So it happened, folks, a surprise trip for her to the Universal Resort for our final day in Florida. Booking last minute, as per the nature of our trip, cost more than it would just several days later so that really sucked. I thought we would end up at Universal Studios but instead, we ended up at the park next to it known as Universal’s Islands of Adventure, essentially a large theme park. Admittedly the separation (or expansion as they would put it) started over 20 years ago so my rant is a little belated. That’s when Universal Studios Florida became the Universal Orlando Resort and when the cash rocketed further, I’d imagine.
Orlando is an excellent base to venture out and visit places, however, I’ve had to concede that we won’t be seeing the extended places we had wished to and for once, the cost was secondary. You see, some months back I lost my driver's license ID card. This hasn’t proved to be a problem, until now. Despite having a passport and a colour photocopy of my driver’s license, this isn’t sufficient to get us a rental car. So with profound sadness, we’ve had to write off the Kennedy Space Centre, Tampa, Daytona Beach (and Speedway), St Augustine, Savannah, and other non-touristy cities on route. Then there’s the freedom and convenience a car would bring for just 3 or 4 days but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
We’ve landed in tourist Florida and Miami of all places! If we were better prepared and researched like we normally are, we likely would have not come here. I say that as if there’s an abundance of choices for countries to visit. There really isn’t. I had a friend guess that we were off to Venezuela as it's a neighbouring country to Colombia, blissfully unaware that international flights have been blocked there for some time.
So as you saw from our last post, we were able, without cost, to extend our stay here and we’re so glad we did. However, as blessed as that felt, I felt less blessed as a day or two later I received ‘the runs’ and a poor stomach. The first time since December in Manaus that I felt ill; that time we *believed* we had caught Corona from Vivian’s extended family members. Although I didn’t show many of the symptoms this time around, it can still play havoc with your paranoia - especially when you have flights booked in the same week! That would have been catastrophic for us, health aside. The logistics and expense would have been unimaginable.
Look how much closer to Nicaragua and other countries than Colombia's mainland itself!
So San Andres is an island that Christopher Colombus himself is said to have visited between 1492 and 1500. In the late 16th century the Dutch used the island as a safe haven from pirates and smugglers but the first real settlement came in 1628 when the British arrived. Did our former Empire know no bounds!?
Admittedly it is pretty cool to hear the older generation speak English in that famously well-known Caribbean accent.
Who has heard of Medellin? I’ve since learned that Medellin is where drug lord kingpin Pablo Escobar operated in and founded his infamous cartel. He was also eventually killed there too. Notoriety aside, the city has grown in popularity over the years and has established itself as one of the main got-to-go-to cities in all of Colombia.
With several days already spent in Cartagena, we booked our flight to Medellin but I can tell you it wasn’t to locate Pablo Escobar’s former stomping ground, it was for a very different reason.
Colombia! I know, right!? Who’d have thought we would end up here!? Certainly not us and probably not you. Whilst we’re actually really glad to be here, it wasn’t stress free and that was just getting here! You see, we had to book another flight at Panama airport to depart from out of a country we hadn’t even arrived in yet. We were better prepared this time but it still hurt to have to do this. Predefined times and dates are a traveller’s nightmare. Still, we gave ourselves two weeks to get a feel for this country in whatever way we could.
Why only 3 days? Well, there’s a story to that and it involves an airline. Not just any airline but the same blasted one that caused us such difficulty departing Brazil. CopaAssholeAirlines.
But board it we did, thankfully. You’ll see at the end of the post the challenge this time around but in the meantime, let’s explore Panamá.
Except WE were the monkeys, for a couple of hours at least. Not so much swinging from tree to tree like Tarzan but instead zip lining from tree to tree!
So we moved from the not overly mountainous area but a delightful small town of La Fortuna to more mountainous territory also on the traveller circuit known as Monteverde. To get here we found a combined 4-hour service that would offer van-water taxi-van transportation which sounded great and would allow us to cruise along Costa Rica’s largest lake, Lake Arenal, with constant views of the volcano as a picturesque backdrop.
Five days later and through no fault of our own, we were finally able to leave the undesirable capital city of San José in desperate search for the real Costa Rica. Did we find it? Let’s find out…
Do you remember in my last post I questioned whether the Easter holiday drawback might have worked out for the best? Granted, I said it with uncertainty and no real conviction but it really has worked so very much in our favour!
Accommodation rates are back down to normal, the vast amount of people have dispersed back to whenever it is they came from and then there was the weather. Plenty of locals informed us that it chucked it down during Easter week, rain for days we were told.