Made it



32 feels like 46.  That’s the standard daily weather forecast, and pretty much sums up the weather here (hot and 100% humidty).  Day 3 in Cartagena and I’m still sweating while sitting.  Amy, “bring on the heat Robillard” is loving it.  Stepping off the plane, we had that quintessential experience one has when travelling to hot countries of hitting a wall of air so thick and damp, it’s as if you could reach out and wring it out like a sponge.  But ahhhh, filling our lungs with that first breath...the tropics, we’re here!



The flight(s) was boring, uneventful, and went without a hitch, i.e., perfect.  Ottawa, Toronto, Miami, Cartagena.  It always amazes me when I land in some godforsaken country and standing there at the luggage area, anxiously wondering if all of our “stuff” made it, only to see our 2 huge duffle bags come around the corner followed by our 2 bike boxes – admittedly looking a bit more stressed than when I passed them over to the airline gods – but all alive and well.  Big points to the boys and girls behind the lines that make that happen.



After a rather efficient shuffle through customs – luckily no one asked to see our return ticket, which apparently is law – we found the first cab with a roof rack (OK, a rather small cab, but we were convinced by her confidence that it would be “no problema”) , and bingo bango we were sipping our first rooftop cerveza at “Hotel Villa Colonial” and looking out over our new home. 

 

On a personal note, there are a few key milestone moments that occur for me on every trip.  This is one of them.  The point where you have all your gear, in one pile, in your room, on your first night upon arrival.  It’s the point where all the planning, all the preparation, all the packing, and all the planes, trains, buses, and taxis you took to get to this one moment, are officially behind you, and this, this is the start of the trip.  Everything is in place and in front of us.  Love it.

The immediate agenda is easy.  We’re taking a few days to relax, drink cerveza (only to replace our fluids of course), walk around this beautiful city on the edge of the Caribbean – Cartagena de Indies, the name just exudes intrigue – acclimatize, go to the beach,  and get our feet wet with the lingo, street food, and travel scene here.  Sounds stressful, I know, but we’ll just have to tough it out.   In a few days, when we’ve decided we’ve had enough lounging around, we’ll load up the bikes, see if they work, then head towards the beach towns of Santa Marta and Taganga.  More on that and Cartagena soon.