Colombia 2018, Day 2 - Tans Instantly, Just Add Sun


Sunday, March 11, 2018

The Tres Amigos got an early start. We had breakfast, then were taken by Mr. Olga to a boat launch. From there our own private boat, run by Captain Gabriel and First Mate Henry (actual names may vary) were waiting for us. The boat took us from Isla Baru to the Rosario Islands, and featured a sightseeing trip around the islands. We floated past Isla de Pirata (Pirate Island), past many private islands and even past Pablo Escobar’s rapidly dilapidating compound on Isla Grande.

Isla de Pirata

Isla Grande

Pablo Escobar's Mansion, Isla Grande
  
Our first stop was a beachfront restaurant where Henry fruitlessly tried to catch a lobster in the lobster tank under the dock. Once he failed, a restaurant worker displayed his lobster catching prowess and we chose Stan the Lobster to be a featured part of our lunch. After choosing a fish dish and a shrimp dish to accompany Stan, we boarded the boat again.

Stan the Caribbean Lobster

Would you ever get tired of this spot? 

Our second stop of the day was to snorkel the Rosario Islands barrier reef. Abbey & Mark saw schools of fish, sea cucumbers and lots of coral while Jen watched from above. Following a lot of coaxing and cajoling Jen joined the snorkeling crowd and finally saw a fish (or it could have been Mark’s foot).


After we finished snorkeling we headed back to the restaurant and enjoyed a delicious fresh seafood feast. Stan was excellent! We applied copious amounts of sunscreen and laid on the dock for a while, only to turn a lovely shade of pink (except for Abbey, whose directions say “tans instantly, just add sun”).

Caribbean Lunch

Once we had our fill of food and sun we ventured out for our fourth stop of the day, which was a beach on a small island overlooking beautiful Caribbean turquoise water. Captain Gabriel prompted us to negotiate a sun-shelter, then informed us we had an hour to enjoy paradise. We think the hour was just enough time for Captain Gabriel to get a massage from the local girls but we digress. We enjoyed the buoyant saltwater of the Caribbean ocean and even saw a local star(fish). After turning a darker shade of red, we dried off in the sun shelter and took a long boat-ride back to Olga’s place, our home-away-from-home. It was fun getting beach-to-beach pick-up and drop-off service. That definitely attracted attention!

A pretty nice beach

The Star(fish) of the Show

It’s worth mentioning that many of the reviews of the Rosario Islands say that they are gorgeous, but time there is marred by small boats loaded down driving unsafely, and many vendors pushing their wares constantly. Olga arranges a tour that is first class the entire way and avoids those hinderances.

Los Tres Amigos

We showered and relaxed for a while with delicious mojitos, and then decided on another excursion. Jen was insistent that we go see the bioluminescent plankton. They are millions of tiny invisible organisms that when disturbed, quickly display an eerie glow. It looks very much like what comes out of the magic wand from your favorite Disney movie.

Olga wasn’t feeling well, but still took the time to arrange Eduardo, the cousin of a tour operator to show us the right way. We drove to Playa Blanca, which during the day is an amalgamation of vendors, tour operators and restaurants, all pushing their wares on guests. It has spoiled a beautiful white-sand beach.

During the night however, many of the people have left so the restaurants are busy serving people and boats are leaving the beach to see the bioluminescent plankton. Led by Eduardo, we made our way down a dark hill to the beach and weaved along the shore trying to find a boat, when we were kidnapped. Wait, no, again we were fine. Unfortunately we were just too late and all the boats were full or had left.

Eduardo negotiated with a boat operator to still take us, and we were left to wait for an unknown amount of time. We sat and people-watched on the beach, saw a lot of surf, local dogs and entertainers. Being on a local beach at night in a place like Colombia not knowing a soul is not something everyone would do, but we found it to be safe, the locals to be friendly and everyone looking to have a good time.

Nighttime in Playa Blanca

After about an hour, many soaking wet people came by and we correctly guessed our boat had come in. We were ushered to a boat guided by Ralphie and Chad (actual names still may vary). This boat was smaller than the first, and while we had our own private tour we needed to sit in specific places for ballast. Chad zoomed the engine, and raced through the water by the beach, heading north towards a bay.

Once in the middle of the bay, he cut the engines and said “that’s it, we’re here!” in Spanish. We were sitting in the dark wondering what was going on, when he stirred up the water next to him and it started glowing! Abbey and Mark hopped in, and stirred up the water as much as possible to make it glow, while Jen watched from the boat. Chad liked Abbey and started teasing her, hoping to get lucky. We arranged for a June wedding, and booked the priest. Hope the in-laws like her! (Sorry Rob). After some teasing about crocodiles which didn’t come across well due to the language difference, and some splashed water we decided to get back into the boat.

The boat headed back to Playa Blanca after a short detour through mangroves, to see the water by them eerily glowing as fish stirred it up. Chad led us back to our car, where Abbey broke his heart by declining a late Sunday night beach dance party. Mark drove back to Olga’s home, where an excellent dinner of soup, mincemeat and salad was waiting for us. Even the tomatoes were peeled! We fell into bed and slept soundly after another exciting day.

Colombia 2018, Day 1 - Spring Break 2018


Don’t fall off your chairs, we don’t want you to think that we barricaded ourselves in the house for all of 2017, we did not.  We just sort of took a break from blogging. Overall, 2017 was another amazing year of travel and adventures; please reference the 2017 Christmas card for exact details.  Jump to random fall weekend in 2017 . . . We were bored, so do you do when you are bored?  Yes!  You call up niece Abbey in Clarion, PA and see if she wants to grab dinner.  After a delicious meal with great conversation the topic of Spring Break came up. Jen popped the question and Abbey said yes.  There may or may not have been a rose involved, but, the rest is history!

With the world being our oyster our destination of choice was Colombia (not Columbia Township, Ohio and no not Columbia, South Carolina – The latter was so last year – Love you Lisa & Jesse!)  Colombia, South America!

In standard Jenny'n'Mark fashion we couldn’t start this trip with a simple ride to the airport.  The weekend before, our Colombian adventure started in New Buffalo, Michigan, for our annual winter weekend away with Beth & Andy.  Mark hitched a ride to Chicago with the Appleton contingent, where he kept tabs on 3 conferences on 2 different continents while Jen was back home.  The following Friday, Abbey drove to Casa Jenny’n’Mark from Clarion where the ladies tackled final packing needs, then headed to the airport where Mark was in the departures section of Hopkins waiting.

When the ladies arrived Mark put his Chicago bags in the back of the car and promptly parked the car while the ladies checked bags and got through security.  Everyone met up on a hunt for an afternoon snack followed by a stop in the United Lounge.  And we were off!  Two layovers later (we’ll spare you the doldrums) and we arrived in fabulous Cartagena, Colombia! 

Much to our surprise we found Mark’s name on a sign at the airport! Then we were kidnapped by a cartel and held for ransom… Just kidding! After ironing out our transportation situation we were home free with our rental car. First stop was a grocery store to get a much needed snack and some goodies for the week.  We would be calling Playa Manglares (aka Olga’s House) on Isla Baru, home for the first few days.

Olga and her staff made us feel welcome from the start! Shortly after our arrival we were given fresh mojitos.  We arrived with some time before dinner, so we explored the grounds and chose 3 hammocks on the beach to relax and enjoy our fresh mojitos.  Dinner was served in an outdoor dining room overlooking the mangroves and water with soft lighting for added ambiance.  We feasted on steamed vegetables with pasta and a fabulous fresh garlic hummus.  Dessert offerings included a variety of ice cream flavors.  The warmth, hospitality and good food provided a wonderful first impression of Colombia!

Mark, Jenny & Abbey

Beach at Playa Manglares

Australia 2016, Day 15 - The Longest Day of The Year

August 21, 2016

Our Sydney Sunday started early to be ready for a 10:30 flight back to the states. We hailed an uber when we got downstairs, and got a New Zealander with quite the sense of humor. It was good we did, because you could cut the tension with a knife when we realized the quick 3 minute trip to the airport would take 20 minutes due to traffic... which was also going to the airport.

We arrived 30 minutes prior to boarding, got our luggage checked in, went through customs and security, did some last minute shopping and boarded two groups behind ours. At the beginning of the day we were stuck in economy with only middle economy plus seats available, by boarding time we had one exit row and one bulkhead seat diagonal from each other thanks to Mark's constant checking of the united site.

The 14 hour flight was rather uneventful- if you haven't seen "The Big Short", I'd recommend watching it. We landed in San Francisco at 7AM, a full 3.5 hours before we departed. By 8:30 we had picked up our rental car, and driven to see our nephew Alex, and his husband Jacob.

After being caffeniated and getting showers, we felt semi human again and wandered down to Beauty's Bagel Shop for brunch. It was a beautiful brunch, tasty too! After that we drove to Berkeley and wandered the campus. It was move-in day so the campus was hopping with old veterans and young newbies alike. We hung out at a bookstore, went to see a Tibetian exhibit at a musuem and had an early dinner at a great little pizza joint and brewery. Our final destination of the day was the hills above Berkeley which gave a great view of the city. We headed back to the airport for a red eye to Atlanta, followed by a quick hop home to Akron/Canton. 




By the Numbers:
We flew 27,355 miles on 7 different carriers and 15 different flights
We drove 1605 miles  in four different cars on two different sides of the road
We walked 163,920 steps which equates to about 78 miles

Australia 2016, Day 14 - Leavin' on a Sea Plane . . .

August 20, 2016

Our long journey home started on Saturday morning from Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.  

Heron Island

Heron over Heron Island

Heron Island Boardwalk & Gantry

Heron Island Lodging

Those of you that have been following along with our adventures thus far will remember that the trip to Heron Island from Gladstone wasn't the best experience.  To ensure that we didn't have a repeat of Wednesday (and to try something we've never done) we booked a sea plane to take us from Heron Island to Gladstone Airport.  

We grabbed a light breakfast then took a final lap around the island.  While we were walking we heard the arrival of our chariot landing quite literally right infront of our Reef Suite (talk about door to door service).  

6 Person Seaplane

Our Seaplane

Upon return to our suite one of the resort porters was there ready to take our luggage to the seaplane.  We made a quick stop by the Marine Center to retreive Jen's forgotten sunglasses and then headed to our floating chariot.  Turns out we were the only two passengers on this specific plane.  Another sea plane left about 15 minutes before ours with 5 passengers that had similar thoughts about getting back on the "vomit comet".  We were buckled, loaded and before we knew it we were taxi-ing on the water above the Great Barrier Reef (!!!!!!). Just before taking off we saw a sea turtle swimming next to the plane (such a cool experience).  Our flight gave us amazing views of the island and the reef.  About 10 minutes into our flight (half way to Gladstone) we saw 5 whales in the water below us.  Shortly there after we landed smoothly at the Gladstone Airport - only to be greeted by our fellow resort guests that were on the first plane off the island.  While not only saving us time the quick 25 minute flight was such a neat experience it also gave us and opportunity to get back to Sydney a few hours earlier than planned.

Taking off from Heron Island

Reef Selfie!

Heron Reef

Whales!

Gladstone from Seat 2B

Gladstone, Australia
The airport ticket attendent worked her magic and got us into Sydney at 2:30 pm instead of the planned upon 9:00 pm leaving us with enough time to take a nap and enjoy a final evening - Sydney Style.  Thanks to a tip from our travel buddy Kayleigh - who was still in Auckland with family - we came up with the plan to head to the ANZ Stadium (which is part of the Sydney Olympic Park) to watch the New Zealand All Blacks take on the Australian Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup.  We rode the subway to the Olympic Park with 50,000 of our closest Rugby loving friends.  Before heading into the stadium we stopped by one of the numerous foodtrucks lining the path to the ANZ Stadium.  As a treat the Olympic Caldron from the 2000 Summer Olympics (held in Sydney) was lit prior to the game.

Sydney Olympic Torch

New Zealand All Blacks vs Qantas Wallabies

Watching the All Blacks vs. the Wallabies was a pretty neat experience.  Our knowledge of rugby was limited - thank goodness Jen read snippits from "Rugby of Dummies" prior to the game. :-) The outcome of the game was not ideal for the Wallaby fans, as the All Blacks dominated the game winning 42 to 8.  The trip back to the hotel was surprisingly quick due to well executed utilization of the subway system.