Travel | HandelBlog

Hola from Cartagena Colombia. Jon and I decided to take an international trip this January for a few reasons. We hate the cold and it is so very cold in Maryland in January. We love to travel, obvs, and we currently have health insurance that works like super duper travel insurance so we thought that was helpful for traveling during a pandemic. We settled on Colombia because it’s warm and mostly dry this time of year, I’ve somewhat randomly always wanted to go (Jon has been to Bogotá for work a few times before), and good lodging and decent flight options were available.

We flew from Washington Dulles to Bogotá direct and, while our flight was delayed 8 hours, the delay was posted the night before so we were able to sleep in and not stress about getting to the airport and there were no other dramas.

We spied a plane with this Star Wars livery while waiting for our flight, sadly this was not our plane

Our first airport lounge in a while! It worked out well to keep away from crowds.

We’d decided to spend 5 nights in Bogotá before heading for a big time warm up in Cartagena to get some culture and an extra free night in the hotel using Hilton points.

One of our first stops was for some tasty Colombian coffee

We enjoyed the Museo del Oro and learned a lot about indigenous culture in Colombia – these depict how rulers wore many of the gold items we saw

I, perhaps inappropriately, find these very silly – they were death masks people were buried with and they are just so plain compared to other things I can’t help but wonder why

Barrio La Candelaria, an interesting historic neighborhood

We did A LOT of walking around the city. Here are some random pics from around.

Bogotá endeared itself to me by having female crossing lights on some intersections

We hiked to the top of Monserrate, a mountain that towers over the city and has a church at the top.

Teeny tiny view of Santuario Virgen de Guadalupe behind us at the top of Monserrate

Not the clearest day, but still quite a view

For some reason we look green screened here

Some interesting Christmas decorations were still around

https://www.relive.cc/view/v26Mx1A5r3O

(yes, I know I spelled Monserrate wrong in Relive, but it won’t let me change it!)

As always we attempted to check out the local beer scene. We found a few decent beers at the local grocery store and the old stalwart on nearly every corner in Bogotá is the Bogotá Beer Company (BBC).

At one of the BBCs in the neighborhood we stayed in

At a different BBC after hiking up and down Monserrate, much needed beer!

We spent our last day in the city checking out some green spaces, first up Parque Metropolitano Simón Bolívar. This park was huge and absolutely chockers with people enjoying a Sunday out with the family.

Then we hit the Jardín Botánico de Bogotá José Celestino Mutis (Botanic Gardens) which must have been amazing at Christmas time with tons of lights and decorations including my favorite, the festive crabs below.

I loved Bogotá and I’m so glad I got a chance to see it. While our adventures were somewhat pandemic limited, we were able to eat out outdoors and enjoy lots of outdoor activities. The few indoor things we did weren’t too crowded and everyone in Colombia wears masks everywhere which is very comforting.

We’re in Cartagena for a month now. We have a very hectic schedule involving long walks on the beach and pool time. It’s fantastic.

Here is a quick post to summarize what we’ve been up to since we got back from Tahoe. We celebrated birthdays.

Adam’s 14th birthday celebration included personalized Oreos that were as delicious as they were good looking 🙂

Lyon’s birthday celebration at Sakura left us very very full

My birthday celebration was perfect, low key after many full days of Christmas celebrations. I even managed to get exactly one picture of evidence where I’m making a weird face for some reason.

Celebrating my birthday with Rosie who stole Jon’s seat

In October, We took a trip south for a couple of party nights and days in Irvington with the Bralys.

Ready for a night on the town in Irvington, VA

From Irvington, we headed to Greenville where we once again managed to take no pictures. We got to catch up with Mike and Terra and we went to see a bunch of houses for sale, but nothing that made us want to buy buy buy right away. After that we headed to the coast, for a lovely stay on Isle of Palms.

Exploring Fort Moultrie National Historical Park with the Cubellos

A fun night out full of grits in Charleston

We explored neighborhoods around Charleston too, but there are so few houses for sale and they are so much more expensive than a year ago that it’s easiest to put off making any housing decisions for now!

After Tahoe, I thought I’d make more of an effort to go hiking. Alas, we’ve really only made it out on one hike since then at Rock Creek Park. We have explored a couple of local parks a bit more, but walking on a paved trail doesn’t really count.

Rock Creek Park, so beautiful in the Fall

Jon flew out to San Antonio for a few days for a golf trip with his dad and brother Jeff. They were so in sync they managed to be color coordinated and everything.

We had the pleasure of dog sitting Milo while Jen basked in the sun in Curacao. Our step counts went way up with a dog to entertain.

We had a fun night out in Annapolis, going to a dinner and a comedy show. Even though this was pre-Omicron, my covid-xiety soared for a bit afterward. Ugh.