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.