Back to School and Bye Bye Cartagena

Well, we started school today! Zack led Jonas and Johanna through some math, and then I did some language arts and social studies with them. We reviewed types of nouns and some literary terms and learned about Cartagena’s history, specifically the fort we visited the other day. They even had homework to complete; we’re not kidding around! 

But we still managed to have some fun this afternoon. The kids and I did some souvenir shopping, as I collect keychains for my travel backpack and Christmas ornaments from spots I visit, and Johanna collects snow globes. We also got some postcards, but we don’t have a way to send them yet. After shopping, we rented scooters for half an hour and rode all over the wall. It was quite the juxtaposition to be on electric scooters atop a wall that’s several centuries old! I was a slowpoke, and Jonas freaked me out by going way too fast without a helmet.

We grabbed a treat and some drinks at a cute bookstore/coffee shop after riding scooters, and later in the evening, we had some arepas from a stand around the corner for dinner.

Tomorrow, we’ll be one week into our trip. The only thing we’ve lost so far is one pair of my reading glasses, probably in the Uber we took back from the fort, but thankfully I packed two pairs. We’ve gone to the grocery store twice, the shop below our apartment more times than we can count for bottled water (we’ve gone through SO much water), made at least four full meals and several casual breakfasts/lunches at “home,” visited multiple plazas, seen buildings of every color of the rainbow, walked an average of 10,000 steps per day and on the wall multiple times, done laundry twice, eaten two arepas each, and tried several types of lemonade. The kids did well with sharing one bedroom (and one double bed). But we have learned that sharing one small bathroom among four people is not always fun! 

Onward to our next Colombian city…tomorrow we take a boat ride to Isla Grande and stay on the island for a few days. Cartagena sure was a beautiful and colorful place to start our journey in South America!