Colombia (FINAL)

The morning after our last sunset drink in Cartagena, we drove north to Barranquilla, a city on the ocean.

Window to the World. The owner of a huge window company was friends with the mayor/governor of the city. The owner complained that the view from his penthouse office building was boring and dreary; and if the Mayor would provide some land, the owner would build something beautiful he could look at every day. So the mayor acquired land from a round-about and here is the beautiful thing.

The silver metal thing was the Christmas Tree that was coming down. You can see some of the workers dismantling the thing.

A drone took this video for us and then downloaded it to Luis. It’s AMAZING the technology we have these days!!

This was a terrible accident where the oil caught fire and imploded December, 2022

I didn’t understand why people and cars were clogging up the main road along the ocean until I found out this statue of Shakira was installed this December!

The bronze statue of Colombian singer Shakira stands at the Gran Malecon de Barranquilla. This bronze statue is the second biggest pop icon statue only behind Forever Marilyn, a 26-ft tribute to Marilyn Monroe that now sits outside a tourism agency in Palm Springs, California.

We visited the Carnival Museum commemorating the second largest carnival held in the world, next to Rio, and my head exploded!! I LOVE EVERY ONE OF THESE GOWNS!!!

Carnivals are all about the fun. It reminds me of the craziness of Mardi Gras.

The masks with the long noses developed in this city and people proudly wear them, as evidenced by the two Pato purchased and is showing off below. I don’t know where she and her husband will wear them in civilization, though.

This is a rice bowl, which is getting popular in the U.S. also.

But we don’t use real banana leaves as a garnish!

This was a group coming to a restaurant after a christening. White seems to be a favored color.

It was the last day of the trip and I was getting tired of seein’ stuff.

I love an angle with only one wing. Of course, she has two; but you wouldn’t know it. Angels with one wing can only fly if they hold each other with one arm and together they can fly. A huge life lesson!

This was a church. The white flowers made the entire church smell WONDERFUL! Wow!

Some old trees. But beautiful.

This was the oldest hotel in the city and has been kept up/restored beautifully. People have their weddings here.

Eight out of the nine of us flew out of Barranquilla together to Miami at a very reasonable 2:00 PM. We all bopped around the airport together and split up for our individual flights. Some were heading to Colorado and at least four flights had been cancelled that day heading that way due to a huge snow storm. It was lucky timing for them and they got home safely.

Jane and I dodged a bullet, because the next days that snow went east and started closing airports once more.

I don’t know what we were thinking, but we went from Miami to Charlotte with a 9 hour layover at midnight.. Jane was brilliant in her suggested to get a room. We were without our suitcases, but getting to shower and sleep before our one hour flight to our homes was well worth the cost!!

We bid a fond farewell to each other at the airport the next day, not having any plans to see each other until January 4, 2025. (Sad face emoji).

I took off at 9:13 AM and she at 9:17 AM. Cool.

Here are my big travel buys. Coffee mug, playing cards and organic ground coffee. And, no, I didn’t follow what I learned in Colombia — don’t grind your coffee beans until minutes before you brew it!!

I wish I would have bought and had sent a painting from Cartagena.

Of course, the trip was a ’10’. (But I take a much closer look at the hotels we are booked in on future trips!!)

If you would like to leave a comment, please feel free to do so. I am the only one who will see it.

Happy travels!

Linda Jeanne

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