John’s will be giving a concert in Bogota next week so we are pumping him with tea, vitamins, Emergen-C, cough drops — any and every medicine we have with us — to get him healthy.  He just learned that Bogota is at a high elevation - 8,700 feet - so he’s terribly worried about his voice and ability to sing at the high altitude.  Every breath matters for opera singing.  It will be his 6th continent where he will perform.  Getting everyone and staying healthy is a constant battle while travelling as we are exposed to many bugs that see us as fresh meat.  Vitamins, exercise and eating well help but we must always be diligent. Add to it the global scare of coronavirus, another’s traveler hazard, isn’t helping our psyche either with every cough we think.  Could it be?  

Kyle keeps reminding us we are probably in the very best place to avoid the coronavirus, having checked off China well before the scare and having been nowhere near Wuhan.  

We arrive at our hotel in Cartagena and we can’t stop thinking that this city reminds us of Miami beach in Florida with skyscrapers dotted along the precious coastline. The hotel is incredibly contemporary and gorgeous with three restaurants and three different pools.  Will we even leave the hotel to see the historic treasures here? We are in sore need of some downtime having run the gauntlet of Patagonia, Antarctica, Machu Picchu, Ecuador and the Amazon.  All incredible places but all non-stop action and early wake-up calls with nary a day-off to be had.

Cartagena was suggested to us 10 years ago when Doralis asks us to come visit her in Colombia. It took over a decade but we made it.  It’s Thursday and we learn that Doralis will join us here on Saturday morning but unfortunately Bibi won’t be able to get work off so we will have to wait until Bogota on Monday to see her.

As we arrive to check-in at the hotel, two of the three rooms are ready but we will have to wait for the third room.  No problema.  We dump our stuff in the other two rooms and head to the pool for lunch.  After a long lunch and dip in the pool, we check back on the third room.  The clerk apologizes profusely that the room is still not ready and upgrades us to a penthouse suite in the owner’s section on the 41st floor.  Phoow! We head up and our jaws drop as we see a gigantic living room, kitchen and bedroom that you could land a plane in not to mention the balcony overlooking the brilliant blue Caribbean Sea.

Looking out from the balcony, Justin is salivating at the jet skis he notices zipping along the coastline at speeds that look a bit too fast for a mama Leanne’s liking. Justin says that jet skiing in Bali was one of his top 5 activities on the trip and he keeps bugging Kyle that he would love to jet ski again.  Kyle agrees to jet skiing as tomorrow’s primary activity.

The hotel has a club lounge that has free happy hour from 5 -7pm so we head there to enjoy the sunset views from the 30th floor. We are loving the hotel and have no desire to venture out so we just enjoy free food at the lounge (aka dinner!) and get to bed early.