I have long since said that living in a van in the road allows us to recharge our batteries, to reset our traveler’s clock and to refresh ourselves by living at home surrounded by the familiar, using our things and temporarily at least closing off the outside world, the alien culture through which we have chosen to move. I am I think a van dweller by nature, not a truck camper, or an expedition truck driver or an off road fanatic in a four wheel drive. I like the comfort of our Promaster.  GANNET2 is a 2020 Promaster 3500Ext bought and built for us by Cudtom Coach Creations in Deland, No ..read more

A fellow traveler turned us on to a museum of the air tucked away next to the Cali Airport. Rusty was not overly impressed but after he got his invitation he dutifully followed me around. The Colombian couple who founded this plate were fervent collectors. By the numbers there are 27 aircraft, two model railroad layouts and 4500 assorted models and 50 displays of period uniforms. It’s overwhelming but on trip advisor it has more than 600 five star ratings. Norman the manager says he gets far more foreigners than locals. Oh and don’t forget the cutlery display from airlines of the world!  ..read more

We beat the blockades into Cali by leaving late, spending the night on the road, …and getting into town in time for breakfast. The blockades start at an undetermined time in the morning and last all day as the protestors try to force the government to follow up on promises of financial help after last years ruinous slides and flooding caused by heavy rains.  My technique for handling the blockades is to get out my book and give a curt “Buenas tardes ” to the passing Jehovah’s Witnesses. Wither they went or whence they came I know not but I was as ever not in the mood for salvation. Afte ..read more

You know all that stuff about making plans and life happening, and it did indeed happen to us yesterday. We made plans to travel and life got in the way. First we struggled through the excessively busy streets of Piendamó, the town at the bottom of the hill that always confuses Google Maps.  We had left campground 8:30 with a two and a half hour drive planned to Cali to see a dermatologist at 3:30 pm. Even though Piendamó snarled us up in a dead end or two we felt we were on top of the scheduling. It was a cool gray day in the mountains as we traced our way to the main highway.  W ..read more

La Bonanza is the bane of our campground owned by a couple who grew up in Morocco, had three kids and ten years ago set off to drive around South America. They made waves at home when they left Morocco, and now their children are grown and their home and RV campground is for sake if you’re interested. We aren’t - we’re nomads but we like landing in these kinds of places. It made a great change from bouncing down the road from hell at dusk!  The road out of the mountains though paved was still have torn up by endless roadworks. It was a tremendous drag stopping every ten minutes.  ..read more

San Agustin is a town of 34,000 in southern Colombia, indeed in the campground where I am writing this, I am sitting at 1 degree 53 minutes North latitude, the closest I have ever been to the Equator. In a straight line we are about 120 miles from the next country called Ecuador and about 200 miles from the line that gives that country its name.  Our goal is to visit the archeological park, the largest of its kind in South America, that is next to the city. We aren’t continuing on south either, because from here we plan to go back north to Medellin in the middle of the country. Ecuador c ..read more

We drove south from the chaos of the capital city on Tuesday with a very excellent plan. Layne had found a gas station half way to our next tourist destination and they had what we needed most: laundry facilities at the truck stop.  It was less than a hundred miles to Melgar but in Colombia’s winding mountain roads that could be an all day drive. We planned to get to the truck stop with enough time to do a load of clothes and a load of sheets, mats, and seat covers in a self service laundry as all are in dire need. Colombia had other plans.  They are upgrading the main road th ..read more

Eleven million people live in Colombia’s capital at 8,600 feet and the place has a terrible reputation for tangled traffic made worse by a new metro system under construction. We managed to avoid all that by being smart, we hoped and we actually did very well avoiding traffic snarls. Our neighbors in the campground asked to come with us to the city so we gladly took Patrick and Ana with us, cheerful world travelers with whom we had lots in common. Our first obstacle was the weekend recreational cyclists clogging the road into the big city.  Bogotá as though seen from the air: I was sur ..read more

Archeologists tell us gold was not used as currency in Colombia before the Spanish Conquest, but it was used as an adornment for persons of high status within the various societies that lived in the Andean valleys of what was to become New Granada. The various tribes used assorted symbols and styles to express their veneration for the important people who lived among them and expressed their search for meaning in life by illustrating their gold adornments with their creation myths and veneration for assorted animals.  The gold museum in downtown Bogotá is renowned among travelers and y ..read more

I’d like to imagine everyone knows what the term “back to the salt mine” refers to, and for me the joyfully retired, the idea of ever going back to the salt mine is utterly repugnant. Saturday however did see me enter an actual salt mine, and I had to thank my ever efficient tour director for the experience. Layne found out about the mine in the town of Nemocón and down we went.  Startling, isn’t it? The mine tour itself was a mixed bag for me. Part of the problem I dare say is the absence by now of any living miner left to tell the story of mining for salt. The century old mine closed i ..read more