Today, we want to tell you about two really fantastic people who are currently sailing in the south Pacific. Otto and Lili are two very good friends Alyson and I made while traveling through the southern Caribbean. Unlike us, they have their own boat named Vagabond. Its a 46′ Dix sailboat that Otto built himself. They left from South Africa on Vagabond over 3 years ago and have been sailing their way around the world ever since.

Otto, Lili, and Alyson reveling during the Colombian Independence Day Festivals in Cartagena.

Alyson and I last saw Otto and Lili in Cartagena, Colombia where we all spent several weeks enjoying festivals, playing backgammon tournaments and exploring the city. Since then Vagabond has sailed through the San Blas Islands of Panama and on through the canal. Yesterday, we received an email with some fun and amazing photos of their current location, the Galapagos Islands. We thought you guys would enjoy these!

From Lili and Otto:

“Hola amigos & amigas

Yesterday we went on a tour of the island and the attached pictures tell a story. We are incredibly impressed how things are done here – very eco friendly and tastefully laid out. Everywhere you go, there are signs carved out of wood that are very informative and loads of benches to rest ones weary feet from all the walking in the heat. We absolutely love it here – the wildlife is amazing and we are having such fun swimming and frolicking with the sea lions, especially the pups, in the water.

Today and tomorrow we will spend refuelling with diesel and then we are going to go diving in a place that is notorious for its viewing of hammerhead sharks, the following day we will take a ferry to the next island over called Santa Cruz where we will visit the Charles Darwin Scientific Research Centre and then we will just hang around for a few more days to enjoy the wonderful snorkelling and other sites. It’s so nice being a tourist again.”

At the Volcano Crater with our guide Carlos.

Benches in the Park.

Galapagos Land Tortoise.

Galapagos Marine Iguana.

Lil in the Tortoise Sanctuary.

Looking down from the Volcano

Otto, the photographer.

Signs in the Sanctuary.

More Signs.

Sea Lions doing Yoga.

Maureen making friends.

Sea Lion Pup.

More Yoga.

Playtime.

The Scenery.

Crewing with Otto and Lili is a fellow travel blogger, Ursula at Abroad Aboard. Her stories of their trip from Panama to the Galapagos are fun, insightful and hilarious. Here is a short excerpt from her post about dealing with sea lions during their second day in the Galapagos.

“A HUGE male seal stank the whole stern up this morning, and THEN he shit…. the smell was intolerable. Otto fixed a rope, lightly tied, to dangle onto the seal, like a bad itch that won’t go away, and well, he left. Maybe it is that simple to get rid of them? They are ALL OVER the anchorage & the dock & jetty & jetty pathway…. Over coffee this morning, Otto & Lili tell me that they discovered seals snort, fart, cough, whistle, honk etc & smell bad through the night, they are nocturnal! “

To read more about their adventures check out Ursula’s blog at Abroad Aboard.

Today’s post is a little different. Instead of me droning on for an hour, for you slow readers, or twenty-eight seconds, for those realizing they got the wrong site, I would like to present you with a cinematic master piece. A MONTAGE!!!

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.

During the last month of staying in Cartagena (we were there 3 months) we rented a room at Casa Valdez, a hostel-like place only a block from Plaza Trinidad. We had scored the upstairs room with the only balcony/window at the place by the second week and though the water didn’t work in the sink we  called it home. The hostel technically came with a pretty decent communal kitchen but John and I were already so unaccustomed to cooking that it might have taken a half a day to recognize what it was.

Untouched Kitchen

It had most of the utensils we 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 for 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 Cart

Cartagena: Plaza Trinidad on a quiet Sunday night.

Everyone is inside for Mass.

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 the Coach.

In the Red Corner…

& in the Blue Corner…

Are you ready to Rumble?!!

the Winner!

Valencia getting hungry and bored after a few bouts.

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.

The park is only a few blocks away.

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.

1811-1911 and soon to be 2011 as well.

Timeless Beauty.

John & Valencia with the tamale.

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 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.

Aly & Valencia 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 view of the beautiful San Pedro Cathedral while you dine.

The patio seating at 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 Star 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 Pub

Manuel, the spinning bartender.

Aly Uni-cycling: Did you know I once had one as a child?

John trying as well. He thought it would be easy…ha!

HOP & JAUNT crew and the Scooter Pub 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!

 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.

After our narrow escape from the Colombian Police (see previous blog posting) we boarded our return flight to the United States with much relief.  Colombian prison is no place I would want to spend Christmas.  We never really found out why our bag was the only one set aside to be searched.  The policia never explained, and Alyson and I didn’t want to prolong our detention by asking questions.  We only knew we were free to go, so we got the hell out.

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.