Went to Colombia & made it back!

Posted on November 13, 2008

Only 42 more sleeps until the Big Red Guy comes to town. Christmas decorations are already lining all the store shelves and the Christmas vibe is here…. exciting, but I am not even close to being ready!

Hello from deep in the Central American jungle.

Hello, happy reading and looking at lots of pictures. You can always click on a picture to enlarge to see it better. One day I will figure out how to be more whizzy but for the time being I will work with what I know.

It is time for an update on our non NORMAL life (as my friend Jennifer) told me. She made it very clear that if I thought for a moment we were normal then I better think again… because we are NOT. Thank you for the clarification..haha..

The kids were just off school for a week here in Panama and a few other holidays to celebrate in November. The city was deserted as everyone left for the interior for the extended weekend.
We took advantage of the days off school and packed our suit cases and left this ghost town for some family time away.

SOME MANY HOLIDAYS! – the kids like it

November 3rd – Separation from Colombia
November 4th – Flag Day
November 5th – Colon Day
November 10th – First Call for Independence
November 28th – Anniversary of Independence from Spain
December 8th – Mothers Day (lucky for me I get to celebrate twice… for being a bit Panamaian and a whole lot Canadian in May…haha…

What have we been up to??? – Always an interesting question.

Trent finally convinced me to leave the comfort of my computer to leave it far behind to drive over an hour out of the city to Arenosa to go fishing for the day.

Firstly, I am not a huge fisherman. I do not understand how one likes to put a hook on the end of fishing line and then tease the fish to come take the bait…. just so you can then pierce the sharp end into their mouth … all for the fun of it 🙁

I agreed to this so called adventure for the kids and my nagging husband.

We boarded the boat which the kids have done many few times before so they were very comfortable with everything, BUT we must remember this was my first time out with Trent and the kids. I was not so comfortable with my little kids having rods & hooks in their hands casting off in all directions.

It was kinda gross the boys playing with the bucket of minos, squishing them and then loosing them on the deck. After minutes of mino playing they would come over to me for hugs and kisses (nothing can make me refuse those though)

I was especially challenged with Everett being so close to the edge of the boat standing up having no guard rail preventing him from falling into the cold water that crocodiles live in. Hello am I the only one who thinks this is crazy TRENT?

So it is safe to say that Trent says I never have to go fishing again and I am thankful for that. I could not imagine a better way to waste my time. They say fishing is relaxing… I did not find a single minute to do that… fishing is just not for me.

I did like taking pictures though of my kids who love to fish, they have been hypnotized by their Pappa. Everett prays everynight to go fishing again… they are like their daddy that is for sure.

(Easton with his hands in the bucket of minos… hundreds of minos)

(I found it peaceful to see the smiles on their faces, but that was it)

(here is my family with our fishing guide… look closely and you can see Emma right at the edge of the boat… ahhh the anxiety… )p.s. Trent loves having a fishing guide… he does all the gross stuff

(Everett playing with the poor minos again… boys will be boys… can’t live without them)

(great bonding time for them. It was worth the boredom to witness these moments)

(Emma was the winner of the biggest fish caught that day… she loves fishing)

(the three captains ready to head back to base to eat… they had a great day)

My Mom Came to Visit…

On Oct 18th my mom made a surprise visit to Panama to see the kids. I found out about the plans (Trent is not very sneaky) but the kids went crazy when they saw her at the airport. They were completely surprised.

Before we left for the airport we told the kids we had to pick up a friend of Trent’s. When we were waiting for my mom to come through the security doors out walked a guy we know down here in Panama, the kids were ready to escort him to our truck, even wrestle & tackle him. It was pretty funny and what are the chances of seeing him right then and there. Minutes later my mom walked through the doors and it took a few moments for the kids to register that is was their MAMMA.

It was great having her down here and the kids are excited for you to come back Mom. To my surprise my Mom was even brave enough to take the kids to the mall to go mini golfing and she drove all by herself. Emma & my mom also ordered pizza something Trent & I don’t even attempt and it actually showed up. Our babysitter who is Panamaniam has ordered pizza before and nothing came. Very proud of you mom, you did way more than I thought you would do. Life is not that hard here… well maybe but manageable..lol

While my mom was down here we took advantage to venture off for a few days. Trent originally wanted to go to his favorite city LAS VEGAS BABY but even though it was only a $400.00 flight from Panama to Vegas it was also a 7.5 hour flight. To far for a short time. Sooo with some convincing and twisting of Trent’s arm we headed to Cartagena COLOMBIA instead.

Funny story… we said good-bye to the kids, told them to have fun with Mamma for a few days and they even got to miss school to hang out with her. Trent & I were excited for the adventure and felt good with leaving the kids as all our plans had panned out smoothly.

We arrived at the airport, checking in at the counter the lady says to us “I’m sorry sir your tickets have been issued for tomorrow the 22nd not today the 21st.” Between our travel agent and Trent the dates got mixed up… (i guess that is what happens when two men plan things… they miss details) haha… except for Jeff Simpson :- )

The very nice girl at the Copa counter managed to get us on the flight to Cartagena with a small fee of course.

Our plane was delayed so we arrived at night. It is always interesting arriving in a new place at night because your senses are heightened as things look so different at night than in the day light. Going through security Trent even made the comment about “how mean the police looked” They were some very intimidating dudes. All went perfect, no issues, no drugs smuggled in our bags and we arrived at our hotel without being kidnapped :- )

I am soooo glad we went. It was AMAZING.

It is funny how everyones reaction that is in North America was the same… Silence when you tell them your going to Colombia, and then the question “is it safe?”

There is not doubt that Colombia has gotten alot of bad press in years past for good reasons. Everything from the Drug Cartels, to the random kidnappings, to the Farc Guerillas. However the present President Álvaro Uribe has done wonders for the country as it stands today. He has cracked down on the FARC rebels and has somewhat restored peace in the country that is very rich in natural resources and wonderfully happy people.

Both Trent and I were taken back at how friendly the people were (except the police), how helpful everyone was, we felt very welcomed in their country.

(here is our hotel.. Hotel Charleston… our place of luxury and comfort for a few days. The hotel was originally a Monastery… it was converted beautifully and it was amazing to walk the halls taking in the history. It is a breathtaking sight at night. )

(the entrance of the hotel. The flower arrangement was amazing and was reconfigured every second day with new flowers)

(a view down the hall from our room, pure serenity)

(I am sitting at our table at breakfast. There was no roof in the court yard, it was beautiful to hear the birds signing above.. it was very relaxing)

(up at the pool, which looked over the Colonial City. You can see behind the beautiful cathedral, the oldest one in Cartagena)

(standing at the pool over looking the Colonial City in the other direction. If I turned more to my left I would be looking at the ocean. Cartagena is on the Caribbean coast but we never ventured to the beach, instead we opted for Colombian history and the pool)

Cartagena has great history and I could go on and on about it, (but I will make it short) What is amazing about Cartagena is that the Colombians have done an amazing job at preserving their history and are very proud of it. The old colonial walled city (that is where we stayed) is amazing, many Forts are still standing and well maintained, all with the reminder of the sacrifice their ancestors gave up for their freedom now.

Cartagena was in a strategic location for Spain to control, to ship gold and silver to Europe in the 1600 -1700’s. African slavery was a huge industry as well as Colombia has many natural resources that needed tending to. From this trip I have learned so much and it is great to report that Trent even loved it. He said he would go back!

Views from with-in the walls

(the Colonial Wall City was full of beautiful old charm. All through out the narrow streets at night you can take a candle lit horse and buggy for a romantic stroll to see the deep history…. what we came for. This was our horse and buggy we went out on and enjoyed the evening air. As we rode through the streets we heard stories of famous families, stories about Counts way back in the day and some of the rich & famous names that have walked the streets like us)

(this was my favorite town square. I loved the musical vibe, the outdoor restaurants and all the street vendors with the beautiful architecture in the background. It was just a cool place to hangout to have a drink)

(Again at my favorite square was the stature of the FAT LADY. The people where so proud of this statue. The Fat Lady was a gift from an artist who liked his woman vulumpsious … Street hustlers walked around with small versions of her to sell. She goes against what I thought Colombian woman looked like but I like this look better :- )

(Trent walked right past these guys thinking they were statues. They were really authentic. If you have not seen these kind of performers then their gig is so sit PERFECTLY still which is amazing and when you give them a tip them move ever so slightly. I like to watch them as intently as I did when I was in England and stared at the Royal Guards. It is amazing how they are motionless)

(here we encountered another artist. His ever so slight movement was to give knuckles)

(One of my favorite streets with-in the wall. I love the old balconies, the narrow street and the small fruit stand to the side. I should be living in Europe, I love the old architecture)

(Now this is my favorite house with the most charming balcony. As we strolled the streets we were fortunate enough to peak inside behind the grand doors. From the outside these cement walls do not look inviting but behind them they are magnificent with wonderful courtyards and stunning decor)

(Trent is standing to show the scale of the grand doors. We were told that the little door is high off the ground because back in the day when the carriage would pull up the people (who where smaller then) would step through the door. The large grand doors where opened to release the horses when it was time for the Counts or Nobleman if you like, were to leave)

(the oldest Cathedral in Cartagena)

(This was the slave market in the sixteenth century. Here is where African slaves where bought and sold to work for many families in Cartagena. I was very taken back my how many African decent people there were in Cartagena, I did not expect that at all. Hearing and reading about the history it makes complete sense. Here in Panama it is a huge melting pot and I would say more Asian/Chinese because of the history of the canal)

(Just by chance we were walking by the Town Hall where slaves where sold and this woman walked by with a beautiful smile. I look at her and wonder…. what is your life story?)

(more beautiful architecture all around the old city)

(another city square with a very popular restaurant and hundreds of birds, very colonial)

(these are typical Colombian hats… Panama has ones also but “they” (whoever they is) took the design from Colombia)

(the girl look about 9-10yrs. old and was a captivating dancer. I could have watched her all night) – I tried to upload a video of her dancing but it just is not working.. not sure why… sorry.

(other beautiful flowers, Trent buys me flowers like this for $2- $4, they grow easily here. I could have a large flower garden, but I do not have a green thumb like my sister. I like to look at them and have them in my house)

Views outside the Walls

The one afternoon we had a private guide take us around Cartagena to see some of the touristy things. Cartagena is like any other city, less desirable sections for the poor and high end for the powerful & wealthy.

Our guide named Jacinto Jimenez Taborda aka. JJ was fantastic! We learned so much about the history of Cartagena… Colombia… and the heart of the people, the many diverse groups of people.

JJ also had some amazing stories about the Drug Cartel and how it works in Columbia. His stories talked about how local people love certain drug lords because the Cartel have given back to the poor communities by building roads, giving them houses and supplimenting food. The government has not done this for them so you can see why the poor people strive to protect the hand that feeds them. It is pretty interesting stuff. Up until a few years ago there would of been a high probablity of Trent & I being kidnapped for ransom if we would of came to Colombia. Like I mentioned the new president has worked very hard to turn things around.

(here is a view from the highest point in Cartagena from a very old convent… sorry I don’t have the name of it.)

(we are standing beside the main court yard in the convent. It is still a working convent, the nuns were upstairs when we were there)

(here Trent is holding a new friend.. Pepper the sloth. Trent said the little guy was giving him a nice big squeeze. The creature was pretty cute…. so was Pepper..haha..)

Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas building began in 1639. It was completed in 1789, creating the largest fort to guard Cartagena against pirates, who besieged the city five times between during the sixteeenth century. Most famous pirate to attach was Morgan Drake, they now say is at the bottom of the ocean floor by Panama. We were fascinated by the building construction that was created so long ago.

It is amazing how engineers thought out and planned strategic offense & defense plans in the fort. For EXAMPLE: the under ground tunnels where dug to have escape routes to the street Trent is standing on, but the get to the escape route you had to know your way around the mazes down below. They built the tunnel system to gradually get smaller because the Latin people were shorter and the Europeans were taller giving the Europeans a great disadvantage. Many significant angles were the main building strategies of the fort to ward off attacks. Fascinating is all I can say.

(here is a shot of the narrow tunnels. We walked in these and it was HOT & Stuffy as well as claustrophobic)

(standing in front of the Colombian Flag… I hope to go back again)When we left the airport in Cartagena they do search your bags pretty good for drugs. We had three security check points and a stamp in our passport that stated the date & time we left the country. Trent was padded down by security before we went into the waiting room to board the plane – no drugs :- )

BACK IN PANAMA

Always an event here!

On Sunday October 26th the kids had an annual festival at school. It was to celebrate their class and the great kids they are (i think). I am sure I have said it before but Latin people are just natural born partiers. Each class with their parents paraded around the school with a marching band in tow to show case each child. Then, like true form to the Panamanians the kids get up on stage and show off some moves.

It was a lot of fun… extremely noisy… and awesome to see the kids with their classmates having big smiles on their faces.

(a very short video… turn up your speakers… it was deafening noise at the time)

(here is Everett’s class dressed in green. Above you can see his specially designed t-shirt with all the kids in his classes names. His non Latin name is third from the bottom left)

(Emma and her friend Alex… not sure her whole name so I just call her Alex :- )

(I could not be a more proud Mom… it is so fun watching you)

(I did not think I was hot..haha… The school is an open concept so no air conditioning in the large hall, however each class room has air in them. It was really hot on this Sunday and I have my shirt to prove it. This picture was taken in the gym, again an open court to take in all the fresh air)

(this is the main area in the school. All the classrooms are on the perimeter of this large area. Also it is a view of all the people who knew kids in Everett’s class – green)

“STUDENT OF THE WEEK”

(Everett was Student of the WEEK. Which means he makes a poster of himself to tell his class about his favorite things. He is the teachers assistant and most importantly he gets to be in the front of the line :- ) To celebrate Trent, the kids & I came in to play BINGO with the class and share some yummy treats. Bingo went great but believe it or not, 90% of the kids in his class had never played before. On his poster he had pictures of him playing in the snow… his classmates thought that was pretty cool!)

(Ev’s pre-kinder class of 2008… school is almost out for the year here. December 15th is his last day and he will officially graduate to Kindergarten… Ahhhh)

(the kids love the rain… even more than rain they love the mud the rain makes)

(Em wanted to show off her puppet she made… it was a fun activity after their mud baths)

Halloween is always fun. Here in Panama it is not as commercialized as much as it is in North America, people have fun with it though. I waited to long to go searching for a pumpkin and sadly I could not find one. We did not see very many on the candy circuit so I have no idea who bought them.

(we had no pumpkins but the kids had their decorated squash – these are Easton’s fabulous creations)

(The kids were all dolled up. Emma wanted to be none other than Hanna Montana with a flare of Emma in the costume. East chose to me Woody the cowboy again with his own flare of Woody. Ev was a pirate ready to yell as loud as he could for treats. Trent & I wore our pirate hats for good fun. We ventured out with the Cortese family to a gringo neighborhood and sweated our butts off, it was really humid this night but had some rain sprinkle down to cool us off)

(the Cortese family. Felicity (the mom) grew up here in Panama but is British decent… Vito her husband is from Oregon is Trent’s buddy who goes and watches football with him Monday nights at the pub (vito knows nothing about football :- ) They have three little ones. Juan Carlo -4yrs. Charlotte – 2yrs. & Mackenzie – 6months. Our kids play with Mackenzie all the time and constantly ask for another baby, especially the boys they want another brother… Trent says NEVER!

(Ev likes having another little boy who speaks english around to play with… He still feels better with english than spanish)

(East says…. Yes mom I want more candy – the kids just like the event of it all because it is two weeks past halloween and they maybe ate 3 pieces of candy)

(the kids pooped out from walking so much and are all full of sweat. Trent went to go find our truck to collect us all. Fun times)

(we have not had a picture of Everett sleeping lately. We are at one of our favorite restaurants call the “Market” and Everett walked over to another table, put his head down and drifted away. CUTIE)

We are celebrating Emma’s birthday this weekend with her girlfriends. Her birthday was on November 6th but we were away so next blog I will will have pictures of that fun event of giggling girls.

I have no other news to report… no baby new, no wedding news but a few birthday wishes.

** It would have been my Gramma Edmundson’s birthday Nov 5th.
** Happy belated Birthday Lori – my little cousin
** Mark Ladoucer – our birthday thoughts were with you, I am sure you had a fantastic day.
** Hillary Pearce turns 3 tomorrow – have fun cutie.
** Tia Olynyk will be 9 next week – WOW the girls are growing fast
** Brayden Snyder another year older.. have fun.

On November 20th will be the 9th anniversary of my Dad’s passing… He is missed so much and Easton is a constant reminder of my dad is so many ways… which we love.