computer area with several computers available, of course the entire hostel offers wi-fi as well. Though we would have loved to have enjoyed the amenities, such as the bed to take a nap in we only had precious few hours until our boarding time and Bogota was waiting!

The first thing we did was dig through our bags and locate the warmest clothes we could. I had carried a couple pairs of jeans and a North Face jacket with me since leaving on the trip. Throughout the trip we have been getting rid of any extra clothes or items to lighten our load, and every time John would look at me as if I was crazy to keep the jeans and jacket when it was almost always over 80F in the daytime. Now was the chance to finally use these clothes I’ve been lugging around! Though slightly musty smelling the jeans and jacket were a life saver. Oh and it was also the first time since leaving that I wore shoes, literally I had worn my flip flops almost everyday, except when I wore nothing at all! Needless to say I did not even have a pair of socks. But at least I was now ready to go exploring.

The city of Bogota has quite a different vibe from Cartagena. Where  as Cartagena retains it’s laid back feelings from it’s Caribbean roots Bogota inherited it’s look and feel more from it’s European heritage.

Narrow Streets Lead To Mountains in Bogota

Cobble Stone Streets To The Mountains

Cathedral In Bogota

Plaza Buildings

The Archbishopric Cathedral of Bogotá

Plaza Bolivar

Colorful Church

Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Carmen

With the first chilly and overcast day we’ve seen in so long combined with all of the Christmas decorations we were finally starting to get into the Christmas spirit.

Aly in Plaza Bolivar

John at Plaza Bolivar

The main plaza in downtown Bogota, Plaza Bolivar, was decorated with a giant Christmas tree surrounded by a handful of Santas, Christmas Llamas, Santa Shrek, and yes, even Barney.

Sunflower Christmas in Bogota

Santa and His Red Nosed Llama

John, Santa, and Barney

Yep, Barney. Haven’t seen him in a while. The Santas were all over the place and each had a photographer with them, and for a set price will let you take a family photo with him and the tree. We were not willing to pay for a photo at first. So half jokingly we tried posing casually behind the santas, but their handlers were keeping a sharp eye out for us “gawkers” and shooed us away quickly. We ended up coughing up the couple of pesos and took our first official Christmas card photo with the beautiful Christmas llama.

Official Chirstmas Card From The Crew

Red Nosed Llama

We passed by the Presidential Palace and the motionless guard agreed to let me pose by him.

Presidential Palace

Serious Business

As we started walking through the narrow city streets, with views leading to the mountians, we noticed another major difference between the two Colombian cities. The city walls were covered in a wide range of street art, everything from minor taggings and graffiti to major murals where sprayed onto almost every surface of the street. Though out on the highway the graffiti was typical names and gang names. However in the center of town, or La Candelaria area, the skills and artistic talents obviously rose. I wonder if the art college being near by has anything to do with it.

Being graphic designers and doodle fanatics, John and I enjoyed the sprayed streets as much as if we were in an art gallery. Even a local store had gotten cleaver with their guerilla marketing with their line of Cliche designs. We fell for it, however the store did not actually sell the t-shirts with these great designs on them. Too bad, we are always on the lookout for original designs while traveling to pick up. That is why in the newest re-incarnation of our site we are now working on we’ll be adding our own travel inspired t-shirts designs. So do keep an eye out for up coming changes to the site!

Cliche's Graffiti Guerilla Marketing

A Graffiti Mural

Shadow Heart

Street Art Chicken

My Favorite. It Shows Street Urchins Looking Through The Doorway

City Art & John

That evening, after a quick dinner and a little rest we headed back out into the city looking for more sites, sounds, and a night cap or two. As it was a few days before Christmas the city was in a festive mood. Along the main through ways of the city the roads were blocked off for pedestrian traffic,  street vendors, and performers. As we wondered through the crowds we decided to try and spend the last of our coins, as it turned out John had enough to buy himself some pop corn while I spent my change on a very un-Christmasy performance by this man.

Creepy But Funny Performance

He is a “living statue,” popular in many cities but I had never seen one dressed as the killer from Scream before, when I gave him his money he began moving and soon had me in a choke hold. John’s popcorn was good but I got a memory that will make me scratch my head for a life time.

Native Colombian Band

When the chill of the night began to get to us we headed back into the university neighborhoods and sure enough found ourselves in a warm pub. There is an alley there, Callejon del Embudo (Funnel Alley), that is hardly more than a car width wide. This small winding cobble street is lined with tiny bars, cafes,and eateries. Each one was about the same size with a hand full of tables and chairs but what made us smile was that each had worked hard to distinguish themselves with the decor and mostly with the music. Did you fancy a drink with hard rock playing? No, then step three steps further down the road and listen to Reggae, Pop, and even Colombian rock. A niche for every college kid out there.

Warming Up By Fake Fire

Night Cap For A Chilly Night

Last Night In Colombia

Funky Self Portrait

After our nightcap we sadly had to bid Bogota farewell for now, though we had only an afternoon in this fascinating city it captivated our imaginations. Three hours later our cab was waiting for us outside and once again we were zooming through the city back to the airport, much faster without the traffic.

Early Morning Bogota

We walked in expecting the two hour international travel window would be more than enough time and ran smack into the line winding around the lobby. Isn’t flying during the holidays just the best? The man at the check-in counter told us that there was a issue with our tickets. He was going to have to take our passports and leave us for a min….oh no…never a good thing to happen, specially when no one in the world even knows where we are! Luckily he came back after ten heart stopping minuets, and gave us nearly 200.000 pesos! That’s about $100! Ironically we had spent the last few days budgeting to make sure we had no pesos left…

Already Missing Colombia

A Tired International Traveler

As we were about to board the plane the attendant asked John and I to step aside. At this point I was thinking maybe we won a car or something equally good since our luck seemed to be on the rise. This time however the momentary fantasy was crashed when she said ” please wait here until the police arrive.” This comment and the sight of our luggage out in front of us no longer checked in made us gulp aloud. We had just bought this cheap suitcase in Cartagena, on “Contraband Alley.” You can imagine the thoughts running through our heads as we are pulled aside in Colombia waiting for the police as our luggage is pulled aside! The policemen arrived and asked if they could inspect the luggage, “ofcourse!” we nearly yelled. I tired to make a joke in Spanish about buying it on the streets but the policemen were not in a jovial mood. After leafing through every page of every notebook and sketch book in our luggage he took out a ice pick and began poking our suitcase. We had bought the suitcase thinking that the lock worked, however it was such a bad imitation suitcase that when you tried to zipp it shut in the locking position it left the bag half open. So it was unlocked now, we were having visions of someone tampering with our bags. Visions of Colombian prisons, having to prove our innocents, and realizing that the phone call would definitly ruin the family’s Christmas! After the police had stabbed our poor bag for a while they seemed to change their minds about the whole situation and curtly told us to go board the plane. Wow, what an intense moment.

Flying Back To The United States

Safely on the airplane we settled down for our trip back to the U.S. and concentrate on the next item on our itenerary. We were headed to Andalusia, Alabama to surprise his family on Christmas Eve!

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