2022 Southern Africa Blog Update

In 2022 we are using a travel program (PolarSteps) in place of the Blog we used for South America in 2018. PolarSteps allows us to post pictures and comments far easier than the blog we used previously. It also seems easier to manage while offline and has an added benefit that it also provides a

2018 South America Homecoming Surprise!

So, after arriving safely in Vancouver after 3 flights and 15 hours of travel time, we take this car share vehicle from the airport to drive home. Trouble is, we can’t find our front door key that Ken left in a secret spot once we get there! It turns out one of the kids, who’d

Isla Palma, a tiny island on the Caribbean coast, west of Cartagena

Isla Palma is about 80 kilometres from Cartagena including a 40 minute boat ride, and it was well worth the 4 hour trip to get there for a couple of days of R & R after 22,000 km of driving over 4 months! There are only two places to stay on the island, the Decameron

A different side to Cartagena – African Slavery in Columbia

This is the gate slaves from West Africa were forced through on arrival in the port of Cartagena, starting in the 1520s, and here is the formerly named Slave Square (now called Carriage Square) where they were sold. These slaves were forced to work up to 17 hours a day, mostly in gold mines, sugar

Romantic Cartagena

Cartagena’s historic centre is a beautiful, romantic walled city founded by the Spanish in 1533. The narrow cobbled streets and colonial architecture exude charm. No wonder people want to get married here! Inside the museum adjoining the cathedral, I follow the sound of the beautiful music up a couple of staircases and here’s the view

Cartagena Part 1

There’s been a downpour for about 1/2 an hour, and this street and a few others are not draining well! Here’s the solution for the edge of one street – wooden skids to make a bridge! Our first afternoon in Cartagena is spent packing up the van. Everything from all the cupboards has to be

En Route to Cartagena Part 2

There are tons of police checks in Columbia, which we don’t mind as they make us feel safer. Actually, travelling along the Panamerica is perfectly fine, but there are still certain areas of the country tourists are told to avoid. In other countries we had found that saying “Hello” in English and looking dumb nearly

En route to Cartagena

Toll booths are in all the countries we’ve been through in South America, with the most being in Chile and Columbia, and here we are waiting in line just outside Medellin, heading for Cartagena. Each toll in Columbia is between $2.50 and $4.00 Canadian, and we must have spent about $60 in all by the

Medellin (updated)

Coming down the cable car from the top of one of the mountains overlooking Medellin, we get our first views of the city, and are shocked to see the poverty, which didn’t fit the picture I had of Medellin being a colonial city full of flowers and beauty at all. It’s actually a huge modern

Jardin

We follow the route given in Maps.me to Jardin (pronounced HardEEn), which becomes a single-lane track with some slippery patches of mud and clay. 48km takes us 3 hours, and this after travelling 100km on the main highway that had many stops for roadworks, which also took 3 hours. Poor Ken. Only a handful of