Before making our way back to Canada we had a couple days to soak in the sun and rich history of Cartagena, both of which are nearly impossible to hide from.  Our days here were some of the hottest in our entire trip, with the sun constantly beating down on us as we explored the city.  Shade is definitely a premium here, with locals and tourists alike hopping from one sheltered sanctuary to the next.

Like in many of the cities we've visited, we quickly grew tired of the pushy street vendors hocking their wares (especially wide-brimmed hats for hiding from the sun), but were pleasantly surprised to find a clean, colourful and overall attractive city.  Although we stayed in a hostel in the touristy area around Calle Media Luna (half-moon street), we spent most of our time exploring inside the old city walls.

One of the first things that we noticed about Cartagena was its history: completely surrounded by walls, the old city's narrow streets and scattered plazas are packed with colonial buildings and statues.  Most of the attractions are within these walls, though some incredible views can be found if you're willing to brave the direct sunlight (and the hat vendors) and walk around atop the cannon-lined walls.  

To finish off their Mediterranean adventure, Mama & Papa Bean spent a few days exploring the wonderful London.  God save the Queen!
~ Mandrew

The adventures of Mama & Papa Bean continue after their spectacular Mediterranean Cruise with a few days exploring the magical sinking island city of Venice. Enjoy!  ~ Mandrew

In Venice, our plan was to take a free shuttle bus, then use a People Mover train to get us to a square where we would be able to get a vaporetto (water bus) to St. Mark’s Square (where our hotel was).  Upon arrival, however, we found that there was no shuttle, so we walked a while (no biggie) and then caught the People Mover. At the vaporetto stop, we were told that there was a strike going on, so we might not be able to get a vaporetto. We bought our tickets anyway and after moving from one pier to another (it was quite confusing) we boarded a boat, but were informed that it would only take us as far as the Rialto Bridge (about halfway). So, we had to get off at the Rialto bridge and hoof it with our big suitcases – along narrow lanes and up and down bridges over canals. And to make things worse, we crossed over the big and hectic Rialto Bridge because I thought we were on the wrong side, only to find that we weren’t – so we had to cross it again! [Mandrew: unfortunately, I inherited my sense of direction from my dad].

Loving Colombia so far!  We arrived in Bogotá after a 16 hour journey, flying from Buenos Aires through Lima (and staying overnight in the airport).  We landed fairly early in the day and were settled into Hostel Sue Candeleria in the La Candelaria district (the more touristy and unfortunately more sketchy area).  It was federal election day and the day after Colombia's first World Cup win (and subsequent celebratory rioting) so Bogotá was a bit rowdy. We asked a couple of military guys at the airport if it was safe to hang out in Bogotá during the election and how things were going, and they just said “todo tranquilo, hay muchas policías en las calles, esta muy seguro” (everything is good, there are many police in the streets, it is very safe) – that sounded pretty good so we decided to go for a little walk around.  

We intended to try and get to Plaza Bolívar (the main square) but never made it that far because the police had put up barricades, likely to stop people from gathering in crowds. We just wandered around La Museo de Oro (the Gold Museum) listening to the street music, watching the vendors selling all kinds of delicious fried or sugar-coated snacks and, of course, giving trying some of them a try. I had a version of the delicious Alfajor from Argentina (Argentina's version is a bazillion times better) – this one was just some plain crispy wafers with a bunch of dulce de leche (thick caramel sauce) in between, mmmmm.  I had eaten most of it but had maybe three or four bites left when a happy looking (possibly homeless) guy asked me for some money.  Instead, I gave him the rest and he happily thanked me and wandered away, dancing and singing.  Things seemed OK in the streets; there were several police and military people just hanging around and patrolling everywhere, with their massive guns at their sides.  While some people may find that comforting, I found it unnerving.  

This next post from Mandrew's parents talks about the incredible experience they had on their 12 day Mediterranean cruise.  Neither of us have been on a cruise before, but HOLY CRAP it sounds like they had an awesome time!  The idea of packing all that action into such a short time blows our minds... we're pretty sure Mama Bean (Donna) somehow extracts her endurance from red wine.  =)  Enjoy!

Mandrew's beany parents recently had an incredible travel adventure of their own, and as they were sharing some of their fun stories with us during our last FaceTime chat, we thought it would be fun to have them put them down in writing for our blog.  So, with no further ado, we present the first of their entries (and the first ever Two Bein' Chili guest post), Barcelona.

Our last stop in Argentina before heading to the highly anticipated Colombia was Buenos Aires.  We grabbed a colectivo from San Marcos Sierra to Córdoba and then a night bus to Buenos Aires.  The bus was amazing  - everyone basically had their own lazyboy chair, they played movies (though we listened to our Mysterious Universe podcast and an audiobook), served food and had blankets and pillows.  Not too bad.  We arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning and settled into our new home at Che Argentina Hostel in the San Telmo district.  The reception guy at the hostel was very friendly and told us about places we should check out while we’re there.  He advised that most places nearby were safe enough to walk around during the day, but that we should be very careful if carrying anything at all, like a camera.  We took the advice but didn’t have that feeling at all while we were out.  We took tons of photos and talked to people in the streets as they walked by.  The people in Argentina are very open and friendly.  We never had a sketchy vibe at all, but only later did we find out that Buenos Aires actually has one of the worst reputations for muggings in South America.  Makes sense when you think about the messed up economy, I suppose. 

After our amazing (and cold) Patagonia adventure we were ready to head north to warmer weather.  Mendoza was our next stop and where we would drink so much wine. So so much.

We arrived after two days of buses; Puerto Montt to Santiago which was overnight and expectedly boring, and then Santiago to Mendoza the next morning, which was an incredible drive up and over the steep Andes Mountains, passing by the famous Aconcaga Volcano National Park and through several tunnel sections of the mountain.  

As we’ve stressed many times before (with such claims as “La Paz Sucks”), we’re not city people, and so weren’t really looking forward to passing through Santiago.  In this case, however, we were pleasantly surprised!  I’m not saying we loved it, but we did spend a couple enjoyable days walking around the relatively clean and attractive city, wandering the parks and admiring the colourful street murals.

For me, the most enjoyable part by far was our afternoon at the huge and attraction-packed Metropolitan Park, located on atop a forested hill overlooking the city.  One of the largest urban parks in the world, within its over 700 hectares it contains multiple botanical gardens, a zoo, a religious sanctuary, and by far the best part, a long funicular saving you from the hour or more uphill walk.  Just what is a funicular, you ask?  Well, it’s something between an elevator and a trolley, using cables to pull cars along tracks up the side of a hill.  Why the absurd name, you ask?  Well, it’s because FUN + SPECTACULAR = FUNICULAR!!  Wouldn’t that make “funacular" or “funtacular”, you ask?  Well, why don’t you just shut up!

After our amazing ride up, we decided to make our way over to the botanical gardens in order to appease our nature cravings.  From atop the hill were some great views of the city skyline, and because we were lucky enough to be there on a relatively smog-free day we could actually see across the valley to the mountains behind (kind of).  Being located in a valley as it is, air pollution is a huge problem in Santiago.  We were both pretty disturbed by the brownish hue looming over the city, and to think that this was a good day is pretty disturbing.  While admiring the view at a lookout, we ran into Eleanor, a technical writer from Seattle who’s been solo-traveling her way through Chile.  We ended up hanging out with her for a few hours, sharing travel-stories and getting some great advice for our upcoming trip to Patagonia.  In the late afternoon we parted ways so Chelsea and I could make it to opera.  Yeah, we do stuff like go to the opera, because we’re fancy people.

After a couple days in Santiago, we were ready to move on to the much more highly-anticipated Valparaiso, a port city about an hour bus ride from Santiago.  A beautiful and hilly city made up of arsty-fartsy bohemian-types and sketchy port-workers, Valparaiso took all the things we liked about Santiago and somehow made them ten zillion times better; where Santiago has one funicular, for example, Valparaiso has FIFTEEN.  Booya!  We stayed in the cafe-packed neighbourhood atop Cerro Alegre (happy hill), and from the minute we arrived we were amazed by just how picturesque the city really is.  From atop the hill, everywhere we looked was packed full of colourful buildings, elaborate graffiti and murals, and it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without stopping every few steps to take another photo.

As luck would have it, our new friend Eleanor was staying at an hospedaje just down the street from us, so we met up with her the next day to explore.  In search of fun-icular times, we decided to try and tackle as many of the badboys as we could, an interesting goal that promised some scenic views of the city. We reviewed our maps, put together a rough route and hit the road with a skip in our steps.  Things quickly ground to a halt, however, when we reached the top of our first funicular, ascensor San Augustín, and were warned by the operator that it wasn't safe to leave the tiny building.  Apparently we were about to stroll into the sketchy neighbourhood atop Cerro Cordillera, where walking around as tourists with our day packs and cameras would surely get us mugged.  We asked if it was safe to at least pop our heads out for a look, but were warned that someone may catch a glimpse of us and end up following us down!  WTF?!  This caught us completely off guard, since we'd already walked around Cerro Alegre and the downtown core the previous night and felt completely comfortable.  To be safe, though, we resignedly rode back down and modified our plans.

Valparaiso is an awesome city to explore by foot (avoiding the sketchy parts...), guaranteed to bring out the photographer in anyone.  We wandered the streets taking in the breathtaking coastal views and admiring the variety of colourful graffiti, ranging from small but detailed characters to multi-storey murals on the sides of apartment buildings.  We wandered all over town, checked out the large cemetery overlooking the city (Eleanor seems to be fascinated by monuments to dead people), stopped for a delicious fish almuerzo (an affordable two or three-course lunch typical in Chile), and managed to ride four of the fun-tacular elevators (last time, I promise).  We wrapped up the day at our hostel, sharing some of Chelsea’s home-cooked Thai curry, a couple bottles of delicious Chilean wine, and an action-packed Jenga tournament.  Thanks, Eleanor, for the awesome day!

After stumbling on countless teenagers rolling and smoking doobies in the many secluded stairways and alleys on the previous day’s wanderings, temptation kicked in and we managed to score some of the good stuff from one of the guys working reception at our hostel. Needless to say, our second day in Valparaiso consisted of much more bein’ chili, relaxing, listening to music, watching movies... when in Rome!  

Our next stop is Puerto Montt, where we hope to rent a car and spend a couple weeks exploring Patagonia!  

Until then, keep eating your beans!
~Mandrew

To open Santiago photos in another window, click here.

To open Valparaiso photos in another window, click here.