I'm sorry, I really meant to blog today. However, I am not feeling the best and am seriously hoping that my strep is not coming back to haunt me. I was about 85% when I went to Cartagena, and felt pretty good while there, but now? Not so much.  My throat doesn't feel right and I have a funny cough. Stay tuned. I have lots of pics to share for those of you out there still interested!

 

Photo: A statue in the stairwell of our hotel. She spoke to me.

We’ve been busy since our later than planned arrival in Cartagena. Our flight out of Miami was delayed due to nasty thunderstorms. Not that I am complaining that we left late—I would not have wanted to fly in that kind of weather anyway. Then upon our approach to the airport in Cartagena our pilot came on to tell us that the weather was not good on the ground and that we would be circling for a while until the weather cleared. However, if we didn’t get clearance to land in 20 minutes we would have to land somewhere else due to low fuel.  Thankfully, after flying in circles for nearer to 40 minutes, we landed at our correct designation. Everyone clapped when we landed.

On the way from airport our driver was side-swiped by another car and we pulled off so he could get out of the car and shout at the driver of the other car.

Since then things have gone more smoothly. Our small boutique hotel only has eight to ten rooms and our group is occupying them all. Somehow we ended up with the “Presidential Suite” which is lovely. It’s odd though because while our sleeping area is comfortably air-conditioned, our bathroom is not. Our shower is partially exposed to the outside. In this kind of humidity it makes perfect sense but was kind of a shock to walk into a room that felt like a sauna compared to the rest of the room which is kept closed off.

We have eaten well so far. I’ve tried fruits I have never seen before and grilled pulpo (octopus) which was absolutely delicious!! We had dinner the other night at a Peruvian Fusion restaurant. Yum.

We’re getting plenty of exercise walking around, but sweating buckets. It is like walking around in a sauna. I have never taken so many cold showers in my life.

Today we plan to take a taxi up to the old Spanish fort. We need to do that right after breakfast before it starts to really swelter, so I am going to close for now. There is much to tell you but I wanted to at least post something so you wouldn’t think we had gotten ourselves into trouble.

Location:Roman,Cartagena,Colombia

We have reached our destination of Cartagena. Finally. At times it seemed like we would never actually get here.

I am too tired to recap the entire day right now, but suffice it to say that we had some kinks.

We haven’t seen much of Cartagena so far other than the walls of the old city as we passed through them in a tiny opening, but it looks promising and very much reminds us of Nicaragua.

More to come, I promise.

We've been hearing them in varying degrees of intensity for about a week now. First over in neighbor Aileen's trees and then over across the street behind Kim's house. 

I got an email from Kim just the other day with the title "Aliens?" where she proceeded to say that she thought we were being invaded by aliens and that the mother ship was close by. She asked if we could hear that noise (like an air conditioner running all the time, she said) and what was it. She said she couldn't tell where it was coming from. Uhm, Kim, it's the 17-Year Cicada invasion. Haven't you heard? I guess she didn't know because she didn't believe me.

Aliens, indeed. They have black bodies with golden wings and beady little red eyes. And yes, it does sound a bit like the mother ship is hovering somewhere close by. They only sing in the mornings through early afternoon which is kind of odd. I don't mind them at all and find their loud cohesive humming rather soothing.

I finally got to see two of them yesterday. One was hanging on the outside of the dining room window screen, and the other was stuck in Bella's wading pool so it made a perfect subject for a photo. I think in the first photo its shadow does look rather like an alien space ship!

I thought it was dead so I tried lifting it out on my finger, but much to my surprise it was very much alive and held on with all its might with its sticky, strong little legs. Ack! I shook it off and it fell back into the water again. I felt sorry for it so I grabbed a piece of wood for it to climb on instead of my finger (which had felt like it was in a vise grip) and rescued the poor thing. I put it on the railing of the deck to dry off and soon it had disappeared—back to become assimilated by the Borg I assume.

And, speaking of being absorbed back into environments again, Rick's mom is now home once again. We are happy to announce she arrived without taking any cross-country detours and with her luggage! We thoroughly enjoyed her stay. More on that a bit later …

 

ADDENDUM: Steve found this great link to a video of the cicadas, complete with a musician to sing along with them. You can find it in the comment section or click here.

 

Linked to Rural Blog Hop!

Sorry about the lapse. Did anyone miss me this week? What I thought was just a cold or sinus infection turned out to be strep. So, I've not been feeling the best to say the least. I finally went to the doctor on Thursday afternoon and after one look at the pus on my right tonsil, she swabbed it for strep. The test came back a faint positive, but she said she was going for strep and the treatment as such. Three days in on the antibiotics and I am starting to come around to feeling human again. 

It didn't come at a very good time considering my mom-in-law is here visiting. Not that it stopped us much from going and doing as we had planned, but by Thursday I was dragging my butt behind me. I'm sorry I haven't been around to anyone's blogs but I just haven't felt good enough to sit and concentrate on much of anything. The pressure in my sinuses has been enough to blow my head off.

My mom-in-law's luggage finally showed up at 11:00 p.m. on Sunday night (she arrived Friday morning). She was so glad to see her own clothes again. Rick did have to take her out shopping for essentials and since those first few days that she was here were pretty darn chilly we loaned her some outerwear items. Not that she is needing them the past few days which have seen temps rise into the high 80s! She has seen quite a spectrum of weather since she arrived. We are all now huddled inside with the A/C blasting.

The 17 year cicadas have arrived and are starting to make themselves known. They mostly "sing" in the mornings and they sound different than our normal July/August cicadas. Rick found one by the shed and got to stare into its red eyes, but I have only managed to find the papery husks left over from them molting. They are more of a continuous hum than the back-and-forth banter of our own normal ones. When we first heard them I thought they were a machine running somewhere close by. I find it soothing but Rick finds it disturbing, like a plague about to land on us.

Still no fireflies. Rick and I thought we saw one the other night, but every night since when we look for them we see nothing. My mom-in-law has never seen one so we are hoping they will still make an appearance either tonight or tomorrow night before she has to leave.

The pool was opened on the 20th of May and the temperature was 54 degrees. Today we swam (yeah!) and it was 72 degrees. The new cabana is wonderful and hopefully I will have some pics to share this week.

I have more to say but I think I've at least caught you up a bit now. This is the first time I have felt like sitting here long enough to blog.

 

Photo: This tiny cat door was seen on our food tour of NYC last Sunday. I thought it was very cute.