Many Blessings

Long time since blogging, but thought a “Back from Costa Rica and fully settled in” blog was due.


In short, life is good. We have had a number of adventures since our return, proving that yes indeed suburbia, not just tropical paradise, can provide some good times. [This may not be such an important thing to prove, but for my successful return to the States, it was!]

The winter has brought lots of skiing to our family. Baker and Riley signed up for the Whitetail Mountain Race team and competed last week (1/29) in their first race—a giant slalom. They both did great, finishing both runs with good times. Tae has also strapped on the boards this year and has found that “Pizza Wedge (aka snow plow) is my friend because it makes me stop!” He is the king of the bunny trail!

Snow is indeed one of the items sorely lacking in Costa Rica and we all enjoyed last week’s fall of five inches or so here in Alexandria. I know folks buried in other parts of the country might be sick of it, but the snow here provided for some of life’s great and simple pleasures. With snow coming down on Wednesday evening, Riley, Baker, Baker’s friend Jacob, and I constructed a snow slide off our back deck. We piled snow on the steps leading from the deck to the yard and then on top of a chair on the deck. Total vertical drop was about eight feet over the course of, say 16 feet horizontal…so that was pretty steep! We even ran the hose on it to ice it and built a jump at the end of the run. The kids had a ball and so did their dad.

Baker is playing hoops on the JV team at his school and had a great game yesterday. A nail biter against his school’s arch rival. Final score 26-23, with Baker’s team on top. Baker had 6 points and a lot of rebounds.

Riley has resumed Tae Kwon Do and is moving quickly towards her high brown belt. (Belt ~#8 of about 13, with 13 being black). And Tae has joined her as well.

I am busy writing…working on four projects, 3 for the screen, 1 for the stage. Nothing sold or produced, but I’ll get there, God willing.

Tara is teaching Yoga at the kids’ school to teachers who requested classes one day per week after school. She is loving that. Also teaching some one-on-one classes to friends.

We had a great Thanksgiving with my Mom, Dad, brothers, sister and aunt in Florida and fun pre-New Year’s trip to Puerto Rico and have trips planned to Utah for skiing and San Francisco during the kids’ spring break. Should be very fun. I also made a point of seeing the sun when the days began to grow short here and went to New Mexico and, this month, back to Costa Rica…more on that another blog.

All in all, our life—whether here in Alexandria or abroad in Costa Rica—is a true blessing. Filled with many adventures and kind, loving, and generous friends and family. If you’re reading this, you are probably one of them (readership isn’t so broad ). Thanks so much for all you do in our lives!

Buried Treasure - LIVE!

Here they are, the much acclaimed debut of new hit sensation, BURIED TREASURE, live from the Loft at Burgundy Farm. On drums, Baker Casagrande; on guitar and lead vocals, Cully Hardman; and on the keyboards, Patrick Sansone...

Rewind: Osa Peninsula

Unfortunately, I am writing this blog 4 months after the event and the old memory isn't what it used to be..it is, well, old. However, with the use of ample photograpy, I believe I can reconstruct the wonderful four days we spent in Costa Rica's beautiful Osa Peninsula.

The Osa is in southwest Costa Rica and, as the previous blog described, it is not easy to reach.

We arrived at the beautiful La Paloma Lodge, and were delighted to find our friends, the Discenzas happily awaiting us. After some catching up, we set off on a short hike around the property and were delighted/scared to have our first bit of wildlife be this venomous Fer de Lance. (Click on that link to go to a Wikipedia page on this snake). Cindy almost stepped on it.

He was not a big guy, perhaps only 12" long. But, our guide explained that it is the small, baby fer de lances that often do the most damage. Unlike the adults, the infants have not yet learned to control their venom and if one bites you, it is likely to unload its full supply of poison. An adult, however, holds some back for later usse.

We said hello to the snake and walked politely by, our eyes from that point on focused a bit more on our foot placement!

A highlight our our stay at La Paloma was that the owner had an eleven year old daughter who became fast friends with our kids. Here is Starr, with Baker.

Now, had I written this blog earlier, the following photos would have more detailed captions, but alas...in any case, they were all taken on the property of La Paloma, during our initial walk.

After the fer de lance, the next creature we saw was the famous Osa Long Eared and Giggling Jungle Hare!

Riley finds a bright green lizard.

The five intrepid explorers: Starr, Mikaela, Baker, Riley and Kendall on the hanging bridge that spanned the croc-infested river close to La Paloma lodge.

Starr was a regulary Pippi Longstocking and knew how to live in the jungle. She found this fruit that we all tasted.

She also showed the kids how to make facepaint from the mud...

...Baker really enjoyed that!

I made this picture extra large in the hope that you can see the sloth...this guy actually moved around a bit, not so slothful!

Awww, isn't he cute? This white faced (or Capuchin) monkey was very cute, as were his many friends. They were also a wee bit agressive, hanging from trees just above the trail and baring their teeth as we walked beneath.

The next day, we ventured with Randall, our guide, into Corcovado National Park, the highlight of the Osa Peninsula. We again had to travel by boat, south along the coast, to reach the park headquarters where we found a small exhibit of the bones of some of the animals that live in the park. One, in particular, mad a great mask.

The Monster of Corcovado lives!

Our walk through Corcovado, while lovely, was not as rich with wildlife as I had hoped. We saw birds, and a few monkeys if I recall, but that was about it. Lots of interesting trees, including of course the matapalo, which I imagine I have written about earlier. The matapalo (translation "kills tree") is a vine-like tree that wraps itself around another larger tree, slowly suffucating it and taking its place in the forest. They are quite beautiful and it is a thing to see when they have destroyed another tree and it has decomposed, leaving the matapalo standing with a mostly hollow center, where the other tree was previously. 

While we did not see a lot of wildlife, we did see this track of a tapir. (Wikipedia link). These are large (500lbs) pig-like animals. I recall Randall saying that it is good not to find one as they can be aggressive if they are surprised!

The hike throuch Corcovado led us eventually back to the beach, alongside a medium sized stream where we had a rest and an unplanned adventure. We set off upstream a bit and found a beautiful swimming hole in the stream, complete with a small waterfall to massage our backs.

Mike and Cindy near our unplanned swim stop.

Kendall on the beach.

Tara and Tae walking the beautiful rocky shoreline.

Good friends.

My two favorite girls!

We left the beach and headed back into the forest and quickly came into a very beautiful and very wet section of jungle...

After a great lunch break, Randall led us (and carried one of us!) to another waterfall, where we had a fantastic swim and some small cliff jumping!

See that splash? That comes from one of the kids (now underwater) jumping off the waterfall. That is Randall looking on.

Mike looks happy after his plunge! Pura vida, baby!

Back at La Paloma lodge, if you looked in one direction, there was nothing but green...

...and in another direction, nothing but blue.

The next day brought another adventure. Cindy unfortunately took ill, but the rest of the gang headed down the coast on horseback. It was a remarkably treacherous course. The horses walked on a path that was often no more than two feet across and which fell--no kidding--forty or fifty feet on one side to the rocky beach below. If the horse slipped or got spooked, it would not have been pretty.

But, of course, they didn't and, as a result, it was very pretty. A truly beautiful horseride. When we were on wider terrain, we let the horses run a bit. Baker's horse threw him. But to his great credit, he "got back on the horse" and continued on--Tara and I were both very proud of his ability to do that.

We stopped at the local Drake Bay school for about a half hour and had a futbol match with some of the kids. A great time under the hot Costa Rican sun.

Afterwards, the Casagrandes plus Starr continued on while the Discenzas went to check on mom. We had another unplanned adventure (the best kind!). A bit farther down the coast, we came to another stream and a small camp run by a German woman. She rented kayaks. We ordered up four kayaks--one for each of the big kids and one for Tara, Tae and me. With a guide, we made a short paddle upstream and then tied up at a spot that one would never have found without the knowledge of a local. There was a small waterfall draining down a rock face into the stream. We tied the kayaks there and ascended up the rockface, which the kids loved climbing and Tae managed in my arms.

Up and up we went until we reached a swimming hole and...up and up we went some more until we reached a second, larger swimming hole complete with great cliff-jumping. Baker, Riley and Starr had a ball jumping from the heights as Tara and Tae and I looked on. Of course, Tara and I each took our turn too. It was a magical experience.

It came time to say goodbye to Osa and we headed out to the Drake Bay airport--really just a dirt field with a bus-stop sized terminal. We had a private plane--didn't plan that, but it worked out that we were the only ones on board and a nice flight back to San Jose. Osa had been a great adventure! Pura vida!

Tara and Cindy at Drake Bay Airport.

About to board our private plane...















Arriving to the Osa

After our cross-border adventure from Colombia to Costa Rica, we still had a rainstorm, a swollen river and stormy whitecaps to get through before we could meet our friends the Discenzas at our hotel in the Osa Peninsula. It was an exciting day!

We were met at the Costa Rica-Panama border and driven about 90 minutes to the banks of the Rio Sierpe and a wonderful little restaurant, where we had a beautiful lunch of casado con pescado. (If I haven't written this elsewhere this year, a casado is a typical Costa Rican meal consisting of rice, beans, a little salad, fried plantains and either fish, chicken or less often beef, usually grilled. It is delicious and healthy.)

At the restaurant, we met Randall who would accompany us to La Paloma, our hotel, and would later serve as our guide in Corcovado National Park. Randall gave us each a pancho and we boarded a longboat, captained by Diego. This thrilled Tae (and all of us really) as it gave us the chance to say "Go Diego Go!" (Parents with small children get this; others may not--sorry).

The ride started off simple enough. The rain drizzled down lightly. We passed secondary growth forest and pastures, occasionally seeing deeper jungle. Very little in the way of people or settlements. After about 25 minutes, the rain picked up considerably and with a strong wind, began to blow sideways rendering the boat's roof rather useless. I for one, incompletely covered by my pancho, was completely soaked. I think Tara was similarly drenched. Baker, Riley and Tae only a bit less so.

We approached the boca (mouth) of the river and the open ocean. White caps came storming into the river and the boat began to rise and fall. Randall explained that we needed to get out past the whitecaps, and then motor along the coast about ten minutes past the small town of Drake Bay and then come back in to our hotel. Diego pointed us straight to sea.

As we crashed up and down, we all roared with laughter and smiles. Perhaps we were remembering our adventure in Bocas del Toro, where a somewhat stoned boat captain toured us perilously close to gigantic rocks as whitewater crashed around us.

As the boca became wider and wider, it's left side became more dominated by very large rocks--the size of three or four story buildings. And, curiously, rather than heading straight ahead into the ocean, Diego headed straight for the rocks, each being smashed every fifteen or twenty seconds by the power of the Pacific.

"Well, fine. He must know what he is doing. Surely, he'll head towards the rocks and then turn out to sea and around them," I said to Tara.

But, he kept heading towards them and it became clear that, specifically, he was headed towards a small channel--perhaps 3 boat widths wide, say 30 feet--between two enormous rocks. Fifty meters from the rocks, Diego paused and we bobbed in the swell watching the whitewater pound the narrow channel--which, it had now become undeniably clear, was our passage through.

Then, as a smash of whitewater leveled out in preparation for the next, Diego pushed the throttle forward and off we zoomed through the channel, rocks close by on either side of us. We made it through easily, the next wave smashing only after we were well passed. Well done, Diego!

As we cruised along the coast, the ride smoothed out and we appreciated the deep forest of the Osa. After about 10 minutes we came to a clearing in the forest and could see perhaps a dozen buildings that were the heart of Drake Bay, the small town nearest our hotel. We passed Drake Bay and then pulled into the mouth of a small river, with fishing lodges on each bank. We went 100 meters upstream and then docked, as Randall pointed out a crocodile fifteen meters from us, whose head just stuck out of the water.

"Later, if you like, you can use a kayak and paddle up this river," suggested Randall. After a year in Costa Rica, the idea of paddling on a croc-infested river rolled right over us.

"Sounds fun!" we replied.

We climbed a nearby stairway and then went along a path, to a little paradise of a hotel - La Paloma lodge.

Rewind: Leaving Colombia

Perhaps this blog title would make a good movie title, like Out of Africa or something. And our story of leaving Colombia has made for a good tale as well.

After a beautiful 24 hours in the Isla Rosario National Park, we boated back to Cartagena in a launch just big enough to not capsize in the rough and tumble open waters. We stalled once and the boat captain duly got us going again.

A quick souvenir-buying stop in Cartagena and off we went to the airport for our flight back to San Jose, with a stop in Panama City. In San Jose, we would be meeting up with our friends the Discenzas to go to Costa Rica's spectacular Osa Peninsula.

The check in clerk at COPA Airlines took our passports, issued our boarding passes and then asked just one question: "May I see your yellow immunization cards that show your Yellow Fever vaccinations?"

"Huh?"

Turns out that Costa Rica passed a law in 2009 requiring all visitors to Colombia returning to Costa Rica to have a Yellow Fever immunization. This was the first we had heard of it. After much back and forth and much pleading, the Copa clerk would not yield. It seemed that our choices were to get a shot and then remain ten days more in Colombia while the vaccination took full effect or...well, that was all she really said we could do.

At last, however, she agreed that we could fly to Panama City since Panama did not have the same requirements. She then, rather incongruously, offered to merely change our flight from Panama to Costa Rica by one day and suggested that it would be perfectly acceptable to fly the very next day from Panama to Costa Rica. While this sounded promising, it didn't exactly make sense and, fortunately, we did not take her offer, which would have cost $575 in change fees and, we found out later, indeed would not have worked.

Instead, we boarded our flight to Panama. As we flew, we conjured the plan of landing in Panama, racing through immigration and getting a Panamanian entry stamp, then running to get new boarding passes in the hope that because we were now officially in Panama, and not in Yellow Fever ridden Colombia (by the way, it's not...), we might get through. This was essentially a variation on the plan offered up by the Copa clerk, except that we would not wait even on day. We would just try to board the flight as if we had been in Panama all the time, not just for five minutes.

So we hustled. A great immigration attendant in Panama quickly and courteously got us into the country. We had speedy bag retrieval. Kids performing at top level--as a side note, our kids have become terrific travelers. Baker and Riley, in particular, can get their shoes off, backpacks onto the conveyor belt, metallic items placed just so, assist with Tae, gather their things, put everything back on, and keep moving down the concourse in seconds flat.

It was all working for us. Even when we arrived back at the COPA desk.

"Hi," I said with a smile and in lovely Spanish. "Here we are in Panama." I paused to emphasize our location as being not in Colombia. "We are late for our flight to San Jose. Can we still make it or do you have another flight?"

The clerk said we were too late but that there was another flight in a couple hours that we could make and not pay any change fee. Yes! She took our passports, issued our boarding passes and asked one question: "Can I see proof of your Yellow Fever immunizations?"

"Huh?"

"My computer says you were just in Colombia and you need...yadda yadda yadda." You know the story.

So, we were again turned around. One thing we have learned, however, through Tara's Canadian citizenship and her US residency, and through the experience of a good friend in the States who is a Bolivian citizen, is that immigration services are consistent on just one principle: inconsistency.

The COPA clerk made a few calls and then explained: The Costa Rican authorities at the airport will be real sticklers about the Yellow Fever immunizations. But, if you drive across from Panama, nobody will ask about it.

And, there was our solution. We found a hotel for the night in Panama City and, in the morning, hopped a 45 minute domestic flight to David, a medium sized city in the north of Panama, an hour from the Costa Rican border. From David, we caught a cab to the border. I had called our hotel in Osa from Panama City and they arranged a taxi to meet us on the CR side of the border. So, we walked across the border, the Costa Rican immigration officials slammed their welcome stamps into our passports directly beside the Colombian exit stamps (no kidding!) and we were back home in Costa Rica and on our way to the next adventure.

The Fish Wizard

Last night, I found myself crowded in a boat's bow, crammed together with three other listeners--my children--and a dog, wrapped in a story read to me and the others by the Fish Wizard.

The Fish Wizard had driven us in the boat just after sunset to a quiet spot, nestled among several islands, the nearest of which was no more than a very large granite boulder, a bit of Canadian Shield, inhabited only by loons, mergansers, and other birds.

The Fish Wizard cut the engine and invited us all--canine and non-canine--into the bow of the boat, where she offered blankets to protect us from the growing cool of the night and a shoulder to lean on. I was nestled up against Tae and found Baker's feet in my lap. I rubbed his feet quietly as the Fish Wizard began her story.

"'The Lorax,' by Dr. Seuss," she said. She read the tale with ease, Riley's head resting gently on her shoulder and we all listened with interest as the Lorax warned the narrator against cutting the Truffula Trees, as he ignored that advice and the world fell towards an ugly future, and as the Onceler offered the narrator his one chance at redemption.

The Fish Wizard wore a purple cape and this hat as the sky began to fill with stars.

I admit to taking a moment away from the story to appreciate the larger magic that the Fish Wizard had created...not just the tale that Seuss wove so well. She had brought us to a place filled with beauty, with the three children that are not just near to our hearts but of our hearts, and at just the right time of day. As I looked around the lake and then more closely around the boat--at Henry's handsome profile (Henry the dog), at the way Tae cuddled into Baker, at Riley's complete relaxation and absorption in the moment, at Baker's still childlike appreciation of a good story, and at the Fish Wizard herself, dressed in her Cap and Cape, children surrounding her Mary Poppins-like; as I looked at all this, I felt the bliss and the blessings of that moment and this life.

I don't always have the right state of mind to appreciate my many blessings so I committed in that moment of appreciation to writing some of them down. Fish Wizard, I just wanted to let you know that you are number one among them.

The Fish Wizard (wearing a different cap)

Rewind - Volcan Totumo

A big highlight of our trip to Colombia was the Volcan Totumo--a 45 foot high pile of mud! Read on, if you dare.

One afternoon, against the suggestion of our hotel concierge, Baker, Riley and I grabbed a taxi out to the Volcan Totumo--what we had heard was a forty-five foot tall "volcano" full of mud. It sounded weird and weird sounded like fun.

The taxi ride took about an hour and along the way we passed through suburban Cartagena and the "George Washington School" (a private school primarily for expats) and a similar British-founded expat school. The kids and I discussed some of Colombia's recent past--drugs and violence. That was an interesting chat and reminds me of how travel provides the opportunity for so many lessons and discussions.

[By the way, a lot of people have asked us if Colombia was safe, given its reputation. We never felt in danger. Our understanding is that the president of the past eight years did a great job on reigning in the violence. While it may still not be entirely safe to travel to remote parts of the country, by all accounts the big cities (Cartagena, Bogota, Medellin) are quite safe. In fact, we did not even see a large police force, which I had entirely expected. There were not lots of AK47-bearing military police walking around to keep the streets safe. It was all quite peaceful.]

Fifty minutes down the road, we turned off onto a smaller road that soon turned to dust and gravel. And there looming before us--well, not quite looming, more like resting--was the mighty (not quite mighty, either--more like dusty) Volcan Totumo.

Volcan Totumo: Making a mountain out of a molehill, or in this case, a volcano out of a mudpile.

We climbed a rickety stairway to the top of Totumo and there our eyes met "the crater"--a 12' x 12' or so square pool of mud, inhabited by three people covered head to toe in the stuff. Turns out they were from Saskatoon. Really.

They appeared to be sitting on benches that I figured lined the side, the way benches do in a jacuzzi. I asked them about the benches and they said, "No. Were sort of just standing here."

"Well, how deep is the mud?" I asked one of the young Colombian men standing about to help people get in and out.

"Dos mil trescientos metros de profundidad."

"What? Really?"

"Si."

2300 meters deep! That's over 7500 feet. This thing was mud all the way down.

Back to the Canadians: "Well, it feels like we're standing. I guess it's more like we are floating."

They weren't treading or exerting any effort whatsoever. They were just there atop 7500 feet of liquid, standing.

Riley was the first to enter, followed by Baker and then by me. It is hard to describe the feeling of it, other than that it was very, very funny. We laughed most of the hour we spent in the mud. We laughed at the feeling of sitting in such thick ooze; we laughed at our vain attempts to dive under the ooze--we simply couldn't get down; we laughed at our looks, covered in the mud; and we laughed at our jumps into a 7500 foot deep pool.

It was a fun and laughter filled afternoon. When finally we decided to get out, we climbed down Totumo (with a bit more respect than when we summited) and were escorted to the adjacent lake where three local women helped us wash up--scrubbed us quite well actually.

I think in this case, in particular, photos are worth 1000 or more words; and video even more. See the photos below and check out this video on YouTube of our Totumo experience.

Three monsters emerge from the ooze of Totumo!

Baker in the batter.

Riley, hoping the cement doesn't harden!

Blue Man group ain't got nothing on us!

Baker looks particularly psycho in this photo, no?

Pura vida!

Rewind - Cartagena, Colombia

As I go to post this blog, I am sitting overlooking Lake Joseph, two hours north of Toronto. However, most of it was written while sitting in our hotel room in Cartagena Colombia in the middle of June. A great trip...

* * * *

As I write this, we are in the midst of a wonderful family vacation in and around Cartagena, Colombia.  We landed here late afternoon on Friday, June 18 and wound our way from the airport into the old walled city of Cartagena. Once inside, we were immersed in the colonial era architecture that is so filled with 21st century life. A great mix!

Brightly colored buildings line narrow cobblestone streets. Nearly every edifice sports its own balcony, often lush with bougainvilla or some other flowering plant.

A typical Cartagena street, with balconies above filled to exploding with bougainvilla.

The main highlights of our days in Cartagena have been walking the streets and, twice, cruising them in horsedrawn carriage, which somehow didn't feel quite as touristy as it normally does. Here are some of the other fun moments:

We ate delicious gelato before noon at Brianzola.

We shopped for emeralds--Turns out that Colombia produces 70 percent of the world's emeralds.

We toured the Palace of the Inquisition and had a close up look at the various ways that Catholic Priests tortured and ultimately killed alleged witches. (Credit to Pope John Paul II, however: He apologized for the Inquisition several years before his death.)

We had a fun lunch at Plaza Santa Teresa, where Tara and I danced to some Colombian favorites and where we drank illegal beers from coffee cups. Illegal because the presidential election was just a day away and a dry law banning all alcohol sales for the days leading up to the election was in force, if not enforced.

Tara and I had a fun dance to a mariachi-style quartet in the Plaza Santa Teresa.

Baker watched a painter make a very nice painting on a mirror in just five minutes and brought it home as a souvenir.
We had a nice dinner at the very tranquilo Club de Pesca, on the waterfront in Cartagena.

At the Club de Pesca, having dinner.

We visited Boca Grande, the upscale barrio of Cartagena, outside the walled city. Had a lunch there in a Medellin-style restaurant (not as yummy as Cartagena-style food--which was mostly fish with sides like coconut rice. The Medellin restaurant offered up more pork-based stew-like fare.) That same day, we also visited a mall and saw Toy Story 3, in Spanish. (This was a sort of final exam for the kids listening comprehension Spanish skills. They passed with flying colors!)

From the Convento de la Popa, there is a nice view of all Cartagena. The tall building in the distance are the upscale neighborhood of Boca Grande.

We went to el Convento de la Popa, a former convent located on the highest point in Cartagena. There was an interesting story about the chief priest in the convent being killed by an angry parishioner--speared through the chest--but mostly the convent offered a nice view of all Cartagena.

Riley inside the Convento de la Popa.

We watched Argentina defeat Greece in the Group Round of the World Cup in an Argentine steak house. In search of a TV showing the game (an easy search as the World Cup was ubiquitous in Cartagena), we were ushered up the interior steps of a sidewalk cafe to a small room full of businessmen in suits on their lunchbreak. The whole crowd was for Argentina, as were we, though our motivations were Korean in nature--Argentina's victory made South Korea's passage to the round of 16 certain.

Gathering with some business folks on lunchbreak to watch Argentina defeat Greece.

We visited el Castillo de San Felipe, a fortress set back from Cartagena's waterfront designed to protect the city from pirate attacks. We were somewhat confused by the fortress' location (away from the water) and its alleged purpose (defending from pirate attacks), but nonetheless it was a interesting and very impressive structure. Beneath the castle were a series of elaborate tunnels in which the Spanish could lay in wait for the English buccaneers, suprise them, and slay them. All that, however, in theory--as the fortress was so well defended that no enemy ever made it so far as the tunnels.

Riley outside el Castillo de San Felipe, with an impressive Colombian flag blowing behind her. Apparently, the flag was designed by a Venezuelan and the yellow symbolizes the blond hair of a woman whom he loved madly.

An ammo storage unit atop one corner of the castle.

Cannons and cannon equipment were moved strategically around the castle to create the impression that there were more men defending the castle than there actually were.

Castillo de San Felipe.

In the light of sunset at Castillo de San Felipe.

We had a nice sunset dinner and drinks at the very hip Cafe del Mar, right on top of the wall of  the old city. This was a spot for Cartagena's coolest people. We (quite unsurprisingly) were admitted with enthusiasm to this elite group.

Cafe del Mar seemed like the place to see and be seen in Cartagena.

We made an overnight trip to the Isla Rosario National Park--a marine park home that includes a number of islands. There, the highlights were a trip to a local aquarium where the kids had a chance to swim with a dolphin--really fun to watch!--and where we saw a shark show.

Cartagena, as seen from the water on our way to Isla Rosario.

Baker and Riley helped Tae meet a dolphin up close and personal.

Baker scratches the dolphin's chin.

Riley thought the dolphin's kiss was very salty!

The aquarium had a dolphin show as well as a shark show.

We also did about 45 minutes of snorkeling there in Rosario. Tae simply climbed on Tara's back and stuck his face in the water to see the fish and coral. What a snorkeler at age 4! Riley and Baker really enjoyed it as well, swimming and exploring.

Riley and I posing for a photo before snorkeling.

Baker goes for a dive.

Tara and her companion Tae.

And some more photos from the trip:

Baker let his long blonde locks grow during our time in Nosara. In Cartagena, he cut them for the first time in six months.

We went to the Cartagena Museum of Modern Art, where we found and recreated a painting called "El Beso."

We saw a portion of a school play/show by some local kids and snapped this photo of our kids with a girl in the show. She is a typical urban Colombian kid, dressed up in traditional clothes (the way our kids might dress as a Pilgrim...)

Our hotel had two toucans living right in the main dining area. Unfortunately for them, their wings were clipped--but it made for fun breakfast times.

Tune in again soon for the funniest thing we did in Colombia: Volcan del Totumo!

Pura vida!