Teatro Heredia

The Crew of Hop & Jaunt

When you’re traveling abroad knowing the native tongue is a handy asset (obviously), and since Alyson is well versed in Espanol it saves me alot of  time with complex translations.  However, I do like the challenge of being able to do things myself.  Living in Colombia has definitely helped my Spanish to improve.  Alyson also has been a good tutor and often gives me the opportunity to take the lead in some conversations.  The practice has helped me come a long way from my first failed attempt at trying to rent a computer at a Colombian internet cafe.  As we approached the counter I was so surprised and unprepared when Alyson told me, “You try this time” that the only Spanish word I could muster was “Senor”.  As in ” uhh…I’d like to use a computer…Senor.”  That didn’t really get me anything but a blank stare.

Luckily though I’ve gotten much better.  Now its absolutely no problem for me to go out in the city to do things on my own.  But on occassion I do find myself in conversational situations that exhaust my basic knowledge of the language, and I’m forced to resort to awkward charade-like gestures.  Today it happened again when I attempted to purchase tickets to tour Cartagena’s World Famous Teatro Heredia.

Relaxing on the Balcony

We woke up midmorning today with nothing in particular to do.  The day was warm and the skies were clear.  While enjoying the view from the balcony of our new hostel room we decided it would be a good day to take the cameras around the city and take some photographs.

View from our suite.

Nice warm weather here with cool December breezes.

Hitting the streets in search of coffee.

more doors

Cafe Havana: a cuban club on the corner

While walking along we noticed a long line outside of Teatro Heredia.  This is a beautiful 100 year old theater that we’ve been dying to go inside.  While Alyson was busy taking photographs, I decided to approach the ticket window and buy our admission for the theater tour.  Tickets can be purchased for 11,000 Pesos (roughly $5.50 US) per adult.

Teatro Heredia

I’m not quiet sure where I went wrong in the conversation.  I thought I was doing pretty well, but instead of the tour I accidentaly purchased tickets for a school performance of The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  Its strange that no matter where you are at Christmas you end up going to watch someone’s kids in some type of holiday play.  It wasn’t what we were expecting but it got us into the theater anyhow.

Our box seats

View of the interior

Not a bad place to have a school play

Lights dimming...

the Stage

Indian Princess

Ceiling of the theater

The play was good.  Apparently, Colombian schools are not broken down into Elementary, Junior High and High School.  All ages attend the same school and participated in the performance.  It was very well done, and since it was a familar story the dialogue was easy to follow.  We were surprised that the school performances are held in such an elaborate and historic theater, but I suppose if you’ve got it…use it.  We wanted to post some video from the show, but a slow internet connection is preventing us from uploading any.  So instead here is a little holiday play of our own. 

After the play we spent the rest of the evening playing darts and listening to music in a British pub.  I really love the variety of things to do in this city.  Check our photos page for more images and have a Merry Christmas or uhh Feliz Navidad!

Feliz Navidad