You can’t get rid of us that easy! Jutta and I are back to share our hum-drum life of retirement. In our last newsletter (December 2009), we had just sold our boat and were spending the Christmas holidays in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with Paul and Frances.
For those of you elderly readers who can’t remember who those crazy vagabonds Ferdy and Jutta are, let me give you some guide lines to help you stave off dementia: One baby aspirin in the morning, always start a new day with a fresh “Depends”, enema at three, and cocktail time is still at 5:00 PM. Sorry it’s been so long since the last newsletter.
January 2010 started with a bang. We had sold the boat, our home on the ocean for nine years. Our house in Mexico was rented out until April 2010. It all of a sudden struck us that we were homeless. We had considered sleeping behind a “Seven/Eleven” but we couldn’t find enough cardboard for a bed and Florida was experiencing a very cold winter. Our next choice was to suck off friends and family for a while. Paul and Frances were very generous and put up with us for quite some time. In the dead of winter, Jutta took off for Germany to visit her mother, brother, and sister.
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| Jutta's Sister on a cold January Day |
I was a lot smarter and flew to Arizona like most of the “snow birds” for a visit with my brother, sister and my two children.
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| Ryan and Jody |
Jutta and I rendezvoused in Orlando at the end of January. For those of you living in Yuma, Arizona, Orlando is the city in Florida where small screaming children go to “Disney World”. It was time to store our trusty “Yellow Bird” (caution yellow Nissan X-terra), pack our backpacks and climb on a big iron bird to visit Juan Valdez.
Yes, the zany crew of Pipe Dream was off to Colombia.
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| At the Gold Museum in Bogota |
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| The Plaza Mayor in Bogota |
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| A Bird's Eye View of Bogota from Monserrate Peak at 3152 Meters |
We flew into Bogotá for a six-week adventure through Colombia. Jutta and I explored the enormous city perched high in the Andes at 8580 feet for a few days before grabbing a chicken bus to tour the country.
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| Street Scene in Villa de Leyva |
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| The Plaza Mayor of Villa de Leyva - largest Plaza in all South America |
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A side trip to the Convento Santo Ecce Homo
Founded by the Dominicans in 1620 |
We found Colombia to be one of the most rugged countries we had ever traveled. There are only two main highways connecting Ecuador and the interior of Colombia with the Caribbean coast. Those highways are two lane roads that run through the wildest canyons and mountain ranges I have seen. They are heavily traveled by double trailer semis and commercial trucks which brings traffic down to about 20 miles an hour
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| Ready for a "Fun Cruise" on a Chiva? |
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| Roads of Colombia |
Our bus drivers raced at about 40 MPH or as fast as one could drive in the left lane passing lines of cars.
During the entire 11 hour trip, he drove with one hand on the wheel while chatting continuously on his cell phone. You learn in a hurry two all important things: Never look at the tires before getting on the bus, and never look out the front window while traveling. In Colombia you also don’t want to look out of the side windows into thousand foot drop-offs while screeching around a sharp corner. A local woman sitting across from us kept making the sign of the cross which gave us a lot of confidence.
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| Barbecue anyone? |
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| I never turn down a hike through the country side...... |
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| ......much to Ferdy's chagrin! |
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| After all this hiking - is it Viagra or Goat's Milk? |
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| Note the age of our travel companions! |
After eleven hours of being tossed about on a worn bus seat, we were glad to finally arrive in the port city of Santa Marta.
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| Colombian "Freeway" |
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| Santa Marta Street Scene |
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| Santa Marta Water Front |
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| Santa Marta Garbage Truck |
We hung out in the tranquil fishing village of Taganga for a week, then re-visited the beautiful colonial port of Cartagena where we had spent a memorable few days in 2003 with our friends Bob and Tish.
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| The small Fishing Village of Taganga |
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| Careful, don't cut too close!! |
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| Best part of Colombia - freshly squeezed fruit juices |
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| Sunset over Taganga |
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| There is always time for a card game |
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| Street Scene in Cartagena |
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| Revisiting Cartagena |
Our next leg was back south to Medellin. Our travel guide showed a 14 hour bus ride. We looked at each other and decided – no way! After a very pleasant one hour flight we arrived in the fascinating city of Medellin – the former world drug capital. Medellin sits in a narrow canyon with high rise buildings sprawling up the steep flanks of the surrounding mountains.
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| Coming into the valley of Medellin from the airport |
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| Medellin |
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| Medellin - City of Botero |
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| Enjoying the Night Life in Medellin |
We thoroughly enjoyed the city, then moved on to the coffee region. One of the highlights of our trip was to relax for a few days at a working coffee finca (farm). In contrast to the dry country side between Bogota and the coast, the coffee region is so lush and green, it almost hurts your eyes. We learned all about coffee and drank the best java ever.
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| The Guest House and Pool at the Coffee Finca |
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| Our Hike on the Finca turned out a little wet |
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Monarch Butterflies
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Coffee Finca Venecia
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To complete our circle, we had to get back to Bogota. The prospect of another teeth-grinding ten-hour bus ride was scrapped in a hurry and we opted for a 45 minute flight instead. This gave us time to enjoy the city for a few more days before heading back to Orlando.
Colombia is still fairly inexpensive and the people are extremely friendly. We had people stop us on the street and thank us for visiting their country. They would ask us to tell our friends that Colombia is now safe for tourists. When we were in Cartagena in 2003 it was too dangerous to travel into the interior. If you are an adventurous traveler, Colombia is a great country to visit.
Once we arrived back in Florida, Paul and Frances put up with us for another week while we packed our car for our journey back to Mexico.
We love being back in our little village. Our life is “Muy Tranquilo”. Jutta is out back shoeing the mules and I’m swatt’n flies on the porch. To keep things stirred up and fight down the boredom we are in the middle of a kitchen remodel. “We love the dust”! There is always something going on in our lives.
Thanks to everyone for putting aside some kidnap money for our safe return from Colombia. Since there was no need to pay the ransom I really feel you should send the money to the “Help Ferdy and Jutta Live the High Life Fund”. You can always claim us as dependents on your income tax.
Adios from the shores of Lake Chapala.
Rico Mondongo and Carlota Enchilada
PS. If you would like to see more photos of our trip to Colombia, check out the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pipedream16/Colombia2010
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