De visita en el apartamento de jeff y paula...this is from Edson...a new friend

Hola todos, ayer conoci un par de personas maravillosas que vienen en planes de boda en mi ciudad. Estoy en compania de Dayana mi novia... Ops lo siento, olvide presentarme, me llamo Edson, soy un nuevo amigo de jeff y pau y la verdad son de esas personas que cualquiera desearia tener como amigos y por que no, como familia...
Estamos en el balcon del apartamento con vista al mar, escuchando conjuntos vallenatos y conociendonos y por lo visto va a ser una noche interesante... Read ya.
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Tried to stream live with BlogTv but too slow

So...not sure if you tuned in at 4pm today, sorry about that we had some technical glitches with the webcam I borrowed from the internet cafe downstairs...you see my camera that also serves as a wecam is now in the shop, they say it will only take 3 days, let's hope so.
I was finally able to broadcast somethinmg live at 5:30pm in which I tried to extend the WiFi of the internet cafe all the way to the beach...I was within 100 feet before I lost the signal. I'll try again from a wireless internet cafe that is closer to the beach.
There's this dude Ronnie that runs the Internet cafe that has been incredibly helpful and worked with me on my technical issues...I'm going to try to help hime out with a WiFi amplifier from a store in NYC and I'll see if I could get someone to bring it down to Colombia. In the next few weeks. This would basically help him broadcast a stronger and wider signal abd hopefully help grow the business...Ronnie if your reading this...this one's for you!
Tonight is a sick party... We are going out with Edson and his girl...and they're going to show us the hottest places to party tonight...sure hope my hangover is not terrible tomorrow..need to finish this website!!!!
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Definitivamente la vida es diferente

Hemos tenido la oportunidad de conocer personas muy especiales, muy atentas que siempre te quieren ayudar sin recibir nada a cambio.
La familia del fotografo fue una de ellas, solo fue tener la primera cita para q nos mostrara su trabajo y nos ayudo con una vacuna de me faltaba, la camara de Jeff q se le dano la pantalla, le vestido de matrimonio q tenia q arregar, encontrar las familias pobres para darles la ropita, el hijo nos acompano a hacer un sin fin de vueltas entre otros.
Definitivamente da tanto gusto encontrar personas asi, que uno siente que de verdad son sinceras, las personas de la costa siempre se caracterizan por su hospitalidad.

Santa Marta apesar de q es un sitio turistico es muy bonito, el mar es azul, las vistas de nuestro apartamento son maravillosas, es pequena, todo el dia esta la gente en la playa disfrutando del sol. En la noche es una sola rumba, todo el mundo se hace en la playa con un conjunto de musicos a bailar ballenatos toda la noche.
No se que nos pasa pero nos acostamos muy temprano, nos cansamos mas rapido, no se si por el calor, la playa o que nos levantamos a las 6 de la manana a hacer los aerobicos, bueno al menos yo, Jeff prefiere correr.

Asi han sido nuestros dias en Santa Marta, haciendo vueltecitas aqui y alla con los preparativos de la boda, pero tranquillos sin problemas ni contratiempos. Espero que sigan asi todos unos 100 dias de aventura.

Cristina te he tratado de enviar un email pero se me devuelve al de Eva tambien. seguire intentando.

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Getting a short tour in downtown

We are in downtown waiting for the camera shop to open...one of my 3 cameras broke so I am trying to get it fixed but everything is closed till 230pm...this guy in this picture is a son of a guy who will ne filming our wedding...fact is that everybody is super friendly....as we wait we are being shown all the cool spots here
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In santa marta downtown looking for place to fix camera

Sorry can't write to much now...searching for a place to fix the samsung camera...hope to be back. To blogging regularly by this evening
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Tried to send blog from phone at about 6pm...did not go till now

So guys after nearly 5 days of lost bags and uncertain issues with places to stay we are now settled in Santa marta, we have an apt with a great balcony faqcing the beach and the picture here is what the sunset looked like...although the adventure begins on Feb 1 I'm sure we'll have some fun things for you guys soon...I'll be getting the rest of the site up and pics tomorrow and friday...finally have the time dedicated to it
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Nos robaron y en nuestras narices

Ya nos dieron la bienvenida en Colombia nos robaron. Como finalmente aparecieron las 4 meletas, nos venimos para Santa Marta a buscar apartamento, finalmente despues de andar y andar dimos con uno q nos gusto y q se nos ajustaba al presupuesto. El partamento todavia no estaba listo sino hasta manana, el senor nos dio otro apartamento por una noche, como teniamos q entregar el carro decidimos salir y dejar todas las cosas en el apartamento con la senora q todavia lo estaba limpiando y el dueno. Ellos dos sabian q mucha de la ropa era para regalar. Cuando volvimos le empezamos a dar ropa a la senora, 33 a#os y como 5 hijos y note q no encontraba el regalo para mi familia. Que eran un morral y adentro tenia regalos para mis sobrinos y una cadena q mi mama habia dejado en NY. Empezamos a pensar que claro la aerolinea, despues me di de cuenta q faltaban munecos y ropa q teniamos q regalar. yo los habia visto cuando entre y abri la maleta en el apartamento, Jeff muy nice con la senora le dio muchas cosas mas. ella dijo en algun momento q habia visto un mikey mouse, yo hay no cai en cuenta, solo cuando ya se habia marchado hicimos un recuento de lo q habia pasado y dedujimos q habia sido ella. Entonces nos robaron y en nuestras narices, la ropita y los munecos, no importaban tanto por any way los ibamos a regalar, pero los regalos de mi sobrino y la cadena de mi mama si me da pesar. De todas maneras manana hablaremos con el dueno haber q pasa.
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Santa Marta

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Mangroves 2
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More of the mangroves
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Finally have our bags...on our way to Santa Marta

This is an absolutely unspoiled area on the coast of Colombia, it is off thje main highway from Cartagena to Santa Martaand is set on these world famous but endangered Mangroves...we stopped to have breakfast...hope my previous blog went through, had some trouble with blackberry service in Baranquilla...talk again soon...by the way if these pictures are not coming in, I will fix the extension to JPG, but can't do that till we have an internet connection in Santa Marta...later
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Ihuju..........tengo el vestido de matrimonio

Finalmente hemos recibido las maletas, despues de 5 dias tengo mi vestido de matrimonio. Esperemos q todavia me quede ya q hemos comido bastantes cosas ricas, bunuelos, empanadas, pescado frito entre otros.
vamos para Santa Marta a buscar un sitio donde pasar las proximas dos semanas hasta el matrimonio. Esperamos encontrar un buen apartamento con un excelente precio. Hoy empiezo las citas para el matrimonio, esperemos q de aqui en adelante todo sea mejor q los ultimos 4 dias.
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A night in a roman motel

Sorry for not have written sooner but it appears that in this area of the city (Baranquilla) the cell coverage was down for the night, thus no blackberry service and obviously we couldn't get a message out from our phones... This picture you see here is of the 10 foot, heart shaped mirror directly above our bed in the paraiso Roman motel that we drove into last night...
To make a long story short, American Airlines supposedly received 3 of our 4 bags, yesterday at the airport but by the time we got there it was 5:41PM and they had all left for the day...it is unbelievable that an airport can just shut down...we are so used to life in NYC where nothing ever closes.
Instead of having them send those bags to our hotel in the next town we planned on staying at, Paula wanted to personally inspect the bags as soon as the airport opened on Wed morning....we are heading there soon.
We ended up making friends with the girl from Hertz (we've been in a rental car since Sunday) and her boyfriend, Ranses, helped us find this "lovers" motel by the airport. First off it was the cheapest place and secondly it meant we didn't have to travel 30 minutes away to the city center.
This has been quite a place...all kinds of characters, we have seen just about every kind of couple here from the obvious prostitutes to the old lady and man on a "honeymoon" (better late than never they say)
The place is decent and at least the sheets looked clean, there were a couple sex machines, that I'm not exactly sure how they worked, with a little imagination we tried to invent something...;-) the room didn't have the famous Roman jacuzzi (that this place was known for) apparently since we were not hourly guests they didn't want to give it to us...go figure.
We definitely wanted to thank Giselle and Ranses because they totally helped us with this place and took us out to a nearby place to have famous roasted chicken, we'll leave that story for another time!
Guys sorry I have not been able to get video or pictures on the site yet...please stay tuned it will be up soon...the last couple of days have been hard...remember the site officially launches Feb 1....

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Nos lavaron por toda parte

Hoy decidimos irnos para Barranquilla haber si al fin aparecen las famosas maletas. Supuestamente aparecieron 3 esperemos q la perdida no sea en la q esta el vestido de matrimonio. En la venida a Barranquilla nos topamos con el vocal TOTUMO un volcan con miles de metros de profundida. Fue muy divertido, estabamos cubiertos del lodo hasta la conciencia, el volcan queda en una parte alta de una cienaga, ya se podran imaginar la vista del volcan, al principio la sensacion fue rara, un poco de miedo porq uno nunca toca el suelo, solo flota. Yo se q el lodo es muy bueno para la piel, me hice muchos masajes. Lo mas dificil de todo es sacarse el lodo, claro hay jovenes q lo lavan a uno por toda parte... Lastima q no fueran muchachos bien atractivos echandonos agua.
De nuevo estamos devuelta al aeropuerto a buscar las maletas. Mas tarde les cuento cuales aparecieron.
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inside an active mud volcanoe

This is paula in the deepest active mud volcanoe in the world...its called volcan del totum in btw cartagena and baranquilla...we made a pit stop before returning to the barranquilla airport to pick up three of our four found baggage....came in from Miami today....
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Cierre la puerta de prisa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apesar q no nos llegaron las maletas tuvimos un dia muy interesante, estuvimos con los ninos de Children International, Luis Miguel de 14 y Luz Elena de 10. Yo soy la madria de Luz Elena por mas de 2 a#os y Jeff de Luis Miguel por mas de 10.
Haces ya 3 a#os q fue nuestra primera visita, los ninos han crecido bastante, ya casi son adolecentes, sus madres estaban muy contentos porq los vsitamos.
Despues de encontrarlos fuimos a un centro comercial a comer pizza y comprarles algunas cosas q les hacia falta para la escuela como tennis al finalizar la tarde fuimos a la casa de Luis Miguel. Estos ninos viven en la podreza absoluta, la casa es sin piso, solo en cemento y alli viven el tio, la mama, la abuela
la bisabuela y los muchachos y yo solo vi una habitacion, todavia no tienen agua potable, se tienen q banar con agua tirada.La casa de luis Miguel era de cemento, pero el 90 por ciento de las casas son de tabla o de carton, menos mal no llueve mucho. Estos barrios fuera de q son muy podres son muy violentos.
Para Jeff fue muy interesante q en un momento salio muchas personas corriendo, nosotros estabamos en la sala de la casa y era q iba a ver unas peleas como entre civiles y policias, para mi era familiar ya q vivi en un barrio un poco violento en Medellin, para Jeff era una aventura. Cierren la puerta de prisa !!! decia la gente, pero Jeff no queria, el queria vivir esa experiencia de sentir el peligro. Menos mal y todo sali bien y no paso nada. Al caer la noche llegamos al hotel, bueno a otro hotel, un poco mas seguro y lo bueno un poco mas economico.
Manana nos iremos para Barreanquilla haber si tenemos mas suerte con las maletas, pero lo mas importante es el vestido.
Paula
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Sick afternoon in the poorest slums of Cartagena Colombia

So as we are visiting one of our sponsored children, Luis Miguel , a fight breaks out in front of this family's 1-room house, all you can hear is shouting, things being thrown, all around commotion, while all this is happening, our sponsored childs' mother frantically runs outside, screaming for her older (18 year old) son to get inside the house...I quickly hit record on my camera, and by that time the mother and son and another relative that was outside runs in and they shut the metal gate door...all I can see and hear at this point is other neighbors doing exactly the same thing...I have never (seriously) felt an emotion that intense of fear, adrenaline, anxiety...basically for the next 20 or 30 seconds we were all peering through the open metal gate doors and windows to see if any of the gangster kids started shooting around, if that started happening or if the police were to rush in , then all the gang members would find the first open door and hide or who knows what...honestly, I loved it...I don't think the family understood what I meant. You know, I guess since I haven't witnessed anything like that before it was novelty... For them it is a hazard that they deal with day in and day out, I gather from them that they are used to this kind of violence but the true uneasy feeling must be knowing that any day that fight and stray bullet or attack could be their unlucky moment.
Once again, I reflect on what really is important in life...talk later, Paula and I are going out tonight in Cartagena to enjoy our last night here (Sunday, was actually mellow...no big parties on sundays...monday's another story)
Note:
The airport says that our bags are coming on Tuesday...we need to check at 2:30pm to see if they made it on that flight....hope so otherwise , I'm going to lose it on American Airlines...oh yeah...did I mention what a bad airline they are?!! The worst!
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Spending the day with the kids from Children International

It's been a nice afternoon spending time with the two little kids that Paula and I have been sponsoring. The organization is called Children International and I've been sponsoring Luis Miguel ( now 14) for almost 10 years now, the boy was psyched and needless to say we were so happy to be there and see him. We will have pictures and videos of this whole experience...its unbelievably humbling and gratifying.
The unfortunate thing was that the 3 bags of things that we brought for him, Paula's sponsored little girl (Luz Elena 10 yrs old), and for the center in general, is still in transit somewhere with American Airlines (did I mention how much they suck?!)
We will see if when and if the stuff comes we'll try to get it all to the kids...
Talk soon, we are now going to where one of the family lives...the videos will be coming soon....hope in the next day or two. ...later
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Enero 21

Ayer llegamos rendidos a Cartagena, lo primero q hicimos fue buscar un hotel, bueno mejor dicho un hostal, a mi parecio bien, pero a jeff no le gusto ni poquito.
En su cumpleanos no pudimos hacer mucho, simplemente fuimos a comer y a las 10 de la noche ya estamos en la cama.
Hoy nos levantamos a las 6 fuimos a hacer ejercicio a la playa, le da uno tanta energia mirando el mar, la playa definitivamante mil veces mejor q un gym.
Ahora son las 8.30 nos alistamos porq tenemos un sin numero de cosas q hacer, reclamar las maletas, ponernos unas vacunas q nos hacen falta, arreglar la camara por q yta empezo a fallar y las 12 tenemos la cita con los ninos. Definitivamente no se terminas las carreras y diligencia, pero bieno me siento feliz de estar aqui.
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Monday morning and we actually got up to run

Well, paula ran on the beach,I walked up and down behind her, she's realizing how close the wedding day on the beach is and I think is stressing to make sure it all looks good, that is of course if we get the wedding dresses and our other bags from miami soon...otherwise we will have to look for a new dress.
I want to have videos and pics of the last two weeks so you can all see it as well and not only read it...
Off to get the yellow fever shots here, they are actually free, instead of the 150 dollars we were going to be charged in NYC,, later
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This is a beer in Cartagena
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37 hours since we left our apt in NYC

and we are finally sitting down to have food in Cartagena Colombia. We found a cheap 30 dollar hotel , left our things and came to the retaurant on the corner...seriously, we made a huge mistake by trying to save a little money by using american airlines and secondly not taking a direct flight...
I swear to never fly on American Airlines in my life...luckily we are sitting now and the cold beer just came...it is my birthday and now at 8:21 PM we're going to finally celebrate
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Ya llegamos a Barranquilla

Finalmente llegamos a Barranquilla y paso lo q tenia q pasar, se perdieron las maletas con el vestido de novia y con toda la ropa q llevabamos para los ninos de Children InterNational, desfinitivamente se quedaron en Miami.
Ahora estamos manejando via Cartagena, el trayecto dura una hora y media aprox.
Nos vamos para cartagena porq manana tenemos la cita a medio dia con los ninos q somos padrinos en Children, me da mucho pesar es porq teniamos 3 maletas c0on ropa, juguetes para las familias y los ninos. Despues tendremos q mirar cual es la mejor forma de hacerlo llegar.
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In a hertz rental car to cartagena

After dealing with the baggage not arriving we then had to deal with the bus or taxi to get us to cartagena from the barranquilla airport which is about an hour an half from here, it turned out to make more sense renting a car since we supposedly have to retun here tomorrow to get our lost luggage, now they are saying it is still in Miami. Driving now got to go
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American airlines is absolutely useless

Fuckin annouyed as shit now...these jackasses sent the bags with paulas wedding dress my suit clothes for these first few days of our trip...the majority of the stuff was clothes and toys for gifts...really what we need is paulas wedding dress. NOW
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We are now getting through customs in colombia

These guys are going to go through every piece af our gear...anyway I sure hope this blog posts from my blackberry, it will be my first post from colombia...I am writing it at 1:45 pm on sunday jan 20...let's see what time the date stamp says....

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!
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Enero 20

Hoy es el cumpleanos de Jeff enero 20 esta cumiendo sus primeros 33 a#os, me siento muy contenta q los pueda pasar en otro lugar, esperamos llegar a Barranquilla a la 1 de la tarde y a Cartagena a las 3, eso si todo sale bien y no hay ningun retrazo.
Para cada cumpleanos q hemos pasado juntos he tratado de darle una sorpresa o hacer algo diferente esta vez me queda un poco dificil, tengo algo en mente pero esperemos q me de el tiempo para poderlo hacer.
Estamos aqui en el aeropuerto esperando el avion para barranquilla. Estoy muy contenta de estar de nuevo en colombia.
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At the casino at the Miccosukees resort could not make a cent

So its about 1:45 am on the morning of my birthday and here at the casino trying to make some money...I'm betting on 33 24 and 8 ...come on lucky 33...promise we'll give some money to back to the indian reservation...
About an hour ago - stuffed business cards with this website address , being that I had so many cards that I printed out and could not finish distributing in NYC...I quickly left the floor though cause I heard some security gaurds taking about cards in all the doors and that they were looking for the person, ended up sneaking down the side elevator, better get back to making money on the floor, or losing the way I'm going now...next time you hear from me we'll be in Colombian beach gettin massages , and getting drunk!!
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