Darin and I have been talking and dreaming of taking extended time off to travel for years.  Up until recently,  there always seemed to be multiple reasons as to why we couldn’t make it happen.  Over the years, we’ve taken many holidays and we’ve travelled to amazing places but never for more than 2 weeks at time.  These vacations, most of which we took with our kids just amplified our desire to have an adventure that would be impossible to plan and fully prepare for.  Over the past year or two, life has given us some less than subtle hints that this is no dress rehearsal, life is sailing on by and as much as we love the life we’re living, we’ve decided not to wish this wish of ours away.

I never imaged that less than one week ago I would climb up to 9000’ and ski one of the most memorable runs of my life. The current time is 2:30 am PST and I’m writing the first of what I hope will be one of my many posts on our new blog. It’s been an emotional roller coast for me this past week. From the smile that I couldn’t wipe off my face skiing down the Nisqually chutes and the tears of saying goodbye to the wonderful people in my life, I sit here and it hits me that today,

First, we took a 4 and a half hour flight to JFK International Airport in NYC.  3 Hours later, we got on a plane to S.A/South America and waited 3 hours to take off.  Guess what!  Our flight was cancelled because of a snow storm.  

As soon as we got off the plane, a wave of humid, beautiful heat hit us and we felt great.  Getting through customs proved that our “Columbian” Spanish leaves much to be desired.  Because of all of our gear, we had to break up into 2 groups.  The taxis took off and Simon and I immediately lost sight of Darin and Marco.  The driving around here makes New York drivers look like polite snails.

It started off with my brother being sick.  It moved on to my mom and I catching a freaky cab plus the cabs have NO seat belts. 

Instead of writing my part of the blog today, I decided to publish a few of our story cubes stories.  We met a nice French lady, who started an overland trip with her husband 6 months ago.

We’ve taken 2 trips to the SA Naves office, where we should be given our papers and invoices in order to get our beloved van (to be named at the equator) out of the port.  Nothing yet.  The ship with our van arrived this morning but all offices are closed on Sundays.  We’re very much hoping that tomorrow will be our lucky day, the very nice woman we’re working with made some promises that I hope she can keep.

After 3 full days of red tape, we were finally reunited with our van yesterday..
The kids couldn’t contain their excitement as Darin drove in.

Once we finally got our Van, we parked at the Cartagena Convention center and spread ourselves out quite chaotically and got our situation organized.  Well, as organized as can be.  We rushed over to the airport to conveniently pick up our dear friend, Tierra, who is vacationing in Columbia for 2 weeks.  Upon seeing each other, all we could do was laugh.

Sometimes I miss people, but other times I enjoy myself.  Either way, I always embrace life!

With all my preparations in the weeks prior to our trip, I tried to imagine all possible scenarios involving van troubles.  I made a small tool bag with some of the essentials…Crescent wrenches, box wrenches, a diagnostic computer, volt meter and on and on.

We were hiking somewhere outside of Cartagena.  It was challenging with a twenty pound backpack.

Internet access now feels like the ultimate treat, just like air conditioning, shade, salads, and places free of mosquitos, gnats, and sand fleas.  We reached San Gil last night and we chose a nice hostel to stay in for the next few days.  The idea of a real shower and a real bed with access to a full sized refrigerator thrills us.

To quote Lonely Planet, San Gil really does “pack a punch.”  San Gil’s steep surrounding hills allow for a bird’s eye view that have made for colorful morning runs.

We left San Gil on Saturday, after Darin and the boys had a blast white river rafting the Rio Fonce.  We weren’t sure how long the trip to El Cocuy would take,  but our last glimpse of WiFi for what would be a week, told us that our window of opportunity for nice weather was limited to Monday and Tuesday (error #1).

We’ve spent the past few days mostly relaxing and getting some essentials like laundry done.  The quiet and comfortable hostel that we’ve been camping at allows us to use all the amenities while still sleeping in our van, which is very economical.

We left Villa de Leyva and took a one hour detour to take advantage of the region’s purest water.  The unattended spring, which pours out of a non assuming pipe,  sits a few kilometers out of the pueblo of Arcabuco.  We filled our Van’s twelve gallon tank, our nalgene bottles, our empty gallon bottles, measuring cup, small cups,  and anything other empty container we could find.  Clean water = liquid gold.

Driving into Bogota is definitely not for those asleep at the wheel.  As we approached the city of 13 million people, the smog seemed to hang over it like a curtain.  Motorcycles were zig zagging around cars, which were swerving around trucks and everyone was honking to make themselves heard through the hazy confusion.

It took us 2 hours simply to get out of the city.  Bogota’s infrastructure leaves much to be desired.  The highways still have traffic lights, which causes traffic congestion and amplifies the poor air quality.  The numerous outdated buses and the diesel and gasolina they use, produce a brownish gray haze in the horizon, which would cause them to more than fail North American emission standards.

We woke up in Salento on Sunday morning to a panoramic view of the mountains of the Zona Cafeteria, where they grow Arabica and Colombiana beans.