Cartagena, Colombia

If someone had told me I'd get a chance to visit a South American country where drug cartels are rampant, I'd have scoffed at the idea. And then I would have had another drink. Well, I DID have the chance, and because a former student of mine (Linnea) spent two years teaching in Cartagena and lived to tell about it, I figured we could get off the "Big Boat" and take our chances on a walking tour of the Old City (as opposed to the modern part of Cartagena). Old buildings, narrow streets, and a feeling of a place that has seen a lot of history always offer intrigue, so despite the ungodly heat and humidity for the few hours we were docked at the Port of Cartagena, it was a fascinating place to visit.

If you ever go there and get the urge to take the Old City walking tour with a local man named Lee as your guide, DON'T---unless shopping for emeralds (Cartagena is known for its emeralds) in shops that appear to be run by Lee's relatives and closest friends is something you are eager to do. That aside, here are some photos from Cartagena. I have more, but here is a sampling.

San Felipe de Barajas fortification

Local color:  Fruit hat ladies are everywhere. 

For a buck, you can get them to pose for a picture. 

I just stole one.

 Former dungeon in the Old City. Now, the cells are filled with shops.

Lee's emerald-selling buddies work here. 

Many buildings are painted in jewel tones.

This brilliant blue building in a residential area caught my eye...

 as did this colorful balcony.

Julio Iglesias lives here some of the time. He's having his place 

renovated, so we didn't get to stop in to say "hola".

Julio is just down the street from 

Gabriel García Márquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude), 

who wasn't home, either.

Bicycles as taxis

 Vendors are everywhere on the street.

This lemonade vendor also sells "llamadas", or "minutos"-- the use of his cell phone to make calls. Very common sight in the streets of Cartagena.
(It is now a day after I first posted this entry and it just occurred to me that Krok and Brenda could make a living like this. They have lemons galore on their tree in Arizona, and they've been giving them away until now. Sound like a good retirement business venture, Krok??)

 Restaurante

Tourist-watchers

 What we couldn't capture on film was the heat and humidity. Who knew 
that the closer a person is the Equator, it got so dang hot? Ha ha!

Aruba

If you're interested, I'll be posting pictures of the ports and locales we visited while on the "Big Boat" trip. If you're not interested, check back in a few weeks. It will take me that long to get this done!

We left from Ft. Lauderdale. Really intriguing to watch a huge cruise ship maneuver its way out of the harbor. People who live by the water come outside to wave at cruise ship passengers, and the passengers oblige by waving back. 

The Island Princess, docked in Ft. Lauderdale

Krok (taking a photo), Brenda, some guy we don't know, 

and Paco as we shoved off.

 Here's our armed escort, speeding alongside the Island Princess,

protecting us from pirates (apparently!).

While we were in Aruba so were the media because of a refocusing of interest on the Natalee Holloway murder. All of that was going on several blocks from where we meandered, but it was on our minds.  I can't say I'd ever want to go back--it's a lot like going to the State Fair but on an island. Lots of color, food aromas, heat and humidity, and people selling things everywhere. Here are some of the sights...

 Aruba has beautiful Dutch-influenced 

buildings in Miami Beach colors.

 

A banana bus--we thought it would appeal to Ira.

For the Kroks

Dear Brenda and John,

Larry got up this morning and couldn't find the Horizon Court. Later, he realized he'd forgotten how to make the bed and tried to call the cabin steward for assistance. When our bedroom window wouldn't open up onto a deck view of the Pacific Ocean, he gave up and went grocery shopping.  I refuse to pull the chair out for him at dinner tonight or to give him a wine list. To make matters worse, we're out of Baked Alaska, Floating Islands, Limoncello sorbet, and Bananas Foster. And it's no fun to make up our own trivia questions (at least we get the answers right!). Where's the Island Princess when you need her??!

Thanks for encouraging us to take the Panama Canal cruise. Time to work on laundry.

Jill and Larry

More birthdays!

We celebrated November birthdays over the weekend, since we had the  entire Potts/Dellon/Grimmius group in the house. Happy Birthday to Angie this week, (on Thursday) and to Miles next week (on Tuesday)! Can you guess how old each of the November Birthday Buddies is this year?

Grandpa Charlie

Today would have been Grandpa Charlie's 87th birthday. We had lots of happy birthday parties with him over the years. I miss him. Here's one of my favorite pictures of Gpa C. Reps, with baby Hannah in the summer of 2007. He got to meet all but his two most recent great-grandchildren, but as I've written before, he loved to remind me that he knew about Elisabeth's and Annie's pregnancies before I did. I wish he could have met Vivian and Weston--he loved being a great-grandpa.

Fun-filled weekend

Great to have everyone here this weekend. The biggest accomplishment while kids and grandkids were under one roof was getting the six little kids to sit on a couch together long enough for a photo that was not blurry, and in which no one was crying or trying to get away. Here's one that fits the criteria:

Owen, Ethan, Hannah, Vivian, Miles, & Weston

This weekend

Beautiful weekend in Minnesota! Thank goodness, because we have yard work to do today. Dad is going to deal with gathering leaves for the city pick-up this coming week (always a crap shoot, betting on whether the piles of leaves get vacuumed up before they kill the grass) and I'm going to clean and put away lawn furniture. Much better to do all of this on a fair weather day in the low 60's than in the low 40's, as often happens.

Yesterday Dad/Larry/Paco and I went to Spring Valley so brother Mike and I could continue the work on cleaning out Gpa Charlie's house. The basement was our main target, and we got a LOT done. There's still plenty to do, but we made significant progress. When we got home last night (after a stop in O-Town to have pizza with A, T, M, and W) I sent Mike an email, sharing my sudden realization that his ability to maintain a higher level energy for filling boxes and carrying them upstairs than I could is because he is 12 years younger than I am!  He countered by saying he felt 12 years older by the time he got home. I guess we're temporarily even.

Going through the accumulation of my parents' lives in the house on Hillcrest Drive, I was reminded that I lived an ordinary life as a child, in an ordinary family in a small town. There was nothing special about where we lived or how we lived. I have no complaints in that regard--it was a happy and safe place to grow up.

While Mike and I were mostly focused on separating items into throw-away, auction, keep, or leave for Mark to go through next week, Dad/Paco/Larry took time to look at some family documents -- birth, baptism, and marriage certificates, a will or two, military papers, etc. -- which I plan to take time to review when we're done with the clean-out work. 

There were no big discoveries as we sorted and tossed, but there was a nostalgic reminder of what we've heard over and over since Gpa Charlie's death ... that he was a solid citizen, a good friend and neighbor, and a person admired and respected for his work as a teacher, coach, and community member. We found out that Gpa Charlie had once been named a WCCO Good Neighbor. Who knew? Newspaper articles, certificates, and plaques -- symbols of his dedication to school and community life in a little town in southeastern Minnesota are gathered in boxes now, sitting on a table in the basement of his house, memorials of a life well lived.

---------------

Dad/Larry/Gpappy also went to the cemetery to take a photo of another memorial to Gpa Charlie and to Grandma Bene. My aunt Mary Lou sent an email recently, saying Marguerite's daughter Diane (and son-in-law Martin) had been in MN to visit, and took Marguerite to the cemetery in SV.  Marguerite told Mary Lou that we'd gotten a different headstone, but Mary Lou was skeptical. Of course it's the same headstone--designed by Mike and Margot.