Traveling in Our Lucky, Yellow, New Year's Underwear (Luis)

Colombia is one of several Latin American countries where it is considered good luck to wear yellow underwear on New Year's Eve. Not wanting to tempt fate on a complicated travel day, I decided to go all in and wear my new yellow-striped briefs that we bought at a mall store called "Feria del Brasier Solos Kukos". They had a huge selection of "KukoSuerte" (literally Lucky Undies) of men's and women's yellow underwear. When we passed the display, we couldn't resist. They even had a "Buy Two, Get One Free" deal going on (Luella got the extra).

After my first experience with lucky, yellow underwear, I've decided that if they have any lucky powers, those powers seem to decrease over time. I say this because our luck on our return travel day started good and only got worse as the day went on.

Good Luck (New Year's Eve morning):

• Easy trip to MDE - Jose Maria Cordoba International Airport
• Great flight to Bogota - Brand new airplane, great weather and views flying into the Bogota area

Average Luck (mid day):

• Long but uneventful layover in Bogota at El Dorado International Airport
• Brand new Colombian Passport worked like a charm getting out of Colombian Migration
• Flight from Bogota to San Salvador was uneventful

Bad Luck (afternoon/evening):

• Flight from San Salvador to LAX was oversold so I was bumped from the flight.
• At the last minute, I was given an aisle-seat but it was in the very back of the plane. What seemed like good luck, turned out to be bad luck as I spent most of the five hour flight with the lavatory line of butts in my face.
• Back of the plane seat, meant last in Immigration line. By the time we made it out to baggage claim, our bags had been removed from the carousel. It took us about 20 additional minutes to find them.

Really bad luck (New Year's Eve night):

• When we got into our car (which had spent two weeks in long-term parking), it wouldn't start. Apparently, the stater was out. 
• We had to then take the shuttle back to the terminal, take a taxi to my sister's house in Santa Monica, borrow a car, drive back to the long-term parking lot to pick up our luggage, then drive home.

In total our travel day was 21 hours long, and the lucky underwear powers were completely done.  

Piedras Blancas and Parque Arvi (Luis)

Thursday & Friday, December 29 & 30, 2011 - Many of you know that Medellin is located in a deep Andean valley. On Thursday, we took a trip literally up and out of the valley. We took the Medellin Metro to one of the two MetroCables. The Line K MetroCable line climbs from the valley floor up through two intermediate stations to the top of the Santo Domingo Savio neighborhood where the new Biblioteca España library is located. From there we transferred to the Line L gondola line that travels 3 miles in 14 minutes to the Parque Arvi nature preserve. It is a pretty amazing experience to travel by gondola from a crowded city center to the nature park where you don't see any development in such a short amount of time.

We had reservations to stay at the new Piedras Blancas Hotel and EcoPark. We got a little unlucky when we got off the gondola because it had started to rain. Further, we expected a clearly marked van or bus that would take us to hotel. That wasn't the case and we wasted about 20 minutes and missed about 5 buses before figuring out that every bus except the first one that we checked went past the hotel.

The hassle was quickly forgotten when we go to the hotel. It is located deep in forest on the edge of a small reservoir at 8,200 feet of elevation. We had a late lunch and relaxed before enjoying a bottle of wine on the terrace. There are only 24 rooms at Piedras Blancas and it was fully occupied, so it was very quiet and peaceful.

The next morning I went on a guided hike through the forest. The hike took us through the native forests and the non-native pine forests that were replanted after the native wood was harvested early last century. The utility company that owns and manages the forest is slowly harvesting the pine trees and actively encouraging the regrowth of the native plants. In both forests there were interesting growths of moss, once commonly used in peoples home to decorate the nativity scenes. This practice is now discouraged. To emphasize the point, some of the locals had made a natural nativity scene in a moss patch out of sticks and pine cones. Yet another great Colombian pesebre. The other highlights were the Mario Bros-like mushroom and the blue snake.

Before leaving, I took a ride on the zip-line (see video below). It's called "canopy" in Spanish. 

Catching up (Luis)

During the last several days, Luella has finished up her dental work. The results have been great, but I'll let her tell you about it herself.
I've used the time to both catch up on my emails (thanks to the WiFi in Dr. Ruiz's office) and to catch up with some of my cousins at night. On Tuesday night, we went to dinner with my


cousin Silvia. Last night I joined my cousin Patricia and her husband Esteban.


It was great to talk, laugh, and catch up on family gossip (with 26 cousins, there's always some drama to recount).
Despite what Facebook, emails, and Skype have done to improve long distance communications, you cannot replace the pleasure of a long conversation over a great meal.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Calle 15S,Medellín,Colombia

Over the river and through the woods . . . (Luis)

On Friday, Dec. 23, Luella and I headed for Ciudad Bolivar. That's the town where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up. So while my grandmothers are no longer there to greet us, both of my "grandmothers' houses" are there. However, this is not the the Hallmark card version of the song, rather the Colombian version - the river is the Rio Cauca (and San Juan, Bolivar, & Farallon) and the woods are bamboo forests.

Woods

River

On Friday night and Christmas Eve, we stayed at my cousin Rodrigo's "finca" in Los Farallones. His farm is a beautiful weekend farm that consists of 1.2 acres. However, that's enough room to fit seven pastures for ten cows, two feed growing lots, one banana orchard, one food garden, and a beautiful farm house. While they have DirecTV, it is more fun watching the real version of the Animal Planet. In this case, it consists of a gnarly tree stump where they put semi-peeled bananas. That attracts dozens of birds of all shapes and sizes. It is mesmerizing to sit on the porch and watch the beautiful birds flutter around. 

Rodrigo's finca house

I've often told many of you that Christmas in Colombia is not "Silent Night" nor "All is calm . . ." It's a night for music, fun, jokes, and laughter. Our Christmas Eve festivities started with the final night of the "Novena al Niño Jesus" (complete with plastic Santa Claus maracas keeping the beat during the refrain/response). We then did the Secret Santa gift exchange. In our case, we had to give clues of our gift recipient until everyone guessed who it was. (My aunts and cousins did a costume contest at their house in Medellin, where everyone had to dress up like their gift recipient.) We then grilled some meat and chased it down with Aguardiente (complete with shot glass charms so nobody would lose their shot glasses).

Animal Planet

On Christmas Day, everyone relaxed, took naps, and after lunch my parents, Luella, and I headed to Tierra Grata, our friend Jorge Gonzalez's farm in Ciudad Bolivar. We spent Christmas evening by going to 6:00 p.m. Mass, walking around the plaza, admiring the beautiful lights, and of course sitting at the "mesitas" (little tables in the plaza) having Rum & Quattro drinks. 

Our Colombian family and friends could not have been more welcoming and kind. While we missed our family and friends back home, we had a wonderful time and were blessed to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus in such a wonderful place. 

Secret Santa Colombian-style 

Tierra Grata

Plaza in Ciudad Bolivar

Novenas, Pesebres, and Alumbrados (Luella)

One of the things that I have really enjoyed so far is the way Jesus is still part of Christmas in Colombia.  My mother-in-law and I have watched the Novena al Nino Jesus (Novena to the Baby Jesus) most evenings on TV.  The program is broadcast live from a local mall and many families go to pray along and to enjoy the entertainment before and after.  A big production on TV every night to pray a novena?  I don't see that very often at home (or at all.)

Another thing that I love is all of the Pesebres (creche/nativity scenes).  They're everywhere in every size and families don't just have one at home, they have them in practically every room.  From the largest and most elaborate like the one that we saw in the Medellin cathedral, to the one built on the street by Luis's cousin Raul (with moving characters in multiple vignettes - imagine a tiny version of the Pirates of the Caribbean-video below), to the smallest crochet angels and baby Jesus.  Don't get me wrong, Santa decorations are here too, Jesus is just well represented.  [A side note to my co-workers - this has given me a lot of ideas about how we can kick it up a notch.  Be afraid, be very afraid...]

Luis has already posted on Facebook that Medellin is one of the top 10 most beautifully lighted cities in the world. Here's the link to the article in case you didn't see his Facebook post - http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/holiday-lights-photos/.  Luis's father put together a trip for the whole family in a tour bus to see the lights (Los Alumbrados) on Tuesday evening.  There is a particular stretch of lights along the river that you see in the article that are spectacular, but beside those, the entire city is lit up.  We also went out to some outlying towns (Sabaneta, Envigado) and their decorations were totally amazing.  We were able to get off the bus in these towns and walk through the decorated parks that were filled with people enjoying their evening with friends/family, strolling and eating from the many vendor booths set up.  The creativity of the decorations and the sheer amounts were beyond anything that I could imagine - it's beyond Disneyland's It's A Small World on steroids.

Fat or Voluminous (Luis)

Fernando Botero's Jesus

On Monday, Luella had a nice respite from dental work so we did some touristy stuff.

We visited the Museo de Antioquia where the permanent Fernando Botero exhibit resides. We loved the exhibit even more than we did five years ago. I added photos of a couple of our favorite works below.

We found it interesting that Botero never considers the objects in his paintings and sculptures to be fat. Rather, he considers them voluminous. So the next time I call our dog Bogey fat, Luella can say "He's not fat. He's voluminous."

To get downtown and back, we took the Medellin Metro. It remains very clean, fast, and efficient. You can see in the photo below how the station floor literally shines. I realize that this is a very "boosterish" post, but all my opinions are sincere - Medellin is a cool place.

Plaza de Botero

Finally, Luella and I were wondering what my life would have been like had my parents never moved to the U.S. To try and get a handle on the question, we've been looking for my Medellin Doppelganger. In other words, the guy my age whose parents never took him away from Medellin. So far, we haven't found the perfect match. Here's as close as we've found: click here

Medellin Metro Station

This isn't normal, right? (Luis)

Water flowing the Bulerias round-a-bout

My travel started off fun enough. My flight left LAX at 12:35 a.m. on Sunday so I was able to stop off at Nora and Chris Huber's party in Santa Monica. Some great wine, tamales, and sweets was a great prep for the red-eye ahead.

The flights were fine and it was interesting to see the airports and cities of Guatemala City and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Unfortunately, one of my suitcases enjoyed Central America a little too much and decided to not join my flight to Medellin. So after racing off the plane (Amazing Race-style) to make it to the front of the immigration line, I spent an hour searching for and reporting my lost luggage before meeting my parents and Luella's (brand new) smiling face.
[UPDATE: Lost suitcase (intact and unopened) arrived 18 hours later and was delivered directly to my parent's house. No idea where it went.]

Driving into Medellin from the airport, we encountered the aftermath of a thunderstorm (hail on side of the road and downed trees). As we got close to may parent's house, the streets got more and more flooded until finally this flood blocked our progress.

My parents are always complaining about how much it rains in Medellin. So trying not to be too alarmed, I had to ask when we saw this flood, "This isn't a normal amount of rain, right?" Turns out, even for Medellin, this was very unusual. Fortunately, we were able to navigate our way around and finally arrived safely (minus one errant suitcase).

Christmas in Colombia 2011 - First Days (Luella)

Since I needed to leave before Luis in order to make it to my first dentist appointments, I traveled alone on the fifteenth.  After days of crazy activity, prepping both the house and work responsibilities for my time away, I mentioned to Luis that I was getting pretty nervous and stressed.  He told me that we had to prepare ourselves for something to go wrong, even after all of our lists and plans.  That way when something did go wrong, we could chalk it up to something we expected and move on.  (That didn't necessarily calm my nerves.)

Wednesday, 12/15/11 - Travel day (night, mostly) started with immediate culture shock at LAX.  As we drove by the international terminal, all we could see were hordes of people with triple and quadruple high stacks of luggage on carts in lines that extended out of every door. (How my luggage can sometimes exceed the 50 lb. limit, but those huge stacks with each suitcase/duffle bag double the size of mine make it though is beyond me.) Normally Luis would have just dropped me at the curb and I would have been fine, but we parked and he came inside to see me off.  He helped me manage the lines and the language issues and got me through most of the security line before he left.  I don't think I've ever loved him more.

Made it onto the first leg of my flight and unfortunately, even after checking Seatguru and changing my seat assignment to a "better" option, I found myself in a seat just in front of the exit row - one that doesn't recline.  Five and a half hours to Costa Rica on a red eye and I had to sit straight up the whole way.  Well, I tell myself, this must be "the thing".  I'll manage through and everything will be fine after that.  All in all, other than pretty tired, I arrived in Colombia in good shape and to the smiling faces of my in-laws. 

Thursday was the first "dentist" day - 11:00am x-rays and then the work began at 1:00pm. with Dr. Ruiz (who is handling most of the dental work).  Dr. Gabriel Jaime Cadavid (our family's friend who has so generously helped to direct all of the work to be done, including arranging all of my appointments at the various doctors - himself included for the oral surgery) came by to check on me numerous times. I think it was to check with me to see how I was holding up, to check with Dr. Ruiz, to see the progress, and to see how we were communicating.  Between Dr. Ruiz's limited English and my limited Spanish-speaking ability, we actually communicated pretty well. Six hours later we called it the end of "day one" and said "hasta mañana."  Defininitely a very tough day, but Gabriel was there to take me home and I could not have felt in better or more caring hands.

Friday was my first appointment with Gabriel. He did the first of two sessions of gum surgery.  It only took about an hour and then we sat around his office catching up until Francisco came to pick me up.  Later that afternoon it was back to Dr. Ruiz for three more hours of work, plus bite adjustment.  Another grueling day of dental work, but at the end of it I had both doctors telling everyone that I was the "best patient ever" (probably because I didn't cry while they used the hammer and chisel...no joke!)  Both have been so patient, gentle and kind.  Oh yeah...if any one needs help translating instructions from their Spanish-speaking dentist, I'm your girl.

After reading through this first entry, I don't feel I have properly communicated how well I have been treated by everyone since I arrived.  For all that Luis's parents have done to make me comfortable in their home, chauffering me back and forth to appointments and making sure that communication isn't a problem, comforting me when I'm either nervous pre-appointment or in pain post-appointment; for the patient and gentle care of Dr. Ruiz during the long hours in his chair; for all that Gabriel Jaime and his wife Margara have done to not only make my new smile possible, but also make me feel like a family member, I could not be more grateful.  My mother-in-law said on Friday, "There isn't enough money to buy the kind of care you've received so far.  Where else do your doctors take such good care of you, meeting you with gifts, saying goodbye with hugs and kisses, taking you home after appointments while offering to take you to dinner and even to stay with them in their home so that they can care for you?!"  I have only one answer... here with my family in Colombia.

All good things must come to an end

Our Kauai 2011 vacation came to a safe and fulfilling ending yesterday at 7:10 a.m. as we arrived home to find a very happy golden retriever to greet us.

Our room view on the last morning

In every way, it was a great vacation. We had no serious problems and only a few minor hassles. We accomplished almost everything we wanted but without jamming each moment with an activity. There were a few things on our wish list that we didn't get to (bicycle trip down Wiamea Canyon), but are eager to return so that we can cross them off the list. We also began building our list for future Kauai trips. (Anyone want to join us for the 11-mile hike from Ke'e Beach to Kalalau Beach?)

Relaxing pool side while
 waiting for our evening flight.

We want to thank Jeff, Alicia, and Gabby Sandoval for being such fun travel companions. We hope we didn't get on your nerves too much. We also want to thank Janelle Brunette for taking such good care of our most prized possessions (our home, our dog, and our bird). Finally, thanks to all the blog readers. We hope you enjoyed reading of our adventures as much as we enjoyed sharing.
Mahalo,
Luis and Luella

Not so secret beaches and beach bum dogs

On Monday, instead of back to work, it was back to the beaches. We started at Secret Beach. It's obviously no so secret anymore. However, it does require a bit of a hike to get to the beach and then 1/3 of a mile walk through the soft sand to get to the lava pools. Definitely worth it.






A few of the pools are deep enough to snorkel (about 12 feet deep).















There's a waterfall to wash off the sea water. How cool is that?

After leaving Secret Beach, we hit the Foodland Grocery Store to buy a picnic lunch and made our way west of Hanalei to Tunnels beach. The beach is beautiful and the snorkeling was good. 

We also made friends with a beach bum dog. His routine is to walk up to people, sit down, wag his tail and hope for snacks. Those of you that know Luella, already know how this ends - friends for life. This picture shows them napping together. 

Designing a perfect day in Hanalei

On Sunday, we started our day with Mass at St. William's Catholic Church in Hanalei. We enjoyed the service, especially the part where all visitors were given shell necklaces. Nice hospitality ministry touch.









After Mass, we lounged poolside and tried the Aloha Mary drinks.

In the afternoon, we also prayed that we would play good golf. Alas, I think we over-stepped our requests as the holy spirit was happy to give us the opportunity to play in such a beautiful place. As for playing well? Not so much.








The day ended with a sunset champagne toast from our room. Days and vacations do not get much better  than this.

Add caption

The Sam and Sean Show

Inside the cave looking out.

Yesterday was our last day with the Sandovals, our transition to the North Shore, and our boat trip along the Na Pali coast. It was sad leaving Lawai Beach, as we had so much fun there but the whole gang arrived in Hanalei ready for our next adventure.
We'd booked a boat trip with snorkeling from Na Pali Catamarans. To get to out boat a couple of young kids took us out in a powered canoe. Our first surprise was that our "catamaran" was just a twin-hulled fishing boat with two rows of back-to-back padded benches Our second surprise was that the young kids who shuttled us out were also our captain and crew. Gulp.
Our crew, Sam and Sean, quickly started their comedy schtick. They had a corny joke for almost every sight. Their explanations of island history, marine biology, and ocean activities and culture were probably 40% made-up, 40% humor, and 20% fact. We didn't mind. It was like riding the jungle cruise at Disneyland and expecting to learn about African wildlife. (One of Sean's better lines was about the boat's head, "It's like Vegas. What happens down there, stays down there.")

Open ceiling cave

The one thing where Sam was clearly a professional was on maneuvering his boat into and out of water caves. He could turn the ship on a dime and we never came close to the cave walls despite the waves and currents that rush in and out if these caves.
We entered about four caves and motored to entrance of several more. The views of the Na Pali coast were breathtaking and the waterfalls were going off due to the recent rains (see the Smart Decisions post). Considering we signed up for a snorkeling cruise, that was the worst part of the trip. The reef was large but not really much to look at and there were fewer fish than at our "Beach House" reef in Lawai.
The reviews on Yelp were decidedly mixed on this tour. However, we really enjoyed ourselves and recommend the trip to out readers, as long ad they know what they're signing up to do.
After our cruise we had to say goodbye to the Sandovals, who's vacation was over. We really enjoyed our time with them and we will miss them. Of course, as we are now checked into the St. Regis Princeville, laying poolside with pool drinks, I'm sure we'll survive.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Hanalei,United States

Smart decisions and foolish endeavors

Friday was planned as our Waimea Canyon hike day. However, beginning Thursday night the south side of Kauia was hit by a series of tropical rain showers. This continued off and on through Friday morning. Since it was our last full day on the south side of the island, the hike had to be today or on our next trip. So while planning our day at the Poipu Starbucks (brief aside: it's brilliant that the Poipu Starbucks opens at 5:00 a.m. to cater to all the jet lagged West-coasters and everyone who hasn't been able to adjust to island sleep hours), Luella said "It's going to be muddy and slippery. I might fall. I don't want to go." [Smart decision] and I said, "Okay. You join Alicia, Jeff, and Gabby on their activities and I'll drive to Waimea Canyon and go on the hike." [Foolish endeavor]

Flash flood on the side of the road

While the weather was okay on the drive to Waimea Canyon, around 1,500 ft it started to rain. Then it started to rain harder. You can it on the picture on the right.
As I drove higher up the mountain, I thought I might drive above the weather, as often happens on Haleakala on Maui. Unfortunately, that was not the case and I finally ran out of road at the Pu'u o Kila Lookout. This was the trail head for the Pihea Trail to Alaka'i Swamp, which happened to be the hike that I most wanted to make. It was still raining but I went for it anyway.
The hike turned out to be more of a controlled slide (downhill), a slippery scrample (uphill), and a bit of tarzan mixed in (as crossing mud pits required grabbing tree branches and trying to swing across). As I encountered hikers on their way back, they were either covered in mud or moving extremely slowly. Everyone kept saying it got worse further up the trail.

Tree branch for grip and swinging.

At this point, Luella's prediction was 100% accurate - It was raining, muddy, slippery, with occasional falls.

One of the steeper pitches to scramble.

After about a mile, I finally reached the actual Alaka'i Swamp. In this part of the trail, the park service has installed a raised boardwalk. This made progress much, much easier. Including the boardwalk, my pace was less than 2 miles an hour so I didn't get as far as I had hoped. On my return hike, I was rewarded by some clearing skies and impressive views of the Kalalau Valley. 

Boardwalk made it much easier

Kalalau Valley during a brief clearing sky

I was able to get off the trail in time to make it back to the condo to clean up for a nice dinner at Tidepools Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Kauia.