Bucaramunga - the Last Stop

Our last stop in Colombia was Bucaramunga to visit relatives and celebrate Christmas. Bucaramunga is on the edge of the Andes (below), and it very lush. It is not as big as Bogota, and not as old and quaint at Cartagena.

Bucaramunga is a cosmopolitan city with LOTS of traffic. I forgot to mention that in Colombia the traffie is fierce. Pedistrians have no right of way. I was nearly run down my a bus in Bucaramunga on Christmas Eve. I was crossing the street (in the cross walk, at a light). Two or three lanes of traffic started to make a left turn toward me. I turned sideways between a car and a bus in order to avoid getting hit. I could see Jorge on the median looking upward and crossing himself. I guess it worked; the bus driver decided not to hit me and stopped so I cross!!!!

We had an absolutely wild Christmas Eve shopping trip to a large, multi-story, open-air mall. We went to structure that looked like a parking garage. It had 5 or 6 stories filled with hundreds of little shops. Each floor had something different-- shoes, clothes, luggage and leather, toys, etc. The corridors were PACKED shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of people buying last minutes gifts. It was extreme shopping for sure. I bought a great pair of salsa shoes.

One day we took a drive up into the mountains. The Andes were magnificent. I've been to the Great Smokies, the Colorado Rockies, Mount Graham (10,000 ft), and many other mountain ranges in Arizona, but somehow the Andes seemed more impressive than any of them.

Cartagena, Mi Querido

I enjoyed touring the streets of Bogota, but I absolutely loved Cartagena. The two cities are very different. Bogota is a huge, bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis. Cartagena is very old and quaint. As the Lonely Planet Guide to Colombia says "A fairy-tale city or romance, legends, and sheer beauty, Cartagena de Indias in as addictive place that can be hard to escape. This is a place to drop all sightseeing routines. Instead just stroll through Cartagena's maze of cobbled alleys."
As with Bogota, there were many, old Catholic churches. Here is just one of them. My daughter Alexandra and I also toured a mountain-top convent that had been restored beautifully. You can check out more Cartagena streetscapes and pictures of the convent on my Flickr website.

Settled by the Spaniards in 1533, Cartagena became their main port on the Carribean. As such, it became a prime target for English pirates. The Spaniards build a wall around the city and a massive stone fortress. We walked all around and inside the fortress. It was impressive, to say the least. Here are just two views. The Caribean Ocean (below) was gorgeous. This is the view right outside of the wall of the old town. Boca Grande, a more tourist-oriented and more developed part of Cartagena, has a beautiful sandy beach, more suited for swimming, sun-bathing, and bikini-watching. We stayed in Cartagena longer than Bogota and really enjoyed the nightlife--especially the salsa dancing at Quiebra Canto. As with the salsa club in Bogota, Quiebra Canto was a very small second story club with hot music and enthusiastic dancers. Since all four of us are seasoned salsa dancers, we fit right in with the Colombians on the dance floor.


We also enjoyed bargain-hunting and haggling in the open-air markets and the many small shops in Cartagena. On practically every street, there were mercados packed with great deals on everything from flowers, fruits and vegetables to clothes, suitcases and electronics.

Since it was the Christmas season, Cartgena was awash with lights at night. I took tons of time exposures of the lights and us at night. On the left is the view of a dance club that was across from the Hotel El Viajero, where we stayed. On the right is Jorge cartwheeling near the bay.

As a true-blue Leo, I just had to end my Cartagena post with this picture of the "Casa Leo" in Old Town. As mentioned above, there are many more photographs of Cartagena and our Colombian adventures on my Flickr website.

Dancing Update: Swinging, Two-Stepping, and Salsa

A few months ago I wrote about dance lessons at Arizona Ballroom Company (ABC). The dance lessons have blossomed into several new friendships and many nights of dancing at local clubs.

Through friends at ABC, I learned of the Tucson Swing Dance Club. This is a lively and very friendly group of folks who get together every Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Women's Center for West Coast Swing Dancing. For 5 bucks, they offer beginning and intermediate West Coast Swing lessons and a dance with DJ musci. Up until April or so, I didn't even realize there were two types of swing dancing-- East Coast and West Coast Swing. I had only danced East Coast Swing. I like both dances. East Coast is freer and bouncey. West Coast is more stylized, slower, and very sexy.

In addition to dancing West Coast Swing at the swing club dances, I've discovered the Maverick. The Maverick is a cowboy bar that has been around forever, but until June I had never been there. Outside of the rodeo, I'd never seen so many cowboy hats and big belt buckles in one place before. (I thought I had stepped back in time to the old John Travolta Urban Cowboy movie the first time I went there.) The Maverick has West Coast Swing lessons on Saturday evenings, and two-step classes during the week. Many of the Swing Club people go there on Thursdays and Saturdays to dance. They have live music on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The three regular bands are all great C&W groups-- Full House, Jadi Norris Band, and Robert Moreno Band. Much of the music consists of covers of Dwight Yokum and old country standards like Meryl Haggard, George Jones, etc. Two-stepping and swing dancing to this music has been loads of fun. Everyone dances with everyone else.

Besides the Maverick, I've also been swinging at two old favorites the Boondocks Lounge and the Chicago Bar. The Rowdies played the Chicago Bar the other night. They have been around town for many years, but I had never heard them. They played mostly oldies covers from the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Cream and others from my teenage years. I hadn't danced to that music (except in my living room) for many years.

Another old favorite for dancing is El Parador. With all of the two-stepping and swinging, I haven't forgotten my love of Spanish music. Two different bands usually play at El Parador-- Descarga on Fridays and Salsarengue on Saturdays. The cover charge is a little steep at $7, but the bands and the dancing are hot and exciting. Descarga plays primarily salsa music, where Salsarengue plays more variety of Spanish music--salsa, marengue, cha-cha, rumba. Again, as with the Maverick, everyone dances with everyone else--regardless of age.

Here are some reviews by the Arizona Daily Star:
Chicago Bar
El Parador