McNabb Family Memories: Day 2....Cartagena

Here we are....day two of our trip. Griff had lined up a trip for us to an Island named Rosarios. You have to go on a long boat ride to get there. It was so pretty. The water was so clear. We went snorkeling. I was a little afraid for Austin at first but then he grabbed onto the life ring that the guide was pulling and he did fine. It was so fun to see all of the fish and coral. The water was so clear that we could see everything and the bottom was really close. From there we went back to another island to play at the beach. When we got off of the boat, we were met by some men trying to get us to eat some oysters. I said, "No Gracias" but they don't take no for an answer here. They kept squeezing lime juice on them and handing them to me. I finally got away without eating any. Austin didn't understand that they were doing it so he would have to pay for the oysters. He finally gave in to pressure and didn't eat just one but 6! They served us lunch. Austin and Whitney got fish, by accident I assure you. It had the head, tail, eyes and everything in between still intact. People here are so poor that they don't waste anything. They eat every bit of the fish. Griff and I shared our chicken with Austin and Whit and then Griff ate the fish. He is the true Colombian!

On the way back to Cartagena we saw a old stone fort that they built to attack the pirates when they use to try and attack Cartagena. Where is Jordan???? He should have been around for that! We saw ships that looked like pirate ships....I thought a lot about Jordan on the boat ride. He would have loved it.

We got back to the hotel and had to wait for our ride to Santa Marta so we had dinner at the hotel. It was very good....look at the fancy desserts!

Griffin had arranged with one of the taxi drivers that he got to know for us a ride to Santa Marta. We were going to take a van but they were all full. We didn't leave until 8 pm and we drove in a car like our Aveo. There was no air conditioning so we had the windows rolled down for the 3 hour trip. It wasn't any too short! We were so excited when we finally got to our hotel. Whew...finally we could stretch out and get some rest. Oh No! we were living the life of a missionary when we saw our room. There were four beds, a double and three single beds. The mattress was about 4 inches thick and were resting on wood frames. One wall was painted bright orange and the others white. There were spiders in all of the corners. (Rhonda would have loved it!) And to top it all off, the next morning when we went to take a shower there was only cold water. I told Griffin when we came on this trip I wanted to do things just like he did as a missionary. I don't think I was invisioning this though! I guess we are just plain spoiled! It has been an awesome adventure so far.......