ABCs of Travel

Some of my favorite travel bloggers did this post last year. I loved learning more about them and reading some old posts. I kept thinking what my answers would be for these questions. Here they are but I will never top Andi or Oneika's list. My travel bug didn't start until after college. I really regret not doing a study abroad year or even just a summer. During my undergrad I was too worried trying to graduate fast and with honors. I wish I had known that "grown ups" only get 2 weeks of vacation a year!!!!!!

Age you went on your first international trip: 18!!! Blame my parents for not taking me out of the Country. Just kidding. I was happy going to San Andres Island since I was 3 years old once or twice a year. When I was growing up I always wanted to travel to Orlando and visit Mickey Mouse. Our US visa was in process for 13 years, so my first trip to this Country was when I moved here. My travel obsession began only a few years ago because I didn't want to be around certain people. I traveled alone during weekends and stayed at my friend's house. I loved not having to depend on someone else to travel because I couldn't afford hotels by myself. That is probably why I went to the same places over and over. Traveling helped me to open my mind to many things. 

San Andres Island

Best foreign beer you’ve had and where: I don't drink beer but I love Aguila light Micheladas (served in a glass with lime juice and salt)

Cuisine (favorite): Italian

Destinations – favorite, least favorite and why: Most of my life my favorite place was San Andres Island. I don't think I can pick only one favorite place. Some of the Cities that I love are Venice, NYC, DC, Cartagena, and San Francisco. I like them for many reasons but mostly for the architecture. My least favorite is San Juan, Puerto Rico. I expected a lot from this trip and was disappointed plus it is expensive it rained the whole week.

The Painted Ladies

Event you experienced abroad that made you say wow: Seeing New York City's skyline as I landed in the big apple for the first time. I was there for 3 days and I loved every single minute. I have been to New York several times and I still find it fascinating.

Favorite mode of transportation: I love flying. It is fast and someone else does the driving. Did I mention that I hate driving?

Greatest feeling while traveling: Probably when the pilot says "Welcome to..."

Hottest place you’ve traveled to: When you go into the hiding tunnel of the San Felipe Fort in Cartagena, Colombia is the hottest and most confined place that I've ever been. It is worth seeing so please do not be stopped by the heat. However, I live in Florida and all the summers are hot and humid.

Incredible service you’ve experienced and where: Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Everyone was nice in Mexico!!

Journey that took the longest: After our wedding in Colombia going to our honeymoon in Hawaii. We started flying from Cali, Colombia to Miami. Then we drove home to Tampa (4 hours) to catch 2 flights the next morning to Hawaii. We missed our connection in LAX and spent the night in LA. It was more than 48 hours in transit. Hawaii is so beautiful that it was all worth it.

Keepsake from your travels: I started my souvenir collection buying souvenirs for others. One coworker collected Hard Rock Cafe pins and I stated buying one for her. After a few trips I started buying one for me as well. Now all my friends buy me pins if they travel. I also liked to get magnets for my mom's collection and suddenly I started collecting them to. I used to get just one per site but I got 10 from our last trip to Quito. I also like to buy things typical of the place visited like a mask, a ceramic, or a picture frame. All I can say is that I'm a big souvenir person.

Hawaiian Tiki

Ecuadorian Mask 

Our Fridge

Colombian Chivas

Ecuadorian Magnets

Let-down site – why and where: El Yunque, Puerto Rico. We paid around $70 to visit the rain forest. I grew up in a tropical Country, so the vegetation was the same!!! I was in the same tour with other Hispanics and we were all bored. All of the Europeans and Americans LOVED it. I can't say that it isn't worth visiting, it just depends on what you have seen before. For me it was just another mountain.

Moment when you fell in love with travel: The exact moment was when I went back to Colombia after 4 years of not going home. I went back 4 times in the following 6 months. I was in Grad school, with a flexible schedule, and a broken heart. Then I decided to start get a real job :(

Flying over Colombia

Nicest hotel you’ve stayed in: The Waldorf Astoria, NYC was probably the most elegant. I recently stayed at Viceroy Hotel in Miami and I am in love with the pool and the spa. I also loved the Ganseenvort South Beach and the ShoreClub South Beach. Miami has very chic hotels where I would love to stay for a weekend. 

Obsession – what are you obsessed with taking pictures of while traveling: Everything!!! I can't stop taking pictures while traveling. Sometimes I feel that I am missing out because I am too busy taking pictures. I just got a new camera and this is probably about to get worse.

Passport stamps, how many and from where: I don't know... I have 2 passports and I get a stamp every time I go into and out of Colombia. I haven't been to a lot of Countries because I always get home sick. Im working on that.  

Quirkiest attraction you’ve visited and where: New Orleans. I was 18 and the nice places were 21 and up. I was with 2 (old) aunts trying to go into a live jazz bar. We ended up in the weirdest place on Bourbon Street. 

Recommended site, event or experience: I really liked the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. I've always been intrigued by World War II probably because of my dad who has read many books about it. I spent almost all day inside looking at the many objects from the Holocaust, watching stories of survivors, historic 1940s films, and reading about the horrors of it. There was also a moving exhibition about the genocides in Darfur. I left the museum crying. During this trip, I traveled alone to D.C. and stayed with my best friend. She was at work while I walked around the City. This was my first of many trips to D.C. I loved doing the tourist sites alone without pressure and meeting my friend at night to share the pictures. Years later, I took my parents to this museum and again spent many hours inside.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Splurge, something you have no problem forking over money for while traveling: Nice hotels!

Touristy thing you’ve done: I love all touristy sites. They are famous for a reason. The key is to travel in low season to avoid the crowds. How can you miss out on Times Square or the Golden Bridge Gate just because they are full of tourists?

Unforgettable travel memory: Traveling with my parents to D.C. and this time I was the their guide. That same summer we traveled to Hawaii along with one of my sisters. After many years of not taking vacations with my parents I really enjoyed it. I would love to travel with them again. They are going to Germany in May for my dad's 70th birthday. I am trying to see if Andre and I can go with them.

Visas: I don't have one, never had one. I moved to the US as a permanent resident. I will need one for China and I don't know where else... I don’t need a visa to go to Brazil because of my Colombian passport. Where do I need a visa to go to?

Wine, best glass while traveling and where: The home made wine that we got in Venice for just 3 Euros. We had a second bottle of another wine with lunch and I got a little drunk. I never drink during the day and during the whole trip back to Rome I had a terrible hang over.

Italian Home Made Wine

eXcellent view and from where: 230 5th Avenue, New York City. This bar is located in a rooftop and it has the most amazing view of the Empire State Building.

Years spent traveling: 27

Zealous sports fans and where: I'm not into sports and I tend to stay away from the stadium if there is a game. I almost stayed in Madrid for a Real Madrid game. Our flight was canceled and later it was just delayed. I would like to go to La Bombonera in Buenos Aires for a River vs Boca Juniors game just to have the experience. I don't really care about any team.

Wedding Updates

I haven't done much this past month for my wedding. My mom is my official planner and she is back in the US until June. In the mean time, a friend is doing the invitations for us as a gift. He sent me an initial design and it looks nice! We still need to decide a few minor things: exact time and if we want to add our parent's names to the invitations. Small details but the date is getting closer. I also called my ex personal trainer to ask her to train me at least once a week since I am getting nervous. We will start in 2 weeks. She asked me to do lots of spinning to get my endurance up. I know she will be tough and I need that especially for my arms. I will write more updates as I get things done.

Since I wrote about Mexico last week I decided to share the wedding information that I collected when I was considering doing my wedding in Mexico. Maybe this will help other brides looking for the perfect place to get married. The idea started because we wanted a laid back ceremony at the beach. We live in Florida but the prices at the beach front hotels are too high to even consider doing it here. Plus I loved the idea of a destination wedding: a week of vacation with our favorite people and our wedding at the same time. We had been to Playa del Carmen before and we both loved the place. We didn't go together but we agreed that it was the most beautiful beach we had seen.

A coworker got married in Playa del Carmen a few years ago. I remembered looking at her beautiful wedding pictures a long time ago. I asked her for the details and she still had some valuable information. She recommended some places and I also contacted others for prices and information. She also advised me to get married in the US before. You have to do a series of things if you want to get legally married in Mexico that you shouldn't need to do if you don't live there. The list was long but I remembered a blood test, doctor's appointment, and arriving so many days before the wedding. Just make sure that you don't forget to read through if your plan is to marry in Mexico. I thought the best option was just to do a symbolic marriage.

My favorite place was Al Cielo Hotel in Xpu Ha Beach. Al Cielo is located just 20 minutes from Playa del Carmen. The reception site was for only 50 people but considering not everyone would make the trip we could maybe make it. I have a large family. I only have 3 sisters but we are close with our cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course we also have lots of friends. Probably 30 guests would be family and only 20 friends. Inviting 10 friends each was going to be though. The cost of the food and open bar were about $120 per person plus a $2,000 fee for the ceremony set up at the beach. It was around $8,000 plus the cost of the transportation, the photographer, and of course the week of vacation. When I contacted Al Cielo they were very friendly and sent me information right away. They also sent me this link with a full gallery of a wedding that took place in their hotel.

My coworker recommended this local photographer who did her pictures: Claudia Rodriguez . I contacted her but never heard back. I really liked her work. I would had tried harder to contact her if we had decided to do the wedding in Mexico.

One of Claudia's pictures

My favorite photographer Kyle Hepp will travel just about anywhere in the world to do your wedding. Make sure that you ask her. I had to stay on a tight budget to be able to afford our honeymoon but, if you don't need to worry about that please contact her.

I was also looking for hotels that offered wedding packages and they are very affordable but for smaller weddings (up to 30). Plus I didn't want to force our guests to stay at a particular resort. Most of the resorts charge a daily fee if any of your wedding guests are not guest of the hotel. I would feel really bad to invite someone to my wedding and tell them they need to pay around $100 to get in.

One of the most important issues when deciding our wedding date was that we had to either get married before May of 2011 or after November because of hurricane season. I know that they only happen once in a while but I did not want to be watching the weather channel non-stop the days before my wedding. Besides, I already heard a similar experience with weddings and hurricanes. My cousin got married in Cancun right after hurricane Wilma. My parents went and their pictures at the beach are sad. It was cloudy and the beach was dirty. Their hotel didn't have any damages but many people had to cancel their trip. It is very important when planning a destination wedding in the Caribbean to NOT do it between June and November.

My boyfriend and I decided that May was too soon and that it was going to be difficult for his family to travel from Ecuador to Mexico. Then we looked at the options in my hometown in Colombia. We looked at prices and we were going to pay about the same but we could invite more people. His family only needs to take a 1 hour flight to Colombia. Cali is not a tourist destination and, it will be more difficult to entertain our out of town guests the days before the wedding. I'm still thinking what we will be doing those days. I love my City and I have an idea of good things to do in Cali but, I'm afraid that they will get bored.

I'm getting ready to start to blog about the 20-day Euro Trip that my boyfriend and I took last year. Starting on March 31st since that is the day that we traveled last year. I will try to post things exactly on the date that we were at those places. By the way, I will always call my fiancé my boyfriend. In Spanish we are boyfriend and girlfriend until we are married. There is a word for fiancé, prometido, but people never used it.

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 4 & Last

On our last day in Mexico we woke up early to take a last walk at the beach. It was sad to say good bye  to Playa del Carmen so quickly. After these pictures were taken, we got back to the room to get ready and left for the airport. 

The beach early in the morning

I bought this pic from the hotel photographers. It was taken from a parasail

That was our hotel in the middle

Our last pic in Playa del Carmen

Looking at these pictures makes me want to book a trip to Mexico ASAP. Jetblue suspended the Tampa to Cancun flight shortly after we returned from this trip.  I always make fun that this is an International Airport with no international flights. I think British airways now has direct flights to London and maybe Cayman Airways has a flight to Grand Cayman and that's it. I wanted to take a girls only trip before getting married. However, I have to pay for the wedding and honeymoon first before booking another trip. 

I once heard that pictures are "frozen happiness" and I think they really are. Mexico Lindo I will see you again and hopefully sooner than later.

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 3

We were only in Mexico for 3 nights but I knew that I had to go to Chichén Itzá one day even if it meant that I would miss a whole day of relaxing by the beach. The problem was that I left this day trip for our last full day in Mexico and the night before we had too many tequilas. There was no option to postpone our trip to visit the Mayan ruins. The bus picked us up at 7:00AM. The 3 hours in the bus were painful because I had the worst hangover of my life. I wont give the details of the hangover but I finally started to feel better when we arrived to Chichén Itzá. Just in time for the high heat and the walking tour of the ruins. It was all worth it, I was amazed by the pyramids. I expected them to be smaller and to be in worse shape. In 2007, the Kukulcan pyramid was declared one of the world new seven wonders. They don't let people climb the pyramids as they did just a few years ago.

Kukulcan Pyramid

El Caracol



My dad in 2006 going to the top of the pyramid


The tour that we chose also included a typical mexican lunch and a stop at one of the cenotes in the area. We forgot to take our bathing suits that day. The water looked nice even though we were told that they were used for human sacrifices.  Our tour was $99 included pick up and drop off at the hotel, breakfast in the bus, the entrance to Chichen Itza, lunch, a cenote visit, and a Corona. I can't remember the name of our tour but it was great. We booked them using the hotel's service desk. They picked up people from all the hotels in the area so if you need a tour your hotel will be able to find you a good company. I'm sure that we could have found a tour for less money but this was very nice and convinient.

One of our guides

The Cenote

We returned to the hotel at around 7:00 PM, had dinner with our other 2 friends who had spent their day in Xel-Ha snorkeling. From what I saw in their pictures this is a must do while in the area. I will definitely try to make another visit to the area and make sure that I see Xel-Ha, Tulum, and Xcaret.

Back at the hotel

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 2

On the second day in Mexico, I decided to go to the hotel spa for a body treatment. It was a massage and a scrub. After this relaxing way to start the day I went to the beach with one of my friends. We must have had oil left from the spa because we both got sun burned at the beach. After a few hours in the sun, we took the rental car to drive to Tulum. I was driving and I am used to agressive Latin American drivers, but I'm not used to speed bumps that were under intead of above the road level. When we got to Tulum it was already 4:00 PM and they didn't let us in to see the ruins. They closed at 4:30PM. We drove back to Playa del Carmen to see the town. We walked around the cutest church I've ever seen, 5th avenue,  bought souvenirs, and then stopped by Senor frogs for a drink. The bar was almost empty as well as most of the restaurants in the area. I'm sure the swaine flu had all the tourist away. We ordered one of the famous yard drink. We became friends with the bartenders and had a few more drinks that we had planned. Then we went to the hotel to have dinner with our other 2 friends and took advantage of the all-inclusive rate at the bar. 

At the beach

Playa del Carmen

The bar stools at senor frogs

Fun bar stools

This quote in spanish was in the ceiling at senor frogs: "to find your blue prince, you first have to kiss 1000 frogs"

The Yard

Our new friends

Our favorite bartender

One of many rounds of tequila shots

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 1

Just 15 days before the following pictures were taken, I convinced 3 friends to go to Mexico for Memorial Day weekend. It was during the swine (H1N1) flu scare and the prices were very low. At the time, Jetblue had direct flights to Cancun from Tampa. We used the Jetblue website to book a vacation package. We each payed, on a holiday weekend, less than $370 for our flight, 3 nights at an all-inclusive 4-star hotel in Playa del Carmen and an additional $100 for the 4 days of rental car. We stayed at the Viva Wyndham Azteca. Playa del Carmen was about one hour from Cancun and a very easy drive from the Airport. I had seen pictures of Playa del Carmen before, but the beach that I was about to see was above any of my expectations. The first day we just relaxed at the beach, had dinner at the hotel, and went to bed early. Two of my friends went to Coco Bongo that night until 6:00AM. I wanted to use this trip to relax instead of coming back to work even more tired than when I left. 

Tampa to Cancun

The welcome sign at the airport

We didn't have a radio in the car but we used the ipod speakers and enjoyed the drive.

Tequila Corralejo

at the beach outside our hotel

Playa del Carmen

Looking at the Ocean

I'm curious to know how true are the news about the safety issues in Mexico. They compared it with the drug cartels in Colombia during the 1990s. Living in Colombia at that time was not easy, but we knew where to go and how to take care of yourself. There are always safe zones and places that nobody needs to see. I also believe that the media makes the news worse than they actually are. Mexicans were extremely nice and friendly during our stay. I hope that their tourism industry does not suffer from inadequate media coverage. Actually, Mexico was our first choice when we looking for places to do our wedding. One of my coworkers got married in Playa del Carmen and I loved the laid back theme and how her pictures came out. I decided not to do it in Mexico because I was afraid that our guests decided that it was dangerous to go. I would not put them in risk and since I don't live there I can't tell them where to go and how to be safe.

Jetblue doesn't fly direct from Tampa to Cancun since 2009, but I am sure that I will be back. There are many things to do and many places to visit in this area that I didn't get a chance to see during this trip.