Christmas in Colombia (2018)
It is time to share our Christmas/Holiday Celebration of 2018! We decided, pretty last minute that we would actually head to Colombia for the holidays in 2018. His parents were thrilled that we were coming because Juan has not been home to celebrate Christmas for about 12 years. Juan’s mom decorated the house thoroughly every Christmas so we were very excited to be able to spend our time in their beautiful apartment. Here’s a few pictures from our first day. We were greeted by friends of family. They are always so warm and welcoming to me even though we don’t speak the same language. 💖
I’ve always wanted to go to Cartagena, Colombia so I was thrilled that they planned a 5 day trip and I’m sharing some of the pictures here with y’all.
Cartagena, Colombia Day 1
As y’all know by now. I love food. Papito & Mamita (Juan’s parents) know that about me. They told me all about the fish I can eat in Cartagena and everytime they speak I had to wipe drool off my mouth*. So, when we landed on the first day, we immediately went on a quest to find me some fresh fried fish, plantains and something I’ve never tried before: Limonada de Coco. Oh my lord, it was delicious. So much of the food they have resembles what I grew up with back in Indonesia. So I am quite familiar and love the flavors of food in Colombia. I get along quite well with Juan’s brothers quite well. I love that we banter and talk about anything. I grew up with a younger brother, so it feels good to be around them because they’re just a couple additional brothers for me to hang out with.
*this is an exaggeration, but my mouth did water a lot.
I’m sharing pictures from the first day. Juan’s parents also rented a 2 bedroom Airb&b as Mamita likes to cook us breakfast. It is so lovely to hang out with everyone since we have not seen them since our wedding, which was held in Cali, Colombia, where Juan’s parents and brothers currently live. Traveling with Juan’s family is a bit more chill than our usual travel. Everything revolves around either food, or middle of the afternoon naps. It is lovely to not plan too much and just go with what Papito and Mamita suggest.
Day 2-4, Castillo San Felipe de Bajaras & Walled City of Cartagena
We took a morning tour to Castillo San Felipe de Bajaras. Juan was doing on-the-move translation for me as we walked through the fortress. It was quite warm, we were sweating but it was quite pleasant for me. I love sunshine and living in Seattle deprived me of that approximately 9 months out of the year. So this warm change was quite pleasant for me. From the Fortress, we went to the Walled City of Cartagena. The buildings within the Walled City are interesting and super colorful. Beautiful. I snapped so many pictures there! I got a chance to wrap up my watercolor alphabet series before the trip so I decided to take pictures of them with Cartagena as their backdrop. I am pleasantly happy with how they turned out.
I got a chance to relax and make more lettering pieces during our travel in Cartagena. Before the pandemic, I was a very much go go go person. So trips like these with Juan’s family is always a good reset moments for me. I’ll share some sketches and illustration along the way here as well.
Morning and a little bit of afternoon of Day 3 was filled with breakfast and then a sunny swim in the ocean. The water was warm and it has been decades since I went into warm ocean water. I spent 7 years in Texas which is land locked and in Seattle, we have beaches but the water is very very cold. I remember the moment I stepped in the water and felt the warmth, it made me miss Bali terribly. I also snapped a few pictures of my doodling. It was such a relaxing morning/early afternoon.
After we napped, we decided to explore Walled City of Cartagena more, so we went for a bit of shopping, snacks and then dinner. Mamita was along for the ride this time around and we had lots of fun sampling street food, gelato and snapping photos of beautiful colorful architectures.
This man wasn’t a statue. He was quite still and honestly I didn’t see him until I looked to my right and he winked at me. It spooked me but then I realized, awesome. It is fascinating and admirable to see these performers paint themselves and stood still in the heat of the sun. We made sure to give him some money and snapped a few pictures of him.
Cartagena Day 5,
The last full day in Cartagena for us. We took it slow. I drew lots on the beach, dipped into the water with Nico, Juan’s brother. Laid on the sand and feeling very content. After that we went to explore the city further. Here are quite a few pictures I snapped that day.
Look at Papito and Mamita. Two Cuties!
Cartagena Day 6,
For our last day, we decided to make a reservation at this restaurant: Candé Cocina Cartagena. We were extremely glad we did. It was a beautiful spot and the food was impeccable. I ordered a whole fish again because I don’t know when else I’ll be able to have a whole fresh fish again. It was so delicious, and no one was surprised I finished the whole fish. YUM! We also ordered some appetizers and of course Limonada de Coco! p/s: Isn’t Papito the most adorable? look at his smile.
With that, I’ll leave you with my favorite picture I took from our Cartagena Trip.
Back to Cali, Colombia for the remainder of the trip.
Here are some snaps of almost all the food we ate. We celebrated Christmas with Nico’s girlfriend, Lorena and Mateo’s girlfriend, Luisa. They both speak fluent english and are such lovely ladies. Christmas in Colombia was definitely memorable because it was so relaxing and we get to just enjoy the company of family. Which is quite hard to come by as we both live far away from our parents and siblings.
Juan’s family cooked many of our favorite meals, but most favorite was the home made bandeja paisa. Nothing compares eating home cooked meals.
On top of Christmas celebration, I spent a lot of time at the pool. I was reading, drawing and listening to podcasts. I’ll share a bit of what I drew and a snap of butterfly that kept me company while I was getting some sun. Thank you so much for following along this journey. Spending time with Juan’s family is quite different from spending time with my family. I’ll be sharing that on the next few blog posts.
I look back on this trip and feel a great sense of calm. We miss being home with Juan’s family and hoping to go back again as soon as it is safe to do long distance travel again. But in the meantime, I’ll leave y’all with this happy picture of Juan and I in Cartagena.
