July 22 - Yarumal - Cartagena

We said goodbye to the mountain town of Yarumal and set our sights on Cartagena, Colombia, although a mere 500 km north, we had been told it would take 10 hours to reach.  We slowly descended the high mountains with the kids sleeping, hot coffee and only the steady sound of the rumbling diesel.  It's actually my favorite time of the day where we can actually have some "alone time" in such a small space.  A colombian coffee, kids sleeping and Marnie reading contently.

We started feeling the change in weather from the cool, dry mountain air to the hot, humid and sticky... and holy shit was it ever hot in Sincejelo.  A mere 40 km's away from the Caribbean, this inland town was 35 degrees and 90% humidity but reminded us that we were so very close to Cartagena and the HALF WAY point in our trip.

We made it to our very cool and quaint hotel just outside of the old city in Cartagena while the sun was still up.  Once the formalities of checking in were handled, the kids jumped into the roof top pool while mom and dad relaxed and reflected on the last three weeks! Finally could settle down somewhere for more than one or two nights and relax.

We have covered 9,200 km of the previously estimated 17,000 km....the half way point according to google maps is somewhere between Panama City and San Jose, Costa Rica and my last check if we stick to the Pan American Hwy put Vancouver to Colon, Panama at 8300 km.   However, we're planning on hitting the coast along central america which will add some mileage to the trip. So, it looks like we will cover more than the initially estimated 17,000 km but at this point of the game we are just thrilled to be in Cartagena and half way home.

We knew the two month window we had for this trip would be on the short side, meaning we could certainly do it, but we needed to cover some ground everyday...or make up for it when we stayed a couple nights in a particular city.  Well, we have covered a good amount of  distance in three weeks, and felt we have seen what we wanted to see, but it's been tiring.  Fun and exciting but there have been day's we felt wasted.  The one interesting thing, is we have spent every waking minute together, either in the truck, across from the restaurant table or in a hotel.  There have been "moments" when one brother is freaking out, the other is crying and one of the parents is threatening to take away privileges for the millionth time.  I guess we should be worried when the parent starts crying.

Cartagena will offer us a good long pit stop. A place to relax, walk around, eat some good food and unpack the bags.  We are planning on heading further north east and checking out Santa Marta and hopefully the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama while we wait for the truck to be shipped and cleared from Panamanian customs.

Some of us are a bit anxious about shipping the car and what that entails. All the reading we've done has "prepared" us for a complicated and slow process.  I can only hope that the truck will be in Panama within 10 day's but more than likely it will take a bit longer.  Our first checks indicated that the next available ship is scheduled for July 31. Hopefully, with a bit of good luck we can be on the road again by the first week of August.