Colombia Part 1: The Arrival

We arrived after a loooong flight into Cartagena around 2:35pm, walked a block to hop a van to Barranquilla, which of course meant total confusion on price and destination. Why? I don't know, it's just always that way here. Commence the crazy, death defying, go-kart race of a van ride. Here, tailgaiting, break slamming and illegal passing that misses creating human road kill is the norm. Also a bit fun....in a sick way.

Van 2 proves better, as in plush seats and warm darkness that provokes sleep. So sleep I did, and not just due to exhaustion bit because I had to pee, bad. Sleep just helped me forget that fact. Taxi ride after van took us up the hill and over to Taganga. Greeted by cool winds we finally had arrived at our first destination.

After quick hellos to Brit and Nathan we trudged down to the main strip along the Caribbean Sea for some eats. Settled on my fav pizza lady. Pizza? In Colombia? Oh yes, all handmade freshness that makes your tastebuds go crazy. Since this isn't a food review I'll stop there.

Tired and kinda grimmy from a near 24 hour travel we crawled into bed - I called the top bunk - and slept a solid 9 hours. Well, the 6am sunrise and massive amount of birds did have us briefly up, but nonetheless we slept great. Breakfast of fresh fruit, granola, juice and Colombian coffee provided fuel for our little hike to see a great view of Playa Grande, Fisherman's Beach and the Tagangan Bay before we took a nice dip in the sea, stared at bare-assed Colombian women in bikinis and Colombian families taking in the sun on their January breaks at the beach.

Lunch of homemade soup filled with delicious local veggies and chicken and then a little siesta. Sundown shopping trip for necessities: Coke, lime, rum and arrepas. Oh - we also indulged in a deep fried egg covered in deep fried breading, followed by deep fried potato with, oh yes, hot dog and hard boiled egg. Won't be repeating that one!

We will be hanging here in Taganga enjoying the relaxed pace of life before jetting off to Cartagena and then....you'll have to wait and see!! Okay, off to enjoy the Tagangan night with friends - new and old!

Flight delay

You know it's amazing the way things are sometimes meant to work out. For instance, I was set to depart on a red-eye flight from San Francisco to Miami as I made my way to Barbados for my vacation. On the plane. Whoops, mechanical problems. All fixed. Set to go. Haha kidding. Still mechanical problems. So at 1:15am we are told to deboard the plane in hopes of hopping on a new one. Oh how they tease. Cancelled. So now I am stuck on a standby ticket on a 6am flight. The only flight that can get me to Barbados that same day. Lovely.

Frustrated I decide to step outside to get some fresh air. After sitting there a number of moments I am informed by a nice lady that I can't get back through security now until 4am. It is only 1:30am. So I settle in for a nice chilly night outside with the smokers, because after all those are basically the only other idiots who chose to exit the secured area. Addicts. Turns out one of them ends up being a pretty cool chica named Kristen. Kristen is a coast guard electrician who basically spends her life travelling about and fixing, well, electrical problems on ships. Makes sense. She is also more than likely into women. Just saying. Anyways, her and I ended up spending the nexgt number of hours shootin the shit and learning all about each other's travels, jobs and all that good stuff that complete strangers feel the need to exchange when they find themselves in the fun situation of being stuck outside the San Francisco airport at 1:30am in the morning.

Time flies, chat, chat, chat and then we finally saunter inside to get in line for security that opens at 4am. Oh ha, now that would be just too easy if that worked out accordingly right? Of course right. Security will now now open until 4:30am. Second in line we begin to do what we do best, which is apparantly talk to more strangers. Enter Heather and Steve.

We start going through all the same ol' intros. Where we are from, where we are going, were you on the cancelled flight too and so on. We get to the part about what we do for a living and whoa is me, these people are in the cheese and seed business here in California. No way. Did they know about Tillamook Cheese? Of course, they eat it. Did they know it was farmer-owned? Um no, bout now they do. Also come to find out they are going to be at the same event as my co-workers this weekend. Oh what a small little world. Just so happy to have found some kindred spirits we all go and grab some early morning grub. That is after we made it through security and everyone had fun pointing and laughing at my as I went through the additional pat down by the TSA. I now know that long skirts/dresses will guarantee you additional screening. Apparantly you can too easily shove some additional whatevas up there.

Heather and Steve are off to catch their flights after card exchanges, handshakes and an open invitation to come and tour their farm when I get back into the area. Oh wait, something possibly even cooler happened before the flight cancellation that I failed to have mentioned. Excited to be heading to Barbados, and honestly wanting to keep my goodbye buzz going, I decided to grab a quick drink at the bar. Little did I know I would be having breakfast at this same place just hours from now. This is where I met my first new friend of the day, Bob, or Robert if you please. After a good 30 minutes of good conversation about our lives, he was on his way to a funeral in Illinois, I spoke about my grandmother just passing and work stuff of course (and yes he likes our cheese). After learing more about my new friend - he's divorced but has a good relationship fir the most part with his ex, his cell broke today but got a new one just in time to head to the airport and stuff like that, he excuses himself to go and catch his flight. Before he departs he gives me his information with a personal invite for me and a friend to come up to Paso Robles where he lives and take an aerial tour of the vinyards. Back up, private plane ride? I ever so casually ask him as I am shaking his hand, "Oh, you have a plane? You fly?" Oh yes, yes, for years now and apparantly I really must come up and check it out.

Needless to say after what nearly caused me an anxiety attack, I am the last person to be allowed on the plane, I am finally off to Miami in hopes to get on my flight to Barbados! Just think, if it weren't for those lame mechanical issues I would have never met these great people. That is what I keep telling myself after loosing an entire day in the Barbadan sun.

On the road again...

I am officially beyond proud of myself. After many years of traveling about, I think I have mastered the art of the packing job. I am shocked that with my first shot at a packing list and my first attempt at a "mock-pack" everything fit! For once I have no ridiculous emotional attachment to that stupid sweater I never wear, but may need of course, or that one skirt that wouldn't go with anything but I just love too much to part with. Now believe me, I am nowhere close to being able to pack just one pair of shoes or roll around like a smelly hippie with dreadlocks and one dingy white button up with brown cordoroy pants. I still need me some comfort clothes of sorts. Like my jewelry and every bra that I own. Of course I overpack on the undies too. You just never know, and dirty undies are so far from okay.

So with one bag (one!) and a carry-on, I am venturing off to spend the next 11 months on the road representing one of the best Oregon brands ever - Tillamook Cheese people! Hopefully the constant access to incredible cheese will not increase the size of my already bootilicious figure - I may have packed well but have no space for XXL size clothing by any means. I did pack my workout clothes, and unlike previous trips I didn't take them out last minute to make space for another dress and pair of heels. I feel so grown-up :)

Adios Portland, Oregon! See you in November!

Cheesy goodness

As many of you may know, I finally got myself a damn job! Of course, knowing my style it's not going to be anything normal right?! So folks, I am embarking on an 11 month tour throughout many a lovely U.S. state to slang cheese. Mmm....queso. While I originally debated back and forth as to doing a six week on/off dealio, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for the gold so to speak. A lot of this decision came down to the fact that I didn't want to miss out on spending a good deal of time in sunny San Diego or miss seeing some crazy ass mountains in Utah and Colorado.

I couldn't be more thrilled to be living in hotels either. There's just something about mini-lotions and shower caps that make me smile. Not to mention I don't have to clean a toilet, scrub a shower or make my bed for nearly a year. Oh the joy! While I will kinda-sorta miss my friends (I may shed a tear for one or two of you) and my family (you all better keep in touch!!), I know this experience will be up there with others I have had in my life as of yet. Thankfully I am young so if it sucks I have plenty of time to make this year up. Just saying.

Destination location: The airport please

I used to be one of those people that got all snobby and thought the U.S. doesn't have any real culture. I mean, come on people, it's not culture unless it twirls in fancy skirts, beats drums, speaks a foreign language, has weird food you can't identify, and well, basically looks nothing like a purebred white boy with a Boston cap - right? Oh no, no, no this is just not true, so I am learning. There are so many sub-cultures that exist in this sprawling country from west coast, to the south, the north and to the east (and all those useless states in the middle right?) we are different, some might say unique really, with little splendors that set us just the slightest bit apart from one another. The great thing about it is, I don't need to play golf in Arizona, deep sea fish in the San Juan Islands, ride a horse in Texas, catch some jazz in New Orleans, or hail a cab in New York City to get the gist of what these people are like. I just need about 10 minutes in their airport.

It should really be a vacation package of sorts, what with all the great restaurants, bookstores, upscale duty-free shopping, sometimes free music if you're lucky, plus the walls are adorned with great local facts, figures and pictures of the area. Why leave? Some could even be considered Eco-tourism, like Portland, which has a very sustainable airport you know. I'm digressing here, back to the people and culture. My travels have allowed me to stop off in many different airports and therefore given me just a glimpse into the local cultures and I thought I would share a few of those with you now, tell me if I am stereotyping too much by all means:

• Chicago: rude (a little smile and hello is much welcomed after being out of the country for 6 damn months thank you), dirty, gray, crowded, good looking businessmen, cold, great food, drab with only a hint of fun in the sports bar.
• Los Angeles: lack of intelligence (don't get me started here), crowded, an air of haughtiness, wait a minute am I in Mexico?, great variety of salads, lots of colorful clothes, fake boobies, fake blondes, lots of "important people" and nothing is on time.
• Hawaii: very friendly ("Aloha! Oh my, I am so sorry, but it looks like you have been randomly selected for additional screening. Is that okay? Mahalo." I'm not kidding), great tropical drinks, breezy tropical breezes, lots of flowers, smiles all around, no worries, no rush.
• Arizona: nobody pays any attention to anything, lots of tan people, the majority are pretty fit looking, people seem smart, they may own stock in the khaki shorts and sun visor industry, golf shirts everywhere and most of the women look like soccer moms with extra, sun-freckled cleavage and bachelor's degrees.
• Charlotte: more "colorful" if you will, fried food at every gate, people appeared a bit, um, stupid really with how they talk ("We be boarding zone 1 and 2 now" & "You be allowed one carry on..."), slow walkers, less fit in appearance that Arizona that's for sure, no apparent style to be noted, unless stretch cotton is the new thing.
• Portland: uber clean, bright, very "green," tons of stuff about nature all over, coffee shops galore, 8 out of 10 people wear brown shoes (this is my own personal survey I have conducted many times over the years), lots of readers, and super friendly people who keep to themselves.
• San Fran: almost as rude as Chicago, rushing, everything is a rush, good looking people everywhere (if you are into the stock broker looking, leather shoes, trench coat thing, yum), newspapers abound, good food variety, lots of coffee options, confusing, everyone appears to be doing something or going somewhere.