WE LOVE TO TRAVEL! We love meeting new people, learning about other cultures, trying new foods and hearing new types of music. It’s part of what makes this world so great. We’ve also been fortunate enough to make some really good friends in the places we’ve visited. People in general seem to be warm, friendly and helpful; however, on the rare occasion you may cross paths with a “ne’er do well scoundrel“.

I was thinking (and laughing) the other day about the time I was pick-pocketed in Colombia. It was funny to me that when I was being robbed I had absolutely no idea. And later when I did discover my missing money I instantly knew the exact moment when it had happened. Those pesky pick-pockets are true masters of their craft. I even met a man who had both pockets picked while his hands were still in them.

I got to talking with other travelers about their experiences. This inspired me to create a helpful little infographic blog illustrating some common pickpocket schemes. So, for all you travelers and wanderers out there, here are some things to look out for.

The Point and Grab:

This method was made known to me by my South African chum, Otto.

In this two man operation, the victim is momentarily distracted by the first thief while the second thief grabs their goods. This method usually works best in crowded tourist areas, but it’s also useful for stealing your friend’s french fries.

A. The mark (or targeted person) is attempting to take a photograph of a friend, landmark, or event.
B. Thief #1 diverts the mark’s attention by tapping on their shoulder.
C. The 2nd thief stands close by to make the grab.

A. The mark turns to see who has been nudging him.
B. Thief #1 has already begun walking away unassumingly.
C. Thief #2 springs into action and grabs the mark’s camera while they are distracted.

A. Thief #2 then runs and attempts to disappear into the crowd.
B. The victim is surprised and hesitates long enough for the thief to make a get-away.

The Disappearing Act

Most thefts will happen in crowded streets or at events with many people, but keep a look out for your valuables even in quiet, deserted cafes.

A. The mark is enjoying her coffee in a quiet relaxing cafe. Her mind is occupied with thoughts of her trip.
B. A young well-dressed woman sits behind her. Based on her appearance, she doesn’t seem the type that would steal.
C. The mark has carelessly hung her purse from the back of the chair.

A. The mark is still enjoying her coffee.
B. When the time is right the thief will quietly and carefully reach back and take the purse.
C. The thief then sly conceals the stolen purse in her larger bag.

A. The victim will eventually turn around and realize her bag has disappeared.
B. By this time, the thief has long been gone.

Stealing Money From a Blind Man

This is how I was pick-pocketed while enjoying the Independence Day festivals in Cartagena. Luckily for me, I had left all my valuables back in my room and only brought enough money for a couple of beers. I never even knew I was pick-pocketed until much later. And other than this singular incident, we never had any problems in Colombia.

A. The mark (or me) is watching the parades or contests in a crowd of people. I personally was distracted by the contestants for the Miss Colombia Pageant during the swim suit competition.
B. Thief #1 is lingering close by and unknown.

A. Thief #2 runs through the crowd with a can of spray foam. He douses the victim in the face and momentarily blinds him. This doesn’t seem unusually because the foam is sold by vendors as a toy, and everyone is spraying foam at each other.
B. The victim attempts to block the foam and clear his eyes.
C. Meanwhile, Thief #1 silently steals a person’s money or wallet.

A. The victim is left wiping his face clean of foam and unaware of the robbery.
B. Both thieves discreetly walk away.

So there you go. A few things to consider when going out and about with your valuables on your person. If anyone has uncovered any other pick-pocket methods let me know. I would love to add some more to my collection.

 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.

 New Orleans. Always under appreciated and overly notorious. The city that drowned, and not in booze this time. A place where cobble stone streets and giant weeping willows frame century old homes. The city that offers drive through daiquiris and beads for bare breasts. The look and the smell, our favorite city in the U.S.

 What we love about New Orleans is that it is so completely unique from any other city or place in the U.S. And they are proud of it. The city and its people thrive on their inherit sense of history and continue to add to this tapestry. Everyone has heard of Mardi Gras, but that is only a small fraction of what this city has to offer. In fact in the Spring, there is the French Quarter Fest and Jazz Fest. I would recommend visiting the city for either one of these festivals before I would recommend squeezing your self through Mardi Gras. Everyone should walk down Bourbon Street atleast once, but do it during the night. Trust me, it is not a pretty sight during the day, not to mention its notorious smell. Just imagine stale alcohol mixed with every type of human odor possible. The charm of New Orleans lies a few block away. Stroll down Frenchman Street and enjoy all of the activities while being able to appreciate the historic buildings and Jackson Square. For even more local flavor, hop on the trolley and head down historic St. Charles Street. There you will find century old mansions still occupied and looking sharp. Grab a shrimp po-boy and have a picnic at the Audubon Park. Get back in the trolley and head back to town, just this time head towards the River Front. Here you can grab a Café au lait and watch the old timey ferries along with all of the other river traffic go up and down the mighty Mississippi River. You can’t call it a night then though. You are in New Orleans after all. The “other” city of sin! You could bar hop in the Frenchman Quarter all night and never run out of new places to duck into. In fact if you would like to drink where the local go just check out this site- www.neworleansdrinkspecials.com.

We spent five days in New Orleans, staying with Scott, John’s college era roommate and buddy. He was cool enough to let us stay at his place, an awesome condo right smack down town. We are so grateful he let us stay, specially since it was a one bedroom and we took up his living room. Thanks Scott! By the way, the above website I mentioned was built by him so please check it out when you are in town.

On our first day there French Quarter Fest was in full swing along the River Front area. Our friends from Hattiesburg had given us a ride down and we all hung out in the French Quarter. The next couple of days were hectic trying to wrap up last min stuff but we managed to get amazing po-boys and drive around the neighborhoods. There is still damaged areas and half empty areas but slowly and surly the city is getting back on its feet. Don’t even get me started on Katrina and the aftermath! John and I are playing around with the idea that if and when we get back to the States that we would like to live in New Orleans, thus the ‘gran tour de neighborhoods. On the last day before we were to fly out we headed out towards the swamp lands looking to kayak with the alligators. Unfortunately the place was only open on the weekends. While we were standing around thinking up our next plan by the water’s edge we spied a set of eyes moving straight towards us. It was an alligator roughly three feet long. It can right up in front of us and sat at the edge of the water. It was a thrill but I have a feeling this alligator was used to people throwing food from the picnic tables near by and looked disappointed when we had nothing to offer.

It had taken us three weeks while we traveled through America, but we were finally at our destination for this leg of the trip. Bright and early (around 10am) the next morning we bid farewell to Scott and New Orleans and checked in for our one-way flight to Grenada.