From 12/13/04
Here we are in Cartegena. It's a beautiful old city. but since it's tourist-y there are a bunch of annoying people who try to sell you tours or change your money. Bugger off! Ah well. We're staying in a little place called "The 3 Flags". It's about $35-38 US per night on the gorund floor. only coffee included. Bummer. Jackie - the lady we had lunch with yesterday called them for us. She had wanted to get us another place that was cheaper & had breakfast included but they were full. bummer. This is still cheaper than the places his sister was finding, & it's very cute. A plant & palmtree filled courtyard on each side with a waterfall rock wall, plus one side has some birds.

*Tangent*
The other day we went to visit one of G's "Aunts". It was a BIG old house, that was probably very grand once, but it was bit old and falling apart and dirty. She had a nice courtyard full of plants, & a little white bunny, & a dog & a monkey & several birds. One little green parrot took quite a liking to me & spent quite a time on my finger & hand. Liked to gnaw on my ring. There was a grungy little boy who liked me too - led me by the hand around abouts - took me over to a chair to sit down. He had a bath in a plastic tub while we were there, but burbled up something on his shirt almost immediately afterwards. He really liked my sunglasses too. The aunt was a tiny woman with blue, blue eyes & white hair, and slightly grungy pink colloutes. It was probably the "poorest" place we'd been the whole trip & yesterday at Jackies penthouse type apartment was probably the most expensive. What a contrast... After lunch at Jackie's we went to her BF George's (also an old friend of G's, we met Jackie through him) for some aura cleansing & improvisational music making. George is 42 & lives with his parents. While in the states that would probably lead to comparisons to George Costanza a la Seinfield, it's quite normal and even expected for people to live with their parents until they get married & possibly even afterwards! Foreign concepts for me. totally different. I mean I guess it makes sense economically & all really.
*that was quite a spin! back to Cartagena!*

We ate at a Hare Krisna restaurant for lunch - good vegetarian food & pineapple/coconut juice! & then we cashed some travelers checks. They didn't charge commission because it was an American Express bank. pfft! Should have done that in B'quilla. Oh well. Tomorrow we go to some pretty islands. I just hope we can leave our stuff at the hotel, because toting it around all day will be not only a drag, but stressful to keep track of, worrying about stuff getting stolen the whole time... but check out is at 1:00, & the boat won't come back till 4 or so... grrr.

*note* not only did they let us keep our bags at the hotel, she let us shower in one of the new rooms that is being remodeled when we got back, and before calling us a taxi. I guess the new rooms are going to have to be cleaned anyway, so why not let us wash the salt off? on the ride home heard the "I smell deer" song, and it was SOOOOO cold! The A/C was up big time. finally we got him to turn it off when we got back to B'quilla, which took forever to get through because of some parades or something blocking the streets.