Trip to the Old City

Traci and I ate light breakfasts this morning. They did have French toast, but it wasn’t very good. Tasted like it wasn’t quite done in the middle. I don’t know how you do that. The kids ate everything, but cereal is getting to be a big staple in Luke and Maria’s diets (which is good because we don't have scrambled eggs, sausage or waffles very often at home). The hotel seems pretty busy today. There is an OB/Gyn conference going on here and it is the Friday before a long holiday weekend (Monday is yet another Colombian holiday. I will have to ask around for the name of this one). So, our usual table inside was full. We hadn’t tried breakfast outside on the covered deck area yet and did that this morning. It was a little muggy but nice.

The couple next to us had two kids, and one of them had a Chicago Cubs backpack. They looked kind of American so I asked if they were from Chicago. Turns out that Chicago was their home but that they lived in Atlanta now. That was about all I got out of them. They had to hurry off to somewhere. Colombian people are much friendlier.


Luke had a little friend join him for breakfast this morning. The birds would fly up to the bussed plates of left over food on this table. They seemed to enjoy the eggs. Cannibals?

Next, as promised, we went back to the old historic part of Cartagena. Pretty neat but I can’t tell if I like it better in the day or at night. When we were there at night, the cars look to be pretty much forbidden from diving the narrow streets. The place seemed to have kept some of its old fashioned lighting and looked pretty quaint (even though it was difficult to take pictures). In the day time, cars freely roamed the street, making walking difficult on the narrow sidewalks – and even a little hazardous pushing a stroller. However, Traci is a trooper and excellent stroller conductor. Plus, if she wasn’t doing that she would have my job of carrying Maria all over town (with Luke snapping at her heels asking when it was his turn and griping about how unfair it was).

Additionally, we had an absolutely perfect day today in Cartagena. It was probably in the low 80’s and barely a cloud in the sky. As nice as this seems, it actually presented a couple of problems. It must be our proximity to the equator, but that sun was blazing hot!!. Add in the humidity and it feels a lot hotter than law 80’s. Our second problem had to do with the layout of the city itself. You have a walled city with narrow streets where all of the buildings are at least 2-3 stories high. This prevented any breeze whatsoever from entering the city to cool you down. We were pretty much dripping with sweat not long after we entered the city’s maze. The poor kids were almost melting in our arms, but we trudged forward on a quest for fun and to see interesting things.

One of the things we really wanted to see was the Sofitel Hotel which used to be a nunnery well before it became one of the best hotels in Cartagena. It was on the exact opposite corner of the old city from where we entered. We had quite a hike on our hands, but managed to only stop twice – once for some air conditioning in a fancy shoe store and another time for a cool beverage in a small Italian eatery called Paco’s. Here’s some pictures from our journey:







We walked by a church and the huge front doors were open. Looking inside, we saw that a weding was going on. Check out that old chandelier in the ceiling with the candles. I was wondering if this might be the place where Luke II's cousin or uncle is getting married.


This picture was taken from inside Paco's. This outside area is where we had dinner the other night before it started to sprinkle (where Traci got more unwanted parenting advice).


I think this might be an original scupture by Fernando Botero. He is a famous Colombian artist and all of his subjects, be they people or animals, are kind of "chubby." It was in the "square area" with the tables in the previous picture. Personally, I kind of like his paintings better.

The Sofitel was a fairly nondescript looking building and we probably could have walked right past without knowing it was there if we hadn’t actually been looking for it (according to Traci’s step-mom it is one of the 1,000 places to see before you die. Now only 999 left). When you walk through the door, you see the square, open-air garden in the center. There are stone paths that run into the center where there is an old well that the nuns must have used. I could go on for pages describing it. The most interesting part, was the two toucans living in the garden. At least, the kids found that interesting.


Me in front of the Sofitel with a couple of hot, tired, hungry kids.



That line is actually part of a fountain/stream that runs down the middle of all of the walkways in the garden and then around the entire garden itself. Not a easy place to bring kids.


Do I look tired? Actually, I think at this point I was getting a little annoyed with my photographer's fumbling around (Luke).



The toucans that live in the Sofitel garden. I didn't take these pictures so they may actually be the same bird. Suffice it to say that there was two of them and they looked very similar. I wanted to ask someone about the mess they leave, but didn't think they would understand what i was talking about if the words "chi chi" and "po po" came out of my mouth. I do not know any other Spanish expressions for those things.


The pool out back of the Sofitel. What a dump. They don't even have a water slide.



Out in front of the Sofitel they had a small park with some vendors and a few restaurants.

In the end, the Sofitel Santa Clara (that’s the name of the convent that used to be at that location) was nice, but we all kind of decided that we like our Hilton better. For families, we have a pretty nice place here. Stepping outside, we looked for someplace to eat, but everything looked hot and way overpriced. Having had enough history for one afternoon, we hopped into a cab and headed back to the Hilton. On the way back, we made the cab driver stop by our little BBQ joint, “Requisimo” (I memorized the name today), and had lunch.


It's hard to tell if Papa Bill would like Cartagena. On the one hand, they bring you a cold glass with your beer. On the other hand, there is no Coors Lt.


My carne asada lunch. There were more fries before the kids started mooching off me. This little meal cost about $6 or $7. As much as we liked this place, I think we are going to have to branch out and try something else tomorrow.

After solid 2 hours naps for the ninos, we reinvaded the pool late this afternoon. Both Maria and Andres are really learning to love the pool and are starting to lose their fear of the water (which is good and bad). Traci had Andres standing on the edge of the pool and on the count of three (in English) he would jump into her arms in the pool. By the time we were done, she wasn’t catching him until he hit water. Sometimes his face went under a little but he learned to keep his eyes and mouth closed. Watching Andres, Maria picked this up pretty quickly too. Maria’s favorite thing to do was lay on her back in the water while I carted her around the pool. Of course, there were several trips down the water slide (Luke, papi and Maria). We even got some kind of tongue lashing in Spanish from some little kid who didn’t think you could go down 2 and 3 at a time. As a father, I am pretty sure his dad just told him that so that he could lay on the edge of the pool (that is where I saw the little boy run to next). There were also several occasions where I had to throw Luke as far as I could in the pool (I’m getting a pretty good work out here lifting, carrying and throwing kids – and I have managed to keep my new belt notch even with all of the good food).

Dinner was nothing too special. We just did the buffet again. Apparently the pasta dish was pretty good because every time I got up there it was empty. Luke and Maria had salchicha and fries – again! I actually ordered a couple glasses of win with my meal. This got us wondering if that is part of our meal package or not. I didn’t have to sign any additional tickets.

Luke had kind of reverted to his sibling rivalry ways for most of the day. However, at dinner time he was great. He helped find ways to get Andres to eat dinner and make Maria laugh. After dinner, M&A dog piled Luke on our bed and gave him “besos and brazos.” I think he liked that and needed a little positive feedback from the kids.



Maria was also exceptionally excited tonight. I think she went to bed happy with her new familia. As for Andres, it is hard to tell what he thinks because the kid is always smiling and happy. Every time we get on an elevator with a stranger, he makes them laugh with his goofy grin.

As for what is next on our list in Caretgena, I don’t know. I think there is supposed to be a fairly nice aquarium here in town. We might take the kids there. However, we may also just lay around the pool, play, and do family stuff. I guess we’ll decide over breakfast.

Oh, and this is why I moved the chair next to Maria’s bed.

Another Laid Back Day in Cartagena

Welcome back to another day in Cartegena. Once again, we didn’t do a whole lot today, but as Matt is so awesome with words, I will let you tell him about it (This from the former English teacher who I won't let look at the stuff I write for work any more). I thought I’d just write about a few things and then pass it to him.

One thing you all don’t know is that Matt loves to do the blog. He looks forward to it and I think his mind thinks in terms of the blog as we live out each day. He makes a true evening of it. He’s working on it when I go to bed at 10pm and I have awakened almost every night around 1am and he’s still working on it. Now, he claims he’s watching soccer. I don’t know. I think he must “pretend” he is typing when I go to sleep and once I am out, I’m pretty sure he may be sneaking to see the Colombian nightlife. Especially after our friend, Cindy, sent us a picture of the beautiful Aguila beer girls here in Cartegena. So far, I haven’t seen one between the hours of 7am and 10pm, but Cindy, I am willing to bet Matt has.

Ok, let’s play, “Guess Who Did This?” Of the Jensen 5, who do you think had the following for dinner: fish, rice, fries, apple salad, plantains, fruit cup, mousse, bread, noodles, chicken and Sprite? Anyone? The answer: Andres. I’m telling you, this kid eats! He is unbelievable! However, when there is something he doesn’t like, he immediately spits it out (and not in his hand or on his plate – just out!). Not every meal is quite as a success as tonight, but whoever said a two-year old can’t get their money’s worth out of a buffet hasn’t met our son! Ok, next question: Of the Jensen 5, who would do the following: Be sitting at the table as perfect as can be and let out a burp as loud as a large family of bullfrogs ? Once again, Andres. To think that these behaviors come from his body is unbelievable.

Another thing I have been thinking about this week are all of the modern-day conveniences I am missing. First of all, I want everyone to celebrate that I am on day three of taking a HOT shower from beginning to end. After staying at El Refugio, I had forgotten what a luxury that was. The only problem is, I have increased the amount of time it takes for me to get ready. Not exactly something you want to do when you have a family of three kids. Other things I have missed include COLD milk (I am dying here. I drink about 2 gallons a week by myself), water out of the faucet (can’t tell you how many times I have wanted a drink in the middle of the night or after brushing my teeth), ketchup (it just doesn’t taste the same here), BBQ ribs and onion rings (I’m a true Kansas City girl), reading the local newspaper (haven’t picked one up in 13 days—but couldn’t read it much anyway in Spanish), the luxury of sitting out on my deck at home (although looking at the Caribbean and reading my book on our balcony at the Hilton makes it not so bad. There’s NOTHING like that at El Refugio), hopping in the car and just going for a ride (ok, we don’t do that yet, but it sure sounds good right now!), reading myself to sleep (can’t do it in the tight confines at El Refugio b/c we can’t leave the lights on or the kids won’t go to sleep—the Hilton has been a blessing but I’ve been too tired to read in the evening), along those same lines, People magazine (nothing more to add—I’m a junkie), sports (I SOOOOO miss sports! Yes, we get select games on TV—mostly in Spanish—and that’s what lulls me to sleep. I know my Royals are on a 10-game skid, but I still wish I could go out to the ballpark and enjoy the evening), having a bathroom with cabinets and drawers so I can put things away (I feel like I am in a cluttered mess everywhere I go), American music (all we get here is an elevator version of songs like “Thriller” and “Open Arms”—I know a dichotomy of music there), and there are so many more, but I realize that this paragraph has gone on way too long.

I had a number of other things I wanted to discuss, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what they are. Maybe that’s God’s way of saving you all from torture. Sandy—I think you asked how I was adapting to being a mother of three. It’s been awesome! I’m sure things will get tougher as we get in to our busy routine at home, but right now, a baby was a million times harder than this. This has been much easier than I thought it would be, but I think I can also chalk it up to understanding more about what it takes to be a parent. Anyway, all is good. I am really enjoying Cartagena and I will never say another bad thing about the Hilton family ever again. They saved me! I am not looking forward to heading back to El Refugio. Not because it’s bad because it’s not. El Refugio is a wonderful place to be, and all of you waiting to adopt need to put it at the top of your wish list when traveling to Bogota. It’s just been so nice to have an escape. At El Refugio, you just can’t escape the “adoption” world. Everyone there is going through it, which is quite nice, but can also be draining. We don’t have to worry about our kids running into other people’s rooms, going into the kitchen while the ladies are cooking or taking them to the tiny, enclosed play area to play. (Yes, there are tons of parks but they are mud-ridden.) One of our hotel rooms here is bigger than two rooms put together at El Refugio. But I need to stop because it sounds like I am complaining again, and I’m not. Just another example of the conveniences that I am missing. Oh and one more thing—Susan or any Spanish oficionados/teachers reading, can you please help us? Maria starts tons of her sentences with “Que.” For example, “Que no” or Que agua”, etc. What is up with this!? Is this a shortened version of quiero? (That’s my idea. As I said before, Maria tends to leave syllables out of some of her words and I think she is just giving us the “que” part of quiero)

Well, I will turn it over to Matt. God bless all of you! Thanks for all of your comments and e-mails from those we have known forever and those we have never met. You have truly helped to make this a fantastic journey!

Matt: I guess I kind of do look forward to writing a few things in the blog. As I have explained to some before, when you don’t get to speak to many people in your native tongue, this is kind of cathartic and relaxing. But I don’t spend the day thinking about it. Sometimes I will say, “Oh, we’ll have to blog about that.” However, usually when I sit down in front of the computer at night, I can’t even recall all that happened that day. So, I look at the pictures on the camera and it all kind of comes back to me.

On to today. We slept in and it felt great. Well, I slept in while little bodies crawled and roamed around me. The bed in our hotel room is almost better than the one we have at home. It’s certainly bigger. The kids got up and I kind of faded in an out of sleep for a little bit while they milled around getting ready. When it was time for breakfast, I just rolled out of bed, put on the clothes nearest to my body and a ball cap and I am ready to go (ah, vacation!). No point in getting ready early with "Mrs. 45 minutes" here.

Breakfast was pretty much the same as yesterday. However, it seems that someone here at the Hilton is reading my blog because I finally got to have some bacon. Only, it seems that everyone else was really looking forward to bacon too because by the time I came back for my second helping it was gone and replaced by the fat little sausages again.

After breakfast, we went back to the pool. The slide was fixed and we did that for quite some time. Both Maria and Andres loved the slide, but papi has to go down with them. Also, when we get to the end, I have to raise them out of the water so they don’t end up drinking half of the pool. They still got water in their mouths and each time after we were done I would have to explain that they needed to keep their mouths closed.


Departing from the rule about no pictures of us in bathing suits ouside of the pool, here is a picture of me, Luke and Maria going down the slide. Luke couldn't understand why he always had to be in back - even after I explained how he can't lift Maria or me out of the water. I also like the contrasting looks of terror (Maria), concern (me), and thrill (Luke) on the faces here. you may have to enlarge the picture to see the little bit of Luke's face behind me.


Splash down and a lesson in water displacement.


Little Andres was much easier to manage on the slide.


And Luke was the daredevil trying to figure out new ways to go down the slide. Here I believe he is trying to throw is football with a tail thingie to me. It was about an hour before we noticed the "no heads first" sign which took quite a few moves out of his play-book.

We hung around the pool for quite a bit because the kids were being so good. Particularly Luke, who seems to finally be growing into his big brother role. Maria was having fun just getting cups of water and pouring them onto her head. Rather than trying to one-up Maria with a new “Watch me dad!” type of activity, Luke joined Maria in her fun. The giggles and smiles were fun to watch. It also allowed me a chance to just sit and rest – which was much needed after several trips down the slide and raising little bodies above my head.




That is Luke II's mom, Carole, in the background. Poor Luke II was having some allegery problems this morning and didn't make it out to the pool today.


Andres making an appearance.




Andres does this from time to time. I am not really sure what he is trying to do.


Maybe this looks better.

Since we didn’t have to be in the pool constantly and the kids were being so good, Traci and I decided to get a nice adult type beverage from the pool bar (we are on vacation after all). I just wanted a beer, but Traci wanted a strawberry margarita – ugh, a girlie drink. So I went down to the pool bar and placed my order. The strawberry margarita order confused everyone there and pretty soon one of the guys left saying he had to go inside to get something. He returned with a plate full of fresh strawberries. I watched as he carefully cut the berries and threw them into the mixer with several other liquids. In fact, he was so careful and meticulous about his work, I had finished a whole beer before he was done (plus, it was hot and I was thirsty). When he finished I purchased another beer and brought this trophy of a drink back to my bride. Traci took one swig and declared it undrinkable. So, I ended up having the girlie drink and she had my beer. I wasn’t going to let it go to waste, particularly since it cost more than my two beers.

For a while the familia de Jensen also invaded the other, more shallow pool. This one had steps where the kids could sit and splash around. Luke and I were playing catch with a little nerf football when I noticed something black in the water. It was some form of giant beetle about 4 inches long – the front 1.5 inches of which were these incredibly long pincher things. I asked one of the workers standing along the side of the pool what it was and he didn’t really seem to know. It didn’t look like a water bug but it almost seemed to be swimming. He left for a minute and pretty soon there were about 5-7 guys around the edges of the pool with towels looking for this bug (which we had lost track of). The kids decided that they wanted to go back to the pool with the slide and I don’t know if they ever did catch that thing.

The weather was the typical overcast in the morning but later in the afternoon the clouds disappeared and it was an absolutely perfect Caribbean day. However, by that time, we were all pretty much done with the swimming. We decided to venture out of the hotel for lunch. Right now I am drawing a blank at the name of the place suggested to us by the concierge, but it was only about a quarter mile away. I will have to get it and include it in the blog tomorrow because it was fantastic. It was just a little hole in the wall, but it was nice and pretty clean. The sign on the front said something about BBQ, but it wasn’t anything like the BBQ we have in KC. We ordered some chicken shish-ka-bobs and a sausage dish. All were excellent. Our waiter also brought out a couple sauces and warned us that one of them was pretty hot. Naturally, I poured it all over my sausage and these potato-like things on my plate. I probably should have given it a test run first because it was about the hottest hot sauce I have ever tasted. My mouth was on fire for a little while – but it was a good kind of hurt. As we were leaving, we stopped to look at the little wood fueled grill where they cook the meals. I don’t know what kind of wood they were using but it smelled good and glowed red-hot without looking like it was being consumed. We watched as they prepared some sort of flank steak for another customer and decided that we were going to have to come back for some of that some time. So far, this was probably the best meal we have had in Cartagena.


Andres enjoying a little chicken for lunch.


On our walk back to the hotel, we noticed a sign for another restaruant pointing down this alley way. Even I am not quite this adventuresome.


On the way back, Maria and Andres pretty much fell asleep. Here is a picture of us in front of our hotel.

It ended up being another kind of late lunch. Once back in the room, the ninos continued their naps and I joined them for a while. While we were away, Traci and Luke read books on the balcony.



Since we had such a nice, sunny day, Traci took a few more pictures from around the hotel.






Naps completed, we ventured out to the kiddie area with all of the gym equipment. It looks a lot nicer in photos and from afar. Still, we had a pretty good time.



Maria actually ventured into the play gym, but she kind of chickened out when it came to the big slide at the end.


The ball pit was a little sparce, but the kids had fun anyway.


Luke particularly enjoyed the merry-go-round. I worry about him and his fondness of being dizzy sometimes.

We still hadn't taken the kids down to the beach and it was a beautiful time (late afternoon) for just that type of thing. Luke was interested in finding shells, but it isn't a very good shell beach. In fact, it isn't a very good beach in general. But still, it's better than no beach at all.



Me, two kids and the Statute of Liberty.




These might end of being a screen saver for me. I don't know if this was M&A's first time on a beach or not. There was just a little "wow" factor that I observed. As you can kind of see, our beach is kind of a combination of sand and dirt - making it pretty dark.



Despite the not-so-perfect sand, the kids still had fun playing in it - and throwing muck into the water.



More pictures of Andres just being Andres. He loves having his tummy tickled.


Another screen saver shot.


This looks to be some newer developments in Cartagena. All of the buildings are white with light blue tinted windows. It looks really pretty in the day and almost as pretty at night.


Sun setting on the beach.

Before dinner, we all took showers and baths. Once again, as it takes Traci much longer than anyone else to get ready, I had the charge of getting the ninos bathed and dressed. Maria was a great sport about it all and I have to say that I am getting much better at brushing hair than I used to be. Aside from a year when I had a "sweeeeet" mullet in college, I've never really had long hair. So, these tangles have been a real challenge or me. As for Andres, I can't understand how a kid can love the pool so much and absolutely hate baths. While I tended to Maria's hair, Luke sat Andres next to him in front of the computer and showed his some games he likes. It was about the longest I have seen Andres sit in one place for more than a few minutes (he did sit on the plane, but wasn't happy about it at times). The bond between Luke and Andres is growing pretty well.

I don't know if I explained this previously, but our plan at the Hilton provides for breakfast every day and either lunch or dinner. Tonight we tried dinner again at the Hilton and it was pretty good. There was a buffet with several different choices from pork and fish to pasta and salad. People here still seem to go out of their way to make sure we are having fun. Everyone has been very nice and if coming to Cartagena I would really recommend this place - particularly if coming with the family.

At dinner, Luke and Maria opted for the salchicha and fries. However, this time they didn't even try to disguise the fact that their salchicha is indeed hotdogs (they weren't sliced up and each kid had three hotdogs on their plates next to a pile of fries). Luke took over some of the duties with respect to feeding Andres tonight. He did a good job. In all, Luke took a big step toward gaining a little more trust with his brother and sister today.


Luke and Maria like to take the coasters from the table and pretend they are Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

After all of that work being a good big brother, Luke was pretty tired and fell asleep on my in our room.

I haven't shaved in a couple days. Maybe i will get around to it tomorrow. Maybe now. We are going to try again for the old historic part of Cartagena tomorrow morning. I really hope this weather we had this afternoon holds up.

Thanks to everyone for your posts and emails with helpful suggestions and comments. Traci and I are happy to hear that people are enjoying the blog - however, I think it is the pictures that people enjoy most. Also, Happy Birthday to my Uncle Ron who I hear had been following the blog online. We are having a pretty good time but we all talked at dinner tonight about how ready we are to go home.