The past week has been a crazy busy one for us at Hop & Jaunt! After a fun filled Easter weekend where we got to hang out with family and friends the weeks started in full blast. Since starting our little design firm we’ve been lucky enough to get new clients and projects rolling in. One of our current projects was designing a new site for Nomadic Chick, a travel writer and overall cool chick. It was a fun project and she was brave enough to give a lot of creative freedom. So if you haven’t visited her site yet, now’s the time to do so!

Nomadic Chick

After staying up unitl 4 am. working on a project one night the next day we had to wake up at 5:45 am. as we had been invited on a road trip to the state capital! A week earlier we had met and lunched with a couple of very nice ladies representing the local chamber of commerce and they had invited us to ride along with local businesses as they traveled to the state capital to grill lunch for the state politicians. Never ones to pass up on a chance to visit new places, specially with free food, we hopped on board the bus and joined the group for “Convington County Day At The Capital.”

Covington County Day’s Out

Unfortunately the weather was horrible, it not only rained the entire trip up to the capital but proceeded to pour down raining for the rest of the day! Luckily the tent was big enough to fit everyone and ,as it’s also election year, the politicians made an effort to come by and enjoy their locally made Snowden sausages. We helped up a little with the set up and as everyone was encourage to “meet & greet” we mingled with the crowd. While mingling we ran across Ms. Sue Bass Wilson, a Julia Tutwiler Impersonator who’s on a mission to save the Alabama state song. It turns out the Albama tourist board is thinking of changing the state song “Alabama” from state song to state anthem, using “Stars Fell On Alabama” as the official song instead. For Ms.  Wilson this was too much to bear and she donned the persona and clothes of Ms. Juilia Tutwiler, a poet and reformist from the late 19th century, who had penned the song. As Ms. Tutwiler, M. Wilson spoke to the state representatives urging them to respect her contributions and to preserve the song. Who would have known? She was kind enough to pose with me and was a very sweet lady, both as herself and as Ms. Tutwiler!

Alabama State Capital Building

We got these orange T’s to wear, I never lost sight of John that day…

Ms. Tutwiler

It was a great chance for us to meet people from the area, as we tend to get stuck behind on our computers during the day. We were able to talk to local business owners, government workers, and politicians. Most of the time everyone was so casual and friendly that you didn’t realize how important or not they were unless someone told you later. Which was great for me since I have zero ability to recognize people’s faces unless I’ve already met (at times more than once is needed). It was also nice to be recognized as business owners, a whole new sensation we’re still trying to adjust to! As the afternoon wore on, and there began to appear a dent in the massive pile of sausages and hotdogs, the sun finally began to come out. We managed to meet a wide ranging group of people, snuck off and took a bit of a tour around the capital, and also somehow managed to stuff ourselves with good food all in one day. Success!

The First White House of the Confederacy

The house was simple, yet elegant

We snuck off for a little bit and explored the area surrounding the capital building. We stopped in to tour the first White House of the Confederacy, where Jefferson Davis and his family lived during the first years of the civil war.

That weekend we drove up to Atlanta, a 4 hour trip, to attend our first “tweet-up!” Though sharing the road with spring breakers racing back to Michigan was a little hectic we made it to Atlanta early enough for a little stroll down town. I have only really been to the airport in Atlanta, and the truth is between jet-lag and the airport-yuck I didn’t have the best of impressions of Atlanta. I know, judging a city by it’s airport is not fair, but it happens! So now I must confess that I was very much impressed with how clean, vibrant, and friendly downtown Atlanta was!

After walking around a little we headed up north a bit and found the thai restaurant we were planning on meeting at. We arrived early and decided to walk around the neighborhood, as the entire area seemed so active and adorable. As we made our way around the block we heard a voice yell “Hey!!” we looked around a little confused and saw a blonde girl waving to us, so naturally we started waving back and yelled “Hey!!” back at her and her friends. She then yells out from her balcony “Would you guys like a beer?” Since my mother only advised against getting candy from strangers I yelled back “Sure!” and soon we were sitting on a small apartment porch with a group of friendly young people introducing ourselves. They were on a way to a concert, and we could only stay for one drink but it was a fun and random encounter!

Atlanta’s Friendly Ambassadors:From Left-> Jordan, Michelle, and Olivia!

Thanks for the beer girls!

We got to Surin of Thailand and met up with other traveling bloggers. There was Dwight, aka @insearchofsanuk, who is heading back to Thailand in a month to continue working on his non-profit group that helps teach English to the urban poor in Thailand. Check out his site to learn more about the amazing work he’s doing: In Search Of Sanuk. Dwight had just arrived from conference in town and had brought along Adam (@bruklin), a Brooklyn based theater man. He works for BAM, one of the oldest performing arts center in the U.S. He had also backpacked in different countries around the world and was a fun guy to chat with.

We also met up with Akila and Patrick (@theroadforks), from The Road Forks. They are from Auburn, Alabama and that makes them our closet travel blogging neighbors that we know of! They have a fun site where they talk about travel, food, and more food!!

The entire gang from the Q Family Adventures also showed up. We got to meet not only Amy (theqfamily), but her husband Ronald and their two adorable two kids! Amy writes about traveling with kids, from weekend road-trips and where to stay to planning on international travel with kids.

The Atlanta Tweet Up Group (That’s Akila and Patrick from The Road Forks up in the frame as they had to leave early!)

Thanks everyone for a great dinner. We had a blast! Now we’re looking forward to being in NY this June for the TBEX(travel blogger exchange) conference even more!!

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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!

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It’s not what you may be imagining. Oildown happens to be the national dish of Grenada. Last Friday John and I went on one of best adventures since we got to Grenada and our lunch that day was an Oildown deep in the jungle by the river. Let me tell you what happened. A few days before a friend of ours was organizing a “tour” of the island for when his girlfriend flew in. We signed up immediately. Though I have gone on a personal guided tour, and we both created our own tour with the buses, a chance to romp around the island with a group of friends our age just sounded too good to pass up on. At around ten that morning Ian and his girlfriend Lauren came by our boat to pick us up. Ian has been living in the Caribbean for a while with his family and had met Lauren at a sailing regatta in St. Maarten a few months back. We went to another boat and picked up Alex, our ever cheerful and fun “local” cruiser friend and Ian’s little brother Jim. At the docks we met up with a lovely English couple who have been here about the same time as us on their boat fixing it up to head up north, Eddy and Meredith. With Andrew and Sheldon as our “official” driver/guide (these guys are a regular over at Hog Island) this ragtag group were ready to head out. Though we were expecting a van Sheldon showed up with his five seater truck. Thus with an even ten people split between the front and the cab we headed off towards a river off of Grenville.

We stopped over at several stores to stock up on drinks and some basic foods such as chicken wings, garlic, flour, and some plastic plates. The bulk of the ingredients were to come from the land. What Alex had meant by this we found out soon after we left the town of Grenville. Every ten minuets or so he would call out from the back of the cab to stop the truck and we would all load out to watch him go into thickets off the road and come back with one herb or another! At one stop we walked a bit into the jungle and with a long pole picked off some breadfruit, at another spot we picked callaloo (a sort of spinach) from a farmer’s patch. Luckily Alex seemed to know almost every third person on the road and where everything grew. Soon our big cooking pot was full of natural ingredients. The truck came to a stop in someone’s abandoned driveway on a top of a hill and Alex yelled out “it’s just down the hill some to the river!” Everyone grabbed our assorted luggage we had acquired since we began, John with the big cooking pot loaded down, some spear fishing guns for the river, a giant cooler weighed down and everyone’s backpacks. We started trekking down the jungle. It was a good 30min. hike down with no obvious trail. It was beautiful. There were wild cocoa trees, oranges, palm trees, and hundreds of other fauna that I could only appreciate. When we finally reached the river from our high noon hike anyplace would have been great, luckily this place was already amazing and the giant trees created a shaded riverside in which to set up camp. John and I jumped into the river expecting it to be chilly but found that it was surprisingly warm. After a month of living on the ocean taking a dip in warm spring water was as close to a bath as we’ve gotten. I regretted not bringing shampoo!! With everyone cooled off and a cold drink in hand Ian and Alex built a fire and began cooking the Oildown. For the official explanation into Grenada cooking check out their site. We sat around on the big rocks and limed (Caribbean slang for party of hanging out) for a while till the food was ready. This turned out to be one of the best dishes we had had in Grenada. Chicken and dumplings, spices and herbs, combined with some rum and good company was a recipe for a great time.

After a long lunch, some swimming, and a bout of spearfishing by Alex and Ian (where Alex managed to spear a good sized one on his first go) we started packing up and getting ready for the hike up. Though we were slightly dreading the hike it turned out that having eaten our food and finished our drinks made for a much quicker accent. I was in charge of holding the spear guns over my shoulder and felt somewhat like a soldier hiking up the jungle! Though John wasn’t as thrilled as he was behind me and he had to keep ducking in order not to get speared unwittingly by me.

Once back in the truck Sheldon was feeling up to finishing the “tour” properly and insisted that we go home via making a circle around the Island. This was met with enthusiastic approval and off we went for the 2^nd act of the day. The first stop was just south of Sauteurs to one of my favorite spots in Grenada, the Bathway Beach. A long pristine beach with nothing around and a little bar shack right in the middle. The flag for the current was red so swimming was off, but the local security guard sitting at the bar invited us to join him and insisted that we all partake in a shot of everclear looking rum. I sniffed it, at 100ish proof the odor alone was enough to make you feel woozy. The next stop on our tour took us down the west side past Guoyave to a small fishing village where we stopped at Ian’s friends local woodworking shop/general store/bar/when the lights are dim dancing hall(?) and visited his friends. In fact since we left the Bathways we basically stopped every 20 minuets to some friends place or another until we finally hit St. George and got something to eat.

Grenadians love to sing, and most of the way back we had a mini concert with Alex leading the chorus in the back of the cab and a competing chorus in the front led by Andrew. At one point we passed through a village called “Happy Hill” where we all began singing, “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands” and all the villagers sitting on their porches would clap. In a series of fun and new adventures we’ve had so far, this day definitely ranks up high in our month we’ve spent here. Thanks everyone for a great day and hope to see you all again one day soon!

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