It started as a Costa Rica and Colombia trip, but things went wrong from the beginning. I had to wait till Monika got her green card, before I could really plan specifics. I had thought we could go to Costa Rica for 2 weeks and then Colombia for 2 weeks. Monika had her interview in March and got her Green card in late April. Then I started looking at fares and the best way to go about it. It seemed that Denver to Costa Rica and back and Costa Rica to Colombia and back were the cheapest way to do it. In the meantime, I called and sent emails to the Costa Rican consulate in Denver.

They told me that I can not use the form for applying for the tourist visa on the net and that they have to mail me a special form. After one week, I called them again and the woman apologized and said she will mail it right away. After another week, I called her again and this time I wasn't very happy with her. I told her that I wanted to drive to the office, as it is only 10 minutes from our home and pick it up and she said, "No one is allowed to our office without appointment because of security concerns." She again said she would mail it immediately. When I told her we wanted to go to Costa Rica for two weeks and then to Colombia and we wanted two entries into Costa Rica, she told me they only give out one entry visas and if we were going to go to Colombia and then to Costa Rica, we will need to get another visa from Colombia.

This sounded like a lot of nonsense, as I know that India issues single as well as multiple entry visas and has done so for years. Anyhow I checked the website and that seemed like that was the only way they issued visas. Also, Monika had said that she wanted to be in Colombia on the 16th for her mother's birthday. So, I could not do the one-week to Costa Rica and then two weeks to Colombia and one week to Costa Rica (our original) plan. Instead I decided on two weeks to Colombia and then two weeks to Costa Rica and bought the tickets - Denver to Colombia; Colombia to Costa Rica and Costa Rica to Denver.

Anyhow, I got the form after three weeks from my initial email and it was exactly the same form that they have on the website except this is a black and white copy! I filled out the form and made duplicate copies of bank statements and other documents they require and was ready to mail it. Before mailing it I decided to ask if I could walk it to the office and was given the same nonsense. I told the woman that I wanted to do it quick because even though we were not going to Costa Rica till later, we were going to be leaving for Colombia in three weeks. Then she told me that they will not issue a visa to her in Denver even though she is a resident of USA and that she will need to go to Bogota to apply for the visa! I got really angry at her and we shouted at each other and I demanded to talk to the consul - her husband - by now I knew from exchanges on an internet board that a couple ran the Denver office and that they were very unprofessional and gave a lot of bad information. She put him on and he told me the same thing. When I asked for his name, he refused to give it to me!

Still not believing it, I emailed the Washington DC office and also called them. I tried calling the Houston office and got no live person. I finally was able to talk to a woman in the Washington office who told me that they do issue country specific visas - even though it makes no sense - She agreed that if one is eligible to enter from USA, the fact that they are now entering from another country doesn't make them ineligible but Monika will need to go to Bogota to get the visa.

I had Monika email and call her friends in Colombia, who told her that the visa must be applied for in person in Bogota. The airfare for one person was $600 that made this very expensive for two of us to go there, find a hotel and spend a day or two and then she may or may not get the visa!

I had to change our plans. We would no longer go to Costa Rica - just Colombia; the penalties and recharges for this was about $1000. The $2250 tickets to Colombia became $3200 tickets because of penalties and charges. One interesting thing; when you cancel or change your flight (booked on the Internet through Expedia etc.) not only they charge you all these penalties, you must use the credits on the airline that the tickets were originally on. And, if you were flying on two planes e.g. Barranquilla to Bogota on Avianca airlines and then Bogota to San Jose, Costa Rica on Copa airlines, the credit issued on the second airlines - Copa in our case.

It took a week to get Avianca to allow me a credit (after penalties but then they will not give me the reduced rate that I could find on Expedia but their full rates ($600 versus $350.)

.....

After sticking around overnight in Miami, from midnight to about 5 A.M.; we checked in for our 7.45 flight. We waited and waited and waited; the flight kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed. We finally took off around 11 A.M.

At Bogota, after immigration, I cashed $40 at a window, just to have some spending money till we got to an ATM in Barranquilla. Our next flight was leaving early, so Monika called her brother (they have phone service shops all over.) One of her friends told her brother that he would come and see us at the airport. He didn't arrive and we had to check-in for our 'early' flight. When we got to the boarding area, we were told that the flight is delayed. So, we waited another hour or so and got on the plane and arrived a little later than the normal arrival time. Our baggage (checked in Denver through to Barranquilla) arrived and we walked out. Monika's brother and niece were waiting for us.

Barranquilla is a port city; basically an Industrial city and is congested with narrow streets and houses squeezed together with no space in-between, little or no greenery and lots of noise. It was hot and humid everyday but OK. The home PC was not working (we bought a new monitor for it but then the PC had to be fixed.) It finally got fixed couple days later.

It was in the 90´s every day and in the 80s even at night so we had fans going all the time and Monika's brother Victor put in a small, new air-conditioning unit in the new room that they had added last year - we got to sleep there and so the nights were not too bad. However, I had almost forgotten how noisy that area is with busses and cars going past the house all the time and the beep-beep noise which is very common in Colombia. Some taxis and cars have two horns; one is the regular beep-beep sounding horn and the other is a vroom, vroom siren type horn and they are both used almost all the time and for no reason either. I noticed that they will honk the horn when waiting at a red light, they will honk it when the green light came on, they will honk it if a car was in front, behind or to the side of them and yes, even when they saw a girl on the street!

We were watching the world cup games and doing a little shopping every day or the other. It seemed that one of the better way to pass the day is to go to a shopping mall like Buenavista in the morning and shop around. Then eat in their food court (yes they have KFC and other chicken, hamburger and pizza joints along with some mid-eastern, American and Colombian places. This way you can spend a few hours and then take a cab back. Since, they have a supermarket - Olimpia (like Wal-Mart but a little smaller); you can do grocery shopping there also.

Monika's mother had her 74th birthday celebration and a lot of relatives and friends came over. I took several pictures and drank as many beers (well close enough.) There is an Empenada shop in front of Monika's home. Three women come there every evening around four and set up a couple of tables to cook and sell Empenadas, Arrepas and a couple other dishes. They sell them till late night. One night I ate three Empenadas; one cheese, one beef and one chicken. The total price was about 2,000 pesos or 80 cents!

The PC was down again for a couple days and then it was reloaded with new windows and a new keyboard. We got ready for our Santa Marta trip. Interestingly we ran into a few problems with this trip. First of all Monika´s friend in Barranquilla - Carmen; wanted to go with us and her boy friend Joe (visiting from New Jersey) and her nieces and son. It was OK as Monika wanted to take her niece and nephew too - so the plan was to get two - two bedroom apartments from Monday to Friday.

The Saturday prior to leaving; Carmen said that she forgot to tell the owner of the apartments about Monday so they were only available for Tuesday through Thursday. But we were required to pay the money into the owner´s account (through a bank in Barranquilla.) When Monika talked to the owner she was told that they only allow the use of air conditioning nine hours a day and so if we use it during the day for couple hours or more, it will be cutoff during the night! It was ridiculous and very funny! But of course the owner was very serious about this. And she charges $75 a day - which is a mid-level hotel price here (our hotel in Cartagena was $68 a day through Expedia.)

So! I got online and looked for a hotel but they only have one listing (expedia, hotel.com, travelocity all of them have the same listing.) And that is an all-inclusive hotel) $96 per day per person.

Monika then talked to her friend Maria Teresa in Santa Marta who got us a two bedroom apt with unlimited air-conditioning (what a deal!) for the same price and she would pay up front for us. So, we planned to leave the next day and see what happens!

I had bought a new camera before the trip and it seemed to be working fine but the home PC was in no shape to retrieve pictures etc. and the internet connection was only dialup, so I could not post the pictures on my website even though I had lots of time on my hands.

The ex-wife of Monika´s brother didn't let her kids come with us, she had said yes to begin with; so Monika brought her 12 year old cousin with her and her friend Carmen brought 2 of her nieces and her son with her.

Carmen and company stayed in an apt. about 2 blocks from us - we were right on the beach, overlooking the beach. It was very hot with humidity about 95% all the time and so we ran the air-conditioning all day just to keep the rooms cool. (They had individual air-conditioning units in the two rooms but none in the common - dining/kitchen area.)

We spent the first 2 days in Rodadero (Santa Marta.) Basically it has a beautiful semi-circular shaped beach area called Rodadero that is lined with skyscraper hotels, apt buildings and behind those are the shops, restaurants and the rest of the city with its narrow streets, houses that are squeezed together with no greenery and noisy traffic. We spent a lot of time in the water and on the beach, drinking beer, eating and watching the people around. Santa Marta, especially the beach area seems to be full of vacationers, and so everyone is in a fun mood and there are bunch of vendors selling food, beer, jewelry, dark glasses, clothes etc. etc. The third day we went to Playa Blanca (about 20 minutes by boat from Rodadero.) It has a very clean beach but smaller and the water is very clear. We stayed there the whole day, a lot of time in the water and on the beach, drinking beer, eating and watching the people around. It worked out pretty well and Monika´s friend left on Thursday noon, we stayed till Friday morning. We planned to go to Cartagena next (No friends or kids on this trip!)

.....

The Cartagena trip was good. We stayed in the old city in a small hotel that was quite and clean. The first day, after we got there - well I must tell you about the transportation first. We used the same company - Invertours, to go to Santa Marta also. For that trip we booked the whole van that picked us up from three different locations (there were eight of us) and took us to our two apt buildings and we paid about $20 for the two of us. We paid about $20 for our Cartagena trip also, they picked us up from our home and dropped us at our hotel!

Well, after we got there we went to the new city for lunch and then in the evening, we walked around the old city and had dinner in an open area. Several restaurants put out their tables in the big open space where dancers, musicians and jugglers perform while you are eating out in the open. It's both interesting and fun.

Cartagena is both an old and a new city. It seems to be a vacation town but it has several businesses also. The old city of Cartagena is similar to others - shops, restaurants, narrow streets, houses that are squeezed together with no greenery and noisy traffic except the old city the streets are really tiny, maybe 12 or 14 feet across - that means the distance between the two walls that are Part of the houses/businesses across the street from each other. The new city is the beach area with sky scrapers that surround the whole island (north and south or maybe it was east and west.) its like a U shaped area with mainly hotels and a few apt buildings. In between the beach area are the businesses, the roads are much broader (normal) and the traffic is heavy but not too noisy.

The second day we decided to go on a city tour in a rickety bus (they all are rickety) that is very high with narrow aisles. The tour lasted about four hours and they took us to an old Monastery (Convento de Santa Cruz de la Popa), the Fort (Castillo San Felipe de Barajas), couple of other spots, one with a sculpture of two very big shoes and then we got off in the old town near the hotel.

The third day, we got up early, went to the dock area and got on a boat for a trip to the Isle de Encanto. It was very pretty and there was lots of beer and hanging in the warm waters of the sea, the swimming pool and then the sea again.

We went to a casino that night and I played blackjack for about 3 hours and spent 100,000 pesos (about $40.) Yes the rate of exchange is about 2500 pesos to the dollar but the prices are posted as $100,000.00 (that would be 100,000 pesos but the sign for pesos is the same sign as the dollar sign!) Very confusing for me but eventually you get used to it. Yes, even the ATM gives you a receipt showing you withdrew $500,000.00 (About 200 American dollars!)

The next day we hung around the beaches of Cartagena and met Monika's friend Miriam for dinner and went back to the casino for more blackjack.

One day in the last week in Baranquilla, Victor suddenly decided that we should go to a beach area. I reminded Monika that the beach is pretty dirty in Barranquilla but she said this was a nice area. We went there with a cab full of six people, the cab driver Luchho, Victor, Daniela, Kevin, Monika and me.

We stopped by to get gas - and I mean gas not petrol. Luccho (as many others) drives a cab called 'Gasxi' that is basically cars that run on natural gas and many gas stations also sell natural gas. They are made by Mazda, even Chevrolet and a few others. Basically, they put a large gas cylinder, about 4 or 5 times bigger than the propane cylinders commonly used for grilling here, in the trunk of the car and put a nozzle for injecting the gas in the front (on top of the engine.) They are very clean, of course and run quite well. All cars and cabs are very small and hard for me to get in and out because they have very little leg-room.

We then drove by a beach area and climbed to the top of a hill to a private resort that is nothing more than 2 or 3 swimming pools that are not very clean looking and very crowded. They have a big waterslide for kids and I guess that's their main attraction.

Victor had decided on this trip around 1.00 O'clock in the after noon. We got there around 2.30 and I as well as everyone else was very hungry. Daniela, Luchho and I sat in a small area while the others went to get us food. They came back saying that the place was out of food! We then drove out of the resort to a nearby restaurant on the beach and ate a late lunch. Victor tried to tell the resort people that we were coming back but I told him that was 'garbage' nothing more than a swimming pool and that being on the beach was better than that area. He had paid $10,000 to get us wristbands to allow entry to the resort! Well, I didn't want to go back there and we didn't.

.....

Before we left for Miami, Monika's friend called her and told her we can't stay with her. Her name is Tonita and she had surgery from which she was not recovering well. So, I had to get on the internet, find a hotel and a car. She had originally told us, we don't need a hotel or a car as she will take us around. I didn't like this added expense but had no choice.

The Miami trip was not so good - the first day we got there, after picking up the car, we went to the hotel. We asked the hotel clerk about the mall of America (I thought that's the name Leonard and Jo had mentioned as a very pretty mall to walk around in.) But he said its very far, quite small and most of the shops there close at 5; he suggested we go to the Dolphin mall. We went and ate there. While there, Monika got a call from her nephew that he was in Miami - so we ended up baby sitting the niece, nephew and his girl friend that night and the next day when we went to South Beach.

South Beach is big and pretty but the water is dirty - it's full of seaweed. Also, just to rent an umbrella and couple of lounge chairs, it cost $55. For lunch, Monika decided she wanted to eat Chinese and so they started asking people. We went around 4 or 5 blocks looking for almost one hour in approximately 100 degree temperature; I finally said the next pizza or fast-food place is it and as I was taking them to a Pizza place Monika's niece begged her to buy her a steak (she has a steak fetish or something), so we ended up in a Cuban restaurant that overcharges ($106 for 5 people for lunch!)

That night Monika's sister was arriving with her boy friend Mike (they decided to do this trip to meet Monika - I didn't want to be with five more people on this trip!) They arrived very late but luckily for the kids, I took them all to dinner around 8 - an hour before her sister arrived.

They didn't make any plans for the next day event hough they talked till almost midnight and when Monika called her the next morning; there was no answer (this was around 10 or 11 in the morning.) So, I decided to drive to the Miccosukee swamp area - there are airboat rides there. I had seen a card in the hotel that listed that without any address, just the highway that it was on. As we were driving there, her sister called and wanted to know where we were going and then they wanted to go with us. I told Monika to tell them that we will see them after we come back (I didn't exactly know where we were going either.) The airboat trip was interesting, it glides on water, sometimes a few inches off the surface. We went through a part of the huge swamp but didn't see any crocodiles till the end. There was a crocodile at the dock area. After the trip, we ate lunch and she called her sister, who was going to the mall and told us to come there.

We went to the mall and after waiting around for half-hour or so in which time I bought an ice cream. The others were shopping somewhere but did not come to where we were. I told Monika to let's go back to the hotel as she was planning to visit her friend that evening.

The friend, Janet; does not speak English and was not able to give us the directions to her home. All Monika could tell me was that it's near the "Metrosul". That didn't make any sense to me. Monika had seen the internet area in the hotel and I found the directions on Yahoo. I asked Monika to confirm that her friend lived in the sub-division that the map showed and then we drove there. When we were driving there, we went past the "Metro Zoo". When we got there, we couldn't find one of the last streets that we were supposed to turn on. We called her and somehow got to her home. As we were in her home, Mike called and wanted me to give him the directions! Ha ha ha. He doesn't speak much Spanish and the rest of the people .... well! So, I gave him the directions. He said he knew the area and then five more people arrived at this dinner.

On Sunday, Monika's friend Tonita, who had offered for us to stay at her home and then gotten sick, finally called her and told her that she wanted to cook lunch for us (including the other 5 people.) And then Monika's sister and others came to our hotel and we drove in the two cars to this woman's home. She has a tiny home, so I am glad that we didn't stay there; she also has a daughter who lives with her and a son who lives in a juvenile home (I never found out the full story, just that he was trouble.)

When we got there around 1.30, she told us that she had changed her mind and will take us out to a restaurant. I told her to hurry as I had to return my car by 4.30 or pay for one more day. Then as usual they were chatting to each other and on their cell phones and when we were leaving around 2.30, I told her friend again about my car rental and she said we will go return the car first, which I thought was a good idea.

As we were driving in our 3 cars - she had Monika's nephew driving her car - they drove straight to downtown Miami bypassing the rental return area and not only that the nephew drove through a toll gate through the pre-paid lanes almost forcing us to go through there and be fined $100 (I pulled off and went back through the pay lanes as did Mike.)

We got to the restaurant around 3 and it was closed! So! Now they start driving again and then Monika told me - yes they keep calling each other on cell phones but generally they are just talking to each other as if they have not seen each other or heard from each other forever - that we were going to the car rental. Of course by this time I was boiling mad and told her that I will return the car and go back to the hotel and eat at the Wendy's near the hotel and her friends and family can go wherever.

I had to get gas for the car and then I returned the car - by now it was 3.45 and Monika said she wanted to go with them - so now we get into the 2 cars and they drive around and ended up in a Colombian cafe style place. The food didn't look very good to me and the place was very crowded; its only meant for 12 or 15 people to eat - so adding 9 more to the mix was not a good idea. I looked for a McDonald or something nearby as the other 8 were crowded around the food, but didn't see it. I took some shrimp rice and ate it. After I finished, I sat on a stool near the window to give my chair to one of the starving kids. We got back to our hotel around 4.30 and Monika wanted to go with those people again! So, she went with them and returned around 7 since the party of 5 had to leave for Orlando - they were supposed to leave at 3. The poor guy ended up renting the car for one more day! So, on Sunday we really didn't do anything but drive around looking for a place to eat and ended up with less than average food at 4'O clock!

I am glad we are out of Miami, I didn't like it. It was also very hot and humid and it's very crowded and there are tolls on all kinds of roads and they come up rather suddenly. I give Miami a 2 on a scale of 10, Barranquilla a 3; Cartagena a 4 or 5 and Santa Marta a 6 maybe.