Dear friends and family,

We are back from the holidays after visiting our family!

After Christmas, we were thrilled to be invited to talk about our travels with two fourth-grade classes here in Wyoming. The kids got to see a preview of our travels through South America and Antarctica, which is where this newsletter is headed next. We hope that you’re just as thrilled to see the penguins as they were! (They literally squealed with delight, so you’re gonna have to top that. Get ready.)

That said, we didn’t head straight for the white continent. It took us a few weeks to get positioned, so we planned lots of South American exploring both before and after our Antarctic cruise.

We’ll start at the beginning with vibrant and colorful Colombia!

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Perry’s Travel Diary

Getting there: Colombia Edition

We again used points to book our flights to Colombia, but I did not use any fancy travel-hacking tips this time around. I opened up United.com and looked for the most economical flight options - in this case, it was a one-way saver award from the USA to Colombia for 22,000 miles and $25 in taxes and fees per person.

There are plenty of options for both points and cash fares to Colombia. In many cases, cash fares are very reasonably priced and allow you to choose direct flights from the USA to Bogota, Medellin, or Cartagena. Points options tend to take more complicated routes. In our case, we flew United to Washington, DC, and then took Avianca to Cartagena, Colombia with a connection in Bogota, Colombia.

Avianca is a basic, all-economy airline, like Southwest without the fun flight attendants. There was nothing special to report about the service. It got us there, and that’s what mattered. I’d suggest packing your own food or snacks.

Here’s what was remarkable: the immigration line in Bogota.

This was the worst immigration experience I’ve had since the Baptista Family Houston Airport Immigration Incident of 2002 (which is a story for another time but suffice it to say we also missed our connecting flight that day).

We spent over an hour just standing in the immigration line, not including the time it took to disembark, transfer through customs, or re-clear security. It’s not clear to me why the line was so long other than perhaps a mismatch between the number of immigration officers and the number of flights landing.

Long story short, we missed our connection (which was scheduled to take off just over an hour after we landed), and we ended up spending an exhausting night in a random Bogota hotel courtesy of Avianca Airlines.

If you’re also connecting through Bogota, we recommend a minimum of a 2-hour layover, even though the airlines allow you to book a shorter connection. You can use any extra time to enjoy Avianca’s lounge, available to those with Star Alliance Gold status.

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Pete’s Travel Diary

Cartagena: Old City and Getsemani

Colombia is relatively new to the tourism industry (starting in earnest in the early 2000’s) but has taken to it with gusto and is making great efforts to turn over a new leaf in more reasonable times.

With a storied history spanning the Inquisition’s witch hunts, feuds with privateers, ancient fortresses, an impressive art movement, and its own modern efforts of urban renewal, there is plenty to see and learn in Cartagena, Colombia.

We took two free walking tours - our favorite way to get oriented with a new culture - while we were in Cartagena. Both were with Free Tour Cartagena.

Our first tour was the Old City walking tour, which oriented us to the walled city and Cartagena’s dark history. The town was originally established as a slave-trading port. I have neither the words nor the space to provide a history that will do that any sort of justice.

Instead, an amusing anecdote from our first tour was about the balconies on the sides of the historic buildings. In the colonial days, the number of balcony segments was correlated with your wealth. If you had more than five segments, you were very wealthy. The two longest balconies, both with more than 15-20 segments each, were on buildings belonging to the Catholic church.

“But the church,” our guide dryly noted with a chuckle, ”always says they are poor and need your money.”

During our second tour, we were introduced to the liveliness and passion of the Getsemani neighborhood. Getsemani was formerly the poorest neighborhood in Cartagena, located just outside the walled city, but today it has been transformed into a colorful hipster paradise.

Our tour guide, Luis, who was born in Getsemani and lives there to this day, showed us the excellent murals and various coffee shops, and eventually led us to meet his wife and neighbors as the nightlife started to stir around us. If you want to buy art, this is a great place to do so; the streets are lined with colorful canvases for sale, not just murals.

At face value, the area seemed uncomfortable for the hypervigilant tourist but quickly became warm and welcoming as the night pressed on. Our guide educated us on pickpocketing and to be mindful of any shenanigans or distractions that would open us up for theft. More and more people came out as the evening wore on to eat street food and dance in the main square, and it was abundantly clear that we were all invited to join, too.

Luis, a passionate speaker and educator, showed us a playground next to the walls of the old fortress which he noted was where many of his generation would go to do drugs in their youth. They have since built a safe space for children to play, under the eyes of a very watchful community.

The Getsemani community seems very close-knit and motivated to improve their neighborhood. In one alleyway that used to be renowned for its drug dealers, Getsemani residents hung colorful umbrellas. Within the first two days, so many tourists flooded the alleyway for their Instagram photos that the drug dealers could no longer conduct their business and moved elsewhere. Very smart idea.

When all was said and done, our guide had shown us the way to one of the best burgers I have ever eaten.

Smoked Burgers at La Cosa Nostra

​La Cosa Nostra, a small outdoor restaurant, specializes in smoked burgers and meats. This establishment takes a little time to prepare your meal as it takes time to smoke a burger, though admittedly I have waited longer at fancier restaurants. As the kitchen is in full view of the dining area, you can see the chef prepare your meal with the attentiveness and precision of a neurosurgeon. Your burger arrives on an end-grain wooden platter with all of the fixings you could need for an enjoyable experience.

The fact that this restaurant hasn’t been loudly broadcast to the world on the food channel or by some traveling food critic is astonishing. I’d gladly go back to Cartagena simply for another meal at La Cosa Nostra. The chef and waitstaff are humble and delightful people.

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Itinerary

Hotel

​ibis Cartagena Marbella (~$55/night) - ibis (pronounced ee-bees by Spanish speakers) is a chain of hotels under the Accor umbrella. They offered a small but comfortable, clean, and updated room along Marbella beach, which is a short taxi ride away from the walled city.

We will note that Marbella beach was not our favorite and seemed to be suffering from a red tide during our visit. But if you need a warm beach, it will do just fine.

Food

• ​La Cosa Nostra - The most delicious smoked burgers and meats. Highly recommend! Note that the open-air restaurant is located off an alley and behind a building. There is a host standing on Carrera 10, on the corner of the alley and street next to the art gallery, with a menu. They will direct you to the restaurant.
• ​La Mulata - Located in the old city, this was a tasty and relatively affordable option to try traditional Colombian food. I tried the fish, served in the typical style, and Pete tried the Posta Negra. Both dishes are something you must eat while in Colombia.
• ​Rappi - Rappi is the Uber Eats of South America. We used Rappi to deliver a variety of cheap eats to our hotel.

Transportation

Taxi fares are inexpensive at less than 10,000 COP (~$2 USD) one-way from Marbella beach to the Old City. At that price, it’s not worth the time to learn the local bus system. We used Uber or asked our hotel to arrange a taxi for us.

When you land at Cartagena’s airport, there is a large sign with a QR code that will take you to a current list of taxi prices from the airport to various neighborhoods. Follow this list and use it to negotiate with a taxi driver; our driver did try to charge an extra 1,000-2,000 COP until we pointed at the official price list. The taxi from the airport was less than 20,000 COP (~$4.50), excluding tip.

We did use buses and shuttles when traveling between Colombian cities, which we’ll cover in our next newsletter.

Currency

Colombia uses the Colombian Peso.

We withdrew pesos using the ATM at Cartagena Airport, which is located in the departures hall. At the time of our visit, security guards were only allowing those with departure tickets into the hall (presumably due to COVID-19), but if you ask for the ATM they will let you in.

Make sure to withdraw all the cash you need for your trip - or at least until you’re in another major city. The small jungle towns, like Parque Tayrona and Minca, may not have ATMs.

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Travel Tip of the Week

Google Translate

Colombia - and basically everywhere else in South America except Brazil* - speaks Spanish.

And only Spanish.

Unlike in Southeast Asia, very few local people in South America speak English. You’ll need to have a basic understanding of Spanish if you plan to spend any time traveling the region. (If you need an English speaker, our hotel receptionists were consistently able to speak English. There are also tons of English-speaking tour guides.)

I was thrilled to find out that after 3 years of high school Spanish, I actually can speak a little bit! I sound like a four-year-old with a mouth full of cotton balls, but nonetheless, it’s enough to order food and ask for basic help.

For everything else, we used Google Translate. Just about everyone is familiar with the app, which allows you to write messages, speak aloud, and/or translate text in a photo. We handed our phones back and forth to strangers with written notes on more than one occasion.

Make sure to download the Spanish language file within the app so it’s available offline in case you’re out of cell service.

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*Upon further research for this section, we learned that there are three countries in northern South America that respectively speak English (Guyana), Dutch (Suriname), and French (French Guiana, which is actually a territory, not a country). There are also Portuguese speakers in Venezuela, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The more you know!

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Always,

Pete and Perry

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