The history is richly layered here. And my telling rolls along rather than scratches the surface.

The story is familiar: colonization, exploitation, disease, the fight for independence, and the reconciliation or the ongoing struggle for it. And woven through every chapter is the role of religion, especially the Catholic Church.

So here’s an inadequate summary on each of those things: the Samba tribe lived in this area before Sir Francis Drake among other explorers, conquerors, privateers and pirates made their way to Cartagena. These groups, as was customary in their time, exploited the people here took their land and removed their treasures. The fight for territory and treasure took place on land and at sea not only in the port city itself but throughout the Caribbean. Ultimately, the Spanish prevailed. Disease traded between the native and the colonizers to the detriment of both. By the late 1700s the fight for independence from Spanish rule began and in 1811 it was won. The separation of church and state didn’t take place until 1991. (I am not sure a truncated history serves anyone and this may be last time I attempt it.)

Old Cartagena is a beautiful walled seaside port, with colorful Spanish architecture, and lively people. The Spanish fort and the ramparts of the walled city still stand.

The old city is made of a labyrinth of streets. It served to fool pillaging attackers in the 1600s but today provides quaint walking streets for tourists visiting the old church, monastery (now luxury hotel), shops and public squares.

In areas previously considered “dangerous” you find ample street art, restaurants and upscale coffee shops next to street vendors and curbside shoe cobblers.

Colombia is known for its coffee. I sampled extraordinary light roast Colombian coffee at a shop that does beautiful latte art and delicious pour overs. They gave me a cupping (like a wine tasting but with coffee) since it was quiet. The smaller growers and artisanal roasters are gaining in popularity. Move over Juan Valdez.

Colombia is also known for its emeralds. Mining takes place closer to Bogota, it’s capitol city, but as a port city there was robust trade in emeralds here in Cartagena. Tourists are taken to “museums” that have diorama depicting the mining process and then, of course, you exit through the gift shop.

But there is so much we didn’t see.

Our pace of travel means that we will not have time to be immersed in our destinations. We will have to just “roll along” and resolve to return for further exploration and deeper appreciation.

Here are a few impressions as we made our way through town:

This is how Rose describes us to her friends. Telling people we are “Pilots” makes it seem like we fly people around for a living.

It fits us rather well.

Several weeks back we started preparing the airplane. There are certain things that we won’t be able to purchase in South America so we’ve loaded them up and will carry them with us. Really sexy things like oil, fuel additive, extra oxygen tanks. The kind of stuff that makes Anna Wintour drool, not at all.

But now that the plane is well supplied, the next step is to make sure that we have all of the navigational information, customs declarations,immigration forms, Cuba overfly permits (yes you read that right)….all the things we need to fly our itinerary. Doing this on our own the first time for such a lengthy trip would have been too much.

So like many other flying enthusiasts, including five additional aircraft, we have teamed up with a planning company who will make the journey a little easier. Air Journey files our flight plans, gets the aviation approvals, books the hotels and sets up our itinerary for visiting historical and cultural sites. Covid testing apparatus accompanies us on the trip – making us all feel safer and keeping each other safe.

Our job now is to enjoy the flying, the camaraderie of fellow flying enthusiasts, appreciate the people whose paths we cross and try to learn just a little bit more about the history, the landscape, the flora and fauna, the economic and political aspects of the places we visit.

Our preflight briefings take place the evening before our flights. And as you might have guessed, the briefing below means…today is the day. At 9am, we will be on our way!

A disclaimer (one that has appeared before on this blog): if packing isn’t your thing, don’t read any further. You will be bored.

Still reading? Okay here we go…
The first step to packing well has nothing to do with filling your suitcase. It has everything to do with knowing what to expect on your itinerary. So here is ours:

Three cities, two hikes, paddling, birding, beaches, lots of walking and of course flying. Temperatures range from 40 degrees with rain expected, to 90 degrees with high humidity.

I love the challenge of packing super light – it saves my back and it’s an exercise in optimization, which I enjoy. So I spent a few hours charting out the activities, likely weather conditions, and the wardrobe choices to match. I even put wardrobe items on a spreadsheet sorted by shoe (natch) so I wouldn’t be tempted to just grab things out of the closet, “that also go.“

A week before departure I made my first attempt. It didn’t go well.

I couldn’t close the suitcase unless I cheated (fully extended and then compressed it). And from the start I knew I was doing it all wrong. I have counselled many friends on how I pack for a extended trips. I’ve said, “start with the shoes and be practical.” Keep your bag light with “5-2-10: no more than five pants, two dresses, 10 tops and a jacket.” I didn’t heed my own advice.

I started with the shoes; I failed to be practical. A boot, a bootie and a sandal plus flip flops, Keens and a hiking boot. I pulled outfits that could be worn across the shoe selection and too many shoes led to too many outfits.

“5-2-10” times more than I needed! Not only did I begin with 10 pair of pants, 4 dresses, a skirt, overalls and two leggings, I had 12 tanks and short sleeve tops (albeit some sheer silk ones) plus three long sleeve. I also had a roomy tunic that I adore but that I knew (or should have known) would take up far too much space. Add four sweaters, two scarves, swim wear and, well, bottom line, I had a packing disaster.

So I made the repack/edit I knew I needed to make:

Starting with the shoes. This trip needs two technical pair – hiking for the trip to Torres del Paine and Keens for the versatility of hiking and kayaking in the Amazon. I have the option of keeping extra items in the aircraft so I am packing a hiking backpack for Patagonia and a dry bag for the Amazon.

For the daily tours, dinners and flying, I decided to take three shoes: a sandal, a sneaker, a boot.  To get it down to three, I had to pick a palette and dark colors wear longer and show less wear than light colors so I lose the tan color scheme.  Out are the tan booties.

This meant I dropped the beautiful blue tunic and my printed silk dress. The tunic took up too much space; the print dress only went with tan booties and the booties had to go.  I ditched the overalls, a pair of leggings, four pair of pants, one dress and six tops. I swapped the mesh bolero for a light-weight water-repellent black blazer. I added olive pants and a Cabi top (to purchase Cabi wear, you can contact my sis-in-law, Holly here) that I can wear with black boots at night or with my sandals if its hot as my “fancy like”.

I added navy Allbirds because they are wool which makes them versatile (wool keeps you warm even when wet and are antimicrobial). They also take a load off of the orange sandals which as I said are doubling as my “fancy” shoes and are super comfortable walking shoes.

I toyed with making a second edit – actually dreamt about it – but since we are not constrained by space, I decided to cut myself some slack and forgive myself for being less than optimal.

Separately, I have my tech bag: iPad mini for flight charts/kindle; my Surface for pretending that I will do some work while away; passports; guidebook and Spanish refresher book; binoculars; adapter/chargers; and then the things I never leave home without: phone, sunglasses, chap stick, Yeti for water, Contigo for tea; and because we are still mindful of the risks, a supply of N95s, test kits, vax cards, and sanitizer.

So in the end, I have the tech bag, a rolling 22” bag for everyday, a hiking pack, and a dry bag.

Ready to go?

There’s a time lapse video but I couldn’t bring myself to post it.

For the New Yorkers among us, this phrase makes sense. That is an awkward start.

Mind the gap. In New York when you get onto the six train at 14th St. there’s a gap between the train and the station. When I first moved to New York you could barely make out the sound of the conductor “(mu-scratch-inaudible- gaaap scratch)”. Now we have Siri for trains and the statement is “mind the gap between the train and the platform”.

It’s a reminder that you have to notice and acknowledge the gap and then purposefully and step onto the train.

So too with this blog. I’m stepping on with purpose.

To torture you with this metaphor for just another moment: the gap is a travel writing gap but not the absence of travel.

Wonderful and enriching trips to Namibia, Cuba Belize, Galapagos. New Zealand and Australia, perennial favorites. But those trips and their journals were written just for me and I didn’t post them.

This next trip is different. The pandemic made me more aware of just how precious travel is. And I want to share it.

Plus certain family members, you know who you are, have asked if I would take them along by writing and posting (and take lots of pictures of anything blue, and send them back in the form of a metal print 36 x 36 square). So specific, but in a charming way.

So here we go…and as with all my trips, it starts with packing.

Updated with Photos (April 12)

February 19, 2015

The girls have different school schedules.  Rose is on holiday all week; Lauren is not.  One of the great things about last year’s travel was that we were all on the same calendar.  I miss it.

We arrived BsAs after a reasonable night’s sleep aboard the American Airlines cattle car.  We had booked an apartment just outside the trendy Palermo Soho area through AirBnB and our hosts arranged for transport from the airport for us.  One of the great benefits of using AirBnB is that you get a local’s perspective on restaurants and the goings on about town.  And in our case, we got a little extra as well with the transportation pre-arranged and a reliable reference for making a currency exchange.  Friendly and gracious, Andy commented that it was like meeting up with people you’ve known your whole life!

We spent the first day settling in and getting straight to business with Argentine beef:  a burger at mid-day and steaks at night (Argentinians eat lunch at 2pm and dinner at 10pm).  Sunday we explored our neighborhood and El Ateneo Splendid, an old theater transformed into a bookstore.  It is Carnival so local businesses are closed for holidays but the streets are busy from midnight to 3am with drumming and singing and dancing – or so we heard!  We didn’t stay up long enough to find out.

On Monday we saw an exhibition at MALBA on the Argentinian artist Berni.  Berni’s early period included work on Mexican murals with Sequieros (sp?) which later tied in to the street art tour we took.  Berni is known for New Realism and his xylo-block print work.  Imagine a block print that leaves behind three-dimensional prints (bas relief block printing).  These photos are inadequate and perhaps their inadequacy will inspire you to look for better images elsewhere.  Juanito, a boy from the slums, and Ramona, an exploited girl, are examples of this New Realism and the way I understood it, Berni took realism and added to it items that these characters might find in their daily lives and placed them into the artwork —  nails, steel wool, bottle caps, fragments of lace. So not just a painting of people whose cheeks are hollow and their skeletons wasting, but the remnants of the work they might have done that day, bottling, building,  selling themselves.  I may not have this right so please, Lisa P or Leonard R or Marsha LT, correct me.

After MALBA, we took GraffitiMundo’s street art tour (thank you Rob for recommending it). We’ve now seen street art in several cities – Melbourne, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, London, Buenos Aires.  I like different aspects from each city. In Melbourne, a playful sensibility. In Paris, small discrete characters like space invader and the stop sign guy.  In Berlin, I liked the political messaging and the city’s embrace of street art as an important art form.  In BsAs, I like the scale of the work and the fact that the street art movement includes artists from all economic classes:  architects, graphic artists, illustrators, set designers, etc.  As our guide explained, these are people who have comfortable lives and yet they risk it to bring art to the general public. (Of course, how illegal can it really be if the politicians commission their own artists to paint their names along walls in their party’s colors.  And by “party” one could easily relate party to which soccer team one favors.)

These are the largest format murals we’ve seen and they often honor the father of public art here, Benito Quinquela Martin. Sometimes they tell the story of Argentina’s disappeared (thousands of people presumed murdered by prior regimes) or poke at political issues. The largest ones here are by Pastel, Mart and Jaz and BLU.

BLU is powerful and his work is in several cities.  I posted this one on Instagram in Berlin.  Caption at the top says Reclaim Your City and the unmasking of brothers is a reference to East and West Berlin and reunification of Germany.

BLU’s image of roasting humans is extraordinary. My photo doesn’t show it well so here is the one from Blu’s website:  http://blublu.org/sito/walls/2011/big/027.jpg

And this one I posted on Instagram while on the GraffitiMundo tour.

Finally, take a look at this piece and think about it.  What do you think it represents?

my image:

Blublu.org‘s image: http://blublu.org/sito/walls/2011/big/029.jpg

Is the humanity coming apart? Is it coming together, uniting?

Getting to know the artists and their work, one gets to know more about the culture and ethos of a place. Blu’s grandfather lived here in Argentina during the time that workers were organizing and unionizing.  This piece is painted on the headquarters of that organization.  This piece may reflect the unionizing of that era.

The other dominant news right now is the “suicide” by the prosecutor in a case alleging that the current President covered up the involvement of a foreign country in the bombing of two Jewish buildings in BsAs in 1994.  A large demonstration took place in front of the Casa Rosada (the Pink House is their version of the White House).  Talking to locals, watching the news, reading the papers the only thing that is clear is that the situation here is very complicated and polarizing.  The views range from faulting the President to faulting an overly powerful judiciary.  It was the Iranians.  No it was the Syrians.  No matter how I try to describe here in my notes what seems to be going on, I feel like I’m wearing a Yankee cap in the Red Sox bleacher section or for futbal/soccer fans a Boca Shirt at a River Plate match.  Even if I understand the sport somewhat, I have no understanding of what it means to be a diehard member of either camp.  And the power and politics here have swung fiercely between camps in the last 100 years.

We spent an afternoon on a walking tour of Jewish history in Buenos Aires.  The immigration of Jews during the Spanish and Portuguese  expulsions in 1600s and during the Holocaust.  Buenos Aires’s jewish community is very diverse and there are hundreds of synagogues large and small.  Our guide explained the unification of Argentina’s early merchant classes with the ranchers, the Peronist era, the violence and corruption of the 60s-90s.  We saw the Recoleto Cemetary with its ornate mauseleums including Evita’s and the founding father equivalent of Washington, Guido.  Teatro Colon and a tango show. (LandingPad Buenos Aires was a good source for guides and tours.)

Note:  In looking for images on the blog, I read that in December Blu erased the wall in Berlin leaving only “Your City”.  Even the erasing leaves a message. http://i.imgur.com/nzOacKm.jpg

Another Note:  When we get home, I’m going to take a tour in NYC as it seems so silly that I haven’t already done so.  (Though, I never saw Alcatraz when I lived in SF either.)

Here are the best of the photos from the trip:

In a recent email exchange with a friend I wrote about how each of us had grown from the trip different in ways. Duh.

The kids’ and Andy’s growth is for them to explain or demonstrate so I have tried to keep this blog in my own voice and not attribute things to them. My own voice is something I’m still working on – and I mean as a writer not as a singer (you’re welcome). I started the blog for the girls and for family, some of whom may never have the opportunity to travel as we did. I wrote with them (you) in mind.

I printed its contents into a book so that it is preserved for the girls. But since then, it’s largely sat idle as I have returned to the routines of work, family and friends. So the question remains, what do I do with this blog?

Some bloggers have come back from their RTW trips and monetized their blogs – links to TravelSmith, REI, Booking.com and travel apps. Others have decided they can take sponsored trips and satisfy the longing to travel on a limited income.

I don’t have the energy or the financial desire to devote my time to monetizing the blog. So instead it will just become a repository of our travel adventures both in-country and overseas with an occasional link up with fellow travelers who make it their business to be witty, insightful travelers.

Here is one example: www.bemytravelmuse.com

Today I am writing from Bluestone Lane Coffee – a Melbourne based crew of coffee lovers. Fans of all things Melbourne, Lauren and I have been seeking out Aussie cafes and restaurants as a way to transport ourselves back there. Bluestone, Two Hands, Little Collins … just seeing the bright yellow bags of Nicola coffee makes me happy. For those who follow me on Instagram (kpdnyc) you’ve noted the barrage of #flatwhite and avo-toast photos. I’ll round that out once we start traveling again which is soon. Very soon.

On Friday we are off to Buenos Aires so stay tuned for davidsonbigtrip.com Part 2

K

Post Trip Depression

People have asked whether I would write a book about our trip. I’m flattered and thinking about what themes, if any, unite what I’ve written so far but I’m a long way from fully appreciating the trip myself to be able to write about it. Even harder is the fact that I’m having a hard time believing its really over. Harder still is that I have an email account that gets daily notifications of travel ideas, special events in far away places, and discounted airfare. I have spent hours reading about new destinations rather than hours I used to spend tending to plants and people. Whole mornings can disappear in research of the next trip. Then I came across a post about “Post Trip Depression.”

The concept seemed a little far fetched and I thought immediately about the current need in society to diagnose everything. But I read on long enough to recognize the symptoms. Feeling restless and itching to get on the road, destination anywhere. It’s not that I don’t love home or appreciate being surrounded once more by family and friends and familiar places. Sometimes it even sounds like I don’t like America but to be clear, I love the founding principles of our country – freedoms easily discarded in many countries. But there is just something special about the newness of travel, the immersion in other cultures, and the identification of another culture’s idiosyncrasies. I crave it. And I’m not alone.

Lauren didn’t want to go on the BIG TRIP but now, she joins me in having caught the travel bug. We are sitting in Paris at our favorite cafe. We are here because we have a three day weekend and plenty of points/frequent flyer miles. As I write this, Lauren is looking at a book of small cafes in the world and eagerly proposing we visit each one, or Hey, rent a house in Amsterdam Noord for a summer so we can bike and learn to speak Dutch. I know how she feels. There are so many places we haven’t been. Yet.

But my take away is this: the BIG TRIP was life truncated. And post trip depression is just the temporary expression of a fear that I’ll not be able to explore the world again. So I have decided to shift my thinking to:

Life is long and it’s journey will unfold slowly for many decades yet. And… there’s no better microcosm of the world to explore than New York.

But today I’m blessed to be exploring Paris.

*Photos will upload Monday or Thursday 🙂

We stayed in the Marais and walked all over the place!

The Seine

 The Hotel de Ville

Ponts des Arts or the Love Locks bridge.  The locks are being removed to safeguard the structure of the bridge.  It’s somewhat controversial but removal is probably the right move.

Art in its many forms:

 “L’Africaine” is Café Angelina’s decadent hot chocolate.

  Marcel Duchamp Exhibit at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Street Art by “Space Invader”

 Boot Café for what I think is Paris’s best café crème (flat white)

 A bad photo of a famous painting at the Hokusai Exhibit in the Grand Palais   Such a talented man.

I guess it’s a little like the twilight zone.  We went through a door and walked out of this life only to walk back in ten months later and find nothing has changed.  Well, almost nothing.

Before we left the air-conditioner broke. I replaced it but the workmen left gaping holes in our ceiling which needed to be spackled and painted. The ladder was out but the workmen didn’t have time to finish. And we didn’t have time to put the ladder away. So it felt a bit like the twilight zone when we return to our home and found the ladder exactly where we left it and the jar of spackle at its side.

The closet too is exactly as I left it, robe still on its hook as if I’d hung it there only minutes before.   A very strange almost sickening feeling.  After living for 10 months with the same four pair of pants, three dresses and an assembly of tops I find that I have ten times as many clothes and that I haven’t missed them.

Other aspects of our lives feel constant but not static.  We recently had a book launch for Andy and his colleague Alex. Several friends and business colleagues turned out for the occasion and the relationships feel as fresh and alive as ever.

Not everything feels like a time warp and not everything is how we left it.  The Freedom Tower and 911 Museum are completed.  A new mayor has taken office giving hope to those of us who want the city to be more than a developer’s paradise.  Our friends teenagers are 10 inches taller and one of my closest friends has found someone she cares deeply for and has started her next chapter by moving off to the suburbs.

All of this to set some background for the now most commonly asked question (after “What was your favorite place?”):  How does it feel to be home?  So time warp and big changes aside….

It’s nice to sleep in our own beds, under our own stars, visiting with friends and family, and enjoying the privileges we often take for granted:  free speech, access to Google, Gmail and Twitter.  On the other hand it seems strange not to be visiting a new or exotic place, learning about new cultures and tasting new foods. And the obesity and narrow-mindedness of many Americans is more plainly apparent, and distasteful.

And, I’ve lost my New York edge–to the extent I even had one. It seems that everyone here is rushing to be first in line.  And I feel no compulsion to join in the rat race. The Californian in me has returned.

So while some things have stayed entirely the same, other things are wholly changed. And that includes me.