I have decided to post just one more, probably much shorter, post, but who knows, I could get carried away. Only because our travel home was ridiculous…and I tend to get carried away.

So the plan for the day was as follows:

1. Wake up at 6am and go to airport.

2. Get to airport 3 hours before our 10 o’clock flight, just in case. (Foreshadowing)

3. Get the entire family through security and on the plane without difficulty.

4. Fly from Bogotá to Miami, arriving around 3pm EST

  5. Drive all night to Tallahassee, arriving around 2am.

But in reality, we only successfully accomplished the first 2 and the last. Here’s what really happened…

We woke up at 6am, as planned, and got ready really quickly and got to the airport super early. So objectives 1 and 2 complete. One of the very first things we see when we enter the airport is the giant flight screen letting us know that our flight to Miami was delayed, wait for it…

…

…

FOUR HOURS. Thank God that my grandpa convinced us to get there 3 hours early.

So my mom, being the outstanding negotiator that she is, asked Avianca if there was anyway we could get back to Florida early, and they gave us seats on a plane to Ft. Lauderdale. We were thrilled, but guess what, we soon realized that our car was in Miami…

We told Avianca that we still had a problem and they said they would give us free transportation to Miami. Needless to say, I love Avianca for this. Also, they have ridiculously good pilots.

Anyway, the Ft. Lauderdale flight took off at 9:40…I think, and we arrived in the US around 2:40, about the time the flight to Miami would have taken off.

So my grandpa went to Miami to get our car, we rented a car, dropped my grandma off at the Motel they were planning on staying in (they weren’t planning on going back with us anyway), and we headed for Tallahassee. 

30 minutes of sleep, 3 cokes, 1 frappuccino, and 1 Dr. Pepper later, we were home. It was probably one of the most exciting moments of my life.

Don’t get me wrong, Colombia was a great experience, and I truly enjoyed it, but 31 days is a long time to go without seeing half your family. We were all ready to get home, but now that I’m back, I’m starting to miss it, and I hope I get the opportunity to return before too long. I’m sure that in a couple weeks I’ll be missing Colombia more than ever.

So we finally left Santa Marta. It was hot, muggy, and the house was crowded. It was enjoyable stay, but needless to say, we were all ready to leave.

We headed back to Barranquilla for to stay with my cousins again before flying to Bogotá, and the three days we were in Barranquilla were definitely the most fun so far on the trip. We got to my cousins’ house Monday afternoon and didn’t do much that day, but I did get this nice example picture of three pretty large trucks squeezing into the road side-by-side.

But the real fun started on Tuesday night. Our cousin kept telling us about these awesome go-karts when we were previously staying at his house, but we never got the opportunity to try them out, so we decided we had to before leaving for Bogotá. These go-karts were the funnest, most dangerous go-karts I have ever ridden. They go ridiculously fast, but the best part was drifting around the sharp turns. I somehow managed not to get thrown out after hitting my mom two or three times, John a couple times, and my grandpa once……but no one was hurt; although my knee was pretty bruised. The point is, it was awesome. So awesome that we returned the next night. I’m proud to say that I played a clean game and managed to win the first race. In fact, John almost got kicked out for hitting me twice, but I must admit that it wasn’t as bad as any of my hits the previous day. David won the second race, along with his name on the board of fastest times in the number 4 position! He was using one of the karts they had just finished working on, and he said it was a lot faster than the others, scary even. I’m not trying to take credit away from his good time. If anything it’s more difficult and takes more skill to drive a faster car around turns as sharp as those. Here’s David going super fast.

We headed out for the airport the next morning. Unfortunately Grandma got really sick that morning, and also on the flight because of the turbulence. I, personally, enjoy flying and turbulence because it’s like being on a rollercoaster.

My aunt’s house is huge…and so is her dog, but I love her dog. His name is Gaston, and he’s amazing. He’s the guard dog, and he’s extremely intimidating, especially when he runs at you barking. When we first arrived here, he would constantly think us to be intruders whenever we’d come downstairs because he wasn’t used to us, but after I spent a lot of time playing with him, he got used to me, and he’s a a really sweet dog.

Oh, and I also met some really awesome bears in the grocery store. We walked in and I saw three big blue bears walking from the back of the store. I grabbed on and asked to take a picture and he did. So that was cool, but next thing I know I’m being picked up by this other bear who saw we were taking pictures. Thus…

Two days after my cousins took my family to the outskirts of Bogotá, and we explored an old Native American site. We hiked a ways up the mountains to a lagoon that the Natives used for ceremonial offerings.

They would set gold on the surface of the lagoon and let it sink to the bottom, but when the Spanish conquistadors showed up they stole a lot of the gold from the edges of the lagoon, but the lagoon is so deep that there is still tons of gold lying at the bottom of the lagoon.

I saw a bright green frog.

Our tour guide, who was a descendant of these Natives, was saying that the water from the lagoon at one point filled the bowl-shaped mountains to the brim…pretty crazy, look.

So then we went out to dinner, blah blah blah.

The next few days we did a lot of walking around the city and shopping and stuff. We went to the main plaza with the Mayor’s house, a big Cathedral, and the main Bank.

the next day we went to lunch at my cousins’ house. They took us to the huge library which was built to resemble a shell. My favorite part about the library was running on the slanted walls. It sounds a lot lamer than it was. It really was awesome.

Then we went to the athletic training center for a short while and watched this dude jump off the high jumps.

That night we roamed around the mall. I tried out a 3D TV (Not that great) and a 3DS (Awesome).

Oh! We were without water the next day, by the way.

The next day we went took cable cars up a mountain to an old Cathedral which looks onto another mountain with a huge statue of Jesus on it. After a lot of shopping we headed back down and did some more walking. First to the house of the liberator of Colombia, then to a Crepes and Waffles, and all the way back home.

And today was great. I stayed home, watched The Other Guys, and relaxed all day. It was nice to rest up.

Well, I don’t think the trip really includes many more adventures since we’re so close to the end, so this could very well be the last post. We have 3 more days to do stuff, a day of packing, and then we head back. I wish I could say the trip has blown by, but it’s the exact opposite. It feels like it has been forever since I was back in Tallahassee. It has been a great experience, but a LONG experience, and I’m ready to go home. I expect the next few days we’ll do a little with the family, but spend most of the time getting the last of our presents for YOU, then it’s time to pack up and say good-bye.

This is my cousins’ kitten…Meow

It’s been a long time since my last blog, and I’ve done a lot since, so I have a lot of things to write about. My only concern is that I may not remember everything, but I’ll do my best.

I believe I left off the day before we toured the Old Town. We got up early in the morning and headed to an old Colombian monastery called La Popa. It was alright. I don’t remember a whole lot, and I forgot my camera this day…so sorry.

After La Popa we headed to one of the old Forts. I enjoyed this part of the tour a lot, even though I didn’t really listen to our tour guide and it started raining. Basically, I just ran around in the underground tunnels the whole time with John, David, and Gabe. It was great. There was this one tunnel that just kept winding down and down and down…to a dead end. But it was really fun jumping out and scaring others who were walking around in the tunnels…it was very dark.

I think the best part of that day, however, was taking a picture with the fruit basket lady in the market. Sadly enough I don’t have the picture on hand, but check it our on Facebook.

I also got to tube that day with Gabe and my Grandpa. It wasn’t that great. They only took you for like 3 minutes, but it was cheap, and the water felt nice.

The next day we went to the sight of the Inquisition in Cartagena. Once again, I forgot my camera, but it was just nasty, cruel torture equipment.

Then  headed to Santa Marta. It’s a much hotter city. The first two days we didn’t do much. We explored the small mall, but that wasn’t too exciting.

Yesterday we visited the Santa Marta aquarium, which was fun at first, but once it started getting really hot, I wanted to leave. We took a small boat around a peninsula to get to the aquarium, and I realized that the one thing about Santa Marta that is better than Cartagena is the water. It’s much more clear and much much more pretty.

The first thing we did at the aquarium was watch a sea lion do tricks. Did you know that the difference between a walrus and a sea lion is that walruses need to wiggle in order to move around, but sea lions can walk. Very interesting indeed. We also watched dolphins play soccer…

Today had been the best day so far in Santa Marta. We went to a Jungle Preserve sort of place with Indian artifacts. There was a mini zoo as well with some monkeys, a couple of toucans, and so on and so forth. My cousin’s uncle owns the sight, so we got to hangout in the hammocks. I took a nap in mine. Then we got to jump in the river and swim around, and at the end of the day we floated all the way down the river to our cars. QUITE an adventure, I must say.

But despite the wonderful experiences I do greatly miss my home, family, and friends, and I can’t wait to be back, but I’m really enjoying this experience because I know it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Here’s a picture of a macaw.

Whenever you come to Colombia, someone in your group is bound to get sick. Well, I was lucky enough to be taken out first. I’ll refrain from going into detail, but yesterday was a very miserable day.

We planned to leave for Cartagena early yesterday morning. Well, when I woke up extremely sick plans changed. I was basically immobile for the rest of the day so my family (excluding my mom and my aunt) took off to Cartagena without us. Lucky for me my aunt is a doctor and quickly revived me of my illness, so we were able to make it to Cartagena today, and it turned out to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve even seen.

The thing I love most about Cartagena is how much it resembles my favorite place in the world, Panama. Even better, our apartment is positioned perfectly for the sunsets.

The downtown is pretty amazing too, in my opinion. I like the street salespeople the best even though some people find them annoying, but I like being able to interact with them and use some simple Spanish, usually, “No, gracias.”

After our downtown exploration we decided to take a party bus to the grocery store…enough said. Then the funniest thing of the day happened in the grocery store when my grandfather decided it would be a good idea to find a pretty girl and get her to take a picture with David. I haven’t figured out why he thought that was a good idea, but he succeeded getting the girl to take a picture with David, and if you know David, you know how that was funny. 

Today was a much more enjoyable day than yesterday. We mainly relaxed from the travel of the past two days, but it was nice to rest.

I spent the entire afternoon reading the rest of The Order of the Phoenix, and when I finished we went out to explore the city. First we visited my grandmother’s old house.  

I believe she lived down the street from the house Shakira grew up in, but I could be mistaken. We spent a while there listening to my grandmother reminisce about her childhood memories.

Afterwards we headed to my grandmother’s cousin’s house. (Oh, and I had The Half-Blood Prince with me the entire time, taking every opportunity to read.) At my grandmother’s cousin’s house, my grandfather told me an interesting story about an ancestor of mine that my grandmother remembers from when she was about nine. I don’t remember the story perfectly well, but this man was a Colombian pilot who once crash landed in the Amazon river. None of the bodies were found after years of searching and he was said to have died. My grandmother remembers the funeral as well. Anyway, I think the story goes that on a TV show where they investigate missing people, they found a man who claimed to be my lost ancestor living in the jungle as a doctor. I’ll have to get my grandparents to tell me the story again, but that’s as much as I can recall.

So once we left my grandmother’s cousin’s house we were taken to an old, fancy restaurant where many famous Colombian artists and poets would come and get drunk and high and mess around. Apparently the restaurant was very popular among the wealthy, but it closed down years ago, and was recently refurbished to, I believe, act as a memorial for the famous Colombians. It was an odd place, but the food was amazing

I don’t remember all the names, but the drink at the top left was called zapote. It was a fruity beverage that reminded me of a strawberry milkshake. The biggest plate on the left side was a rice and meet meal, and the other two dishes were VERY fatty, unhealthy meats. There are also limes (which are actually called lemons in Colombia) on the plates used to add flavor to the meat.

Then we ended the day with a pizza dinner. I didn’t eat any pizza because I had a large portion of the rice and meat, not to mention two large glasses of zapote. The pizza place resembled a Chucky Cheese’s. It had a huge play area with a gigantic slide and some games.

There really isn’t much to do in Barranquilla, to be honest. It’s a rather boring city. Sort of like the Tallahassee of Colombia, but we leave for Cartagena on Friday, and I can’t explain how excited I am for that. It’s funny, this trip is going to get better and better as we go on. We start off in the least exciting city, and then gradually the cities become more and more exciting, then we finish off the trip in Bogota where there is much to do.

We finally flew into Barranquilla, Colombia this afternoon. The difference in culture hasn’t really bothered me much. I’m pretty custom to Hispanic culture because it’s pretty much half of my life, so I’m used to everyone speaking a language I understand very little of, the different (better) food, and the significantly smaller personal bubbles of every person on the street. Oh yes, I’m used to greeting people with hugs and kisses everyday. Well, I’m mainly around family, but the majority I have never met before in my life.

Anyway, the adventure today started on our way to the Miami airport. It wasn’t supposed to be but a half-hour drive to the carport, yet a malfunction with our GPS caused us to stray, luckily not far. So we finally got to the carport, and we realized we had too many bags, so we were further delayed as we crammed luggage into other suitcases, and we finally took off for the airport. Lucky for us, my grandpa was smart enough to suggest we get an early start in case we, for some reason, needed extra time. On the downside my attempts to read Harry Potter mostly failed due to the constant diversions of disagreeing Grandparents over which way to go to get to the carport.

Nothing exciting really happened at the airport or on the plane. Once again, I didn’t get as much reading done as I would have hoped, but I DO have 4 weeks to finish.

Considering that our flight ended around 4:30 AND we still had to go through baggage claim, immigration security, and customs, we didn’t have time to do anything today. Although, the bus ride to my cousins house was rather…informative. I learned that I never want to drive in Colombia. Most of the roads don’t have separate lanes, the majority of automobiles on the streets include buses, taxis, and motorcycles, and whenever there ARE separated lanes in the streets, no one pays attention to the. It’s just like a blob of unorganized vehicles crammed together in rather small roads. Imagine a road a little smaller than Meridian Road (the whole road, going both ways). Well, at some points there would be 3 rows of rather large trucks and buses packed in a road that small, not to mention the constant blurs motorcycles zipping between the tight cracks between cars. I don’t see how anyone could drive on roads like that. I’d be freaking out.

So the bus dropped us off at my cousins’ and I got to meet some family members I had never met before, and we had dinner, talked, and now I’m writing this.

I didn’t necessarily choose the BEST day to blog about. In fact, I probably chose the worst. I expect that as my 4 week adventure continues I will come across much better stuff to blog about, but those of you (of my 3 followers) who managed to make it through this entire blog can now understand that today was a drag…