Travels of THB: Day 10 Cartagena to Panama City to E-Ville, Observations

Travel Day: From Cartagena to Panama City to ... the Copa lounge ...to SFO

Yep, we have a 9:30 flight from Cartagena to Panama City. The airport is around 15 minutes from the Hyatt Regency. What time should DB and THB leave to make their international flight. Answers from locals ranged from 6:30 to ... well, no local said to go any later. Carlos the tour leader said 7am.

We arrived at the airport at 7:15am, got our boarding passes, checked our bags and made it through security just in time. Yeah, only 1 hour and 45 minutes until the half-full plane boarded. Phew!

Plenty of time to explore the airport's international terminals: 3 gates right next to each other, a few stores to use up the last of THB and DB's pesos on chocolate bars, and one restroom.

Hmmmm...why was this mirror tilting out from the wall? Seemed intentional. A feature, not a flaw.

Seemed to work for selfie management. However, THB is damn sure he is the only one anywhere taking selfies in the middle of a public restroom (for you followers, refer to the infamous THB selfie taken in a gigantic restroom full of urinals in the Beijing Birds Nest statidum, 2008).

THB and DB could have taken an earlier Panama City flight to SFO that had a scheduled 45 minute turnaround. That seemed a little tight for us and very tight if there was any slip-up (and our bags probably wouldn't make it under any circumstances. Sure enough, the Cartagena flight landed a bit early. Result:

A ten plus minute wait for the jetway connector to reach the airplane! This guy clearly had moved up to try and make his connection.

So THB and DB and Dana and Ken spent 6 hours in the lounge, the idly strolled to the SFO departure gate, sat in biz class, had a very smoother flight home, landed to a clear night, a bright half-moon, and FORTY degree temp. Made it to the loft just before midnight, the loft had been sitting empty for 10 days in was very chilly.

Various pics interspersed with some observations

OBSERVATIONs

Colombia Culture: would it surprise anyone if THB told you that there are issues here over statues that seem to be past their born-on date? Did anyone notice that the name of the entire country is a Spanish dude who lead the old world to a spot where they could enslave the indigenous natives, eliminate them through illness and impoverishment, then bring in a bunch of other slaves to do their best at moving anything of value back to Spain?
Recent History: Colombians have apparently successfully turned their backs to the turbulence of the last 50 years of what turned out to be a 4 headed civil war: the military, para-militias (think rogues funded by the government and supported by the military), FARC (insurgents), and drug cartels (one example: when Pablo Escobar was killed, then FARC took over running the drug biz, said to generate $80 million a day in profits).
Art and Recent History: Artists are enjoying the freedom of the last half-decade and the museos and galleries are full of works that reference key moments of the last 50 years or trauma. The Colombian gallerists and curators are having a field day. When will the US art world open up enough to have the January 6, 2021, insurrection have its moment in the sun? It probably has started and THB hasn't been mobile enough during the pandemic to see it in person.
Art: It is a great day for THB if he sees at least one terrific (to THB) piece of art, something he would like to spend his days (and money) looking at over and over again. There were plenty of great works on the trip, The only drawback: the tour didn't make as many stops as THB and DB have done on prior trips. Why? Probably the logistics, and Cartagena is really a leisure and historical destination (you don't go to Hawaii chasing art).
The Tour

It felt great to be out and about chasing art, and there were no real duds on any of the stops scheduled. The private collections all had work that was of interest; the museums always had something worth seeing; and for the most part those explaining the art were educational. There was one moment though that stood out: the curator would make some comments in Spanish and for some reason there was a simultaneous translation going on: a loud alternative Spanish version with extravagant hand motions and an English translation quietly coming through our earpieces. More theater than aid, most people pulled their earpieces out and ignored the Spanish re-telling.
You couldn't possibly go hungry between meals unless you skipped breakfast. Most people reported that on the free nights for dinner they brought in something small and didn't finish that (THB and DB brought in a loaf of bread on their one free night). In general, there was always something nice on the menu, desserts were extremely generous, alcohol flowed (THB went very light and never at lunch).
Carlos and Maria-Luz ran a tight ship, kept us politely on schedule, THB and DB had fabulous upgraded rooms, the buses were clean, and Colombians seemed genuinely happy to see and help us.
Above and beyond:

Rum and chocolate tasting (THB is looking forward to leftovers)
Lunatico cooking class (THB demo'd his personal stirring method)
Private collections in Medellin
The choice of local guides was topnotch

The Tour Members

Many of the members were from the LA area and some even knew some of THB's relatives. Actually, they knew some of THB's relatives that THB did not know personally! One of the members went to the same high school as THB and DB. She had an excuse for not knowing some of our fave teachers: she rarely went to class. Overall, the people on the tour very knowledgeable about art AND had been on more than one tour with Carlos. THB and DB were the newbies. Also two of the oldest.
Carlos is a Brazilian living in Malibu now who had worked on the construction of the Getty in LA for 12 years...meaning he was looking east down into the yard of the house THB grew up in every day he went to work. THB was well gone when Carlos was at the Getty site. Donna's parents lived a mile south of the Getty. LA was too smoggy in those days for Carlos to see their house.
There were a number of single women on the tour: all either widowed or divorced. There were two men on their own...THB is sure that their wives had some great excuses about letting these guys go on the tour and giving them at least 10 days of separation.
There was one guy who was so low on the EQ scale that most everybody else (except his wife) was embarrassed as he always put himself front and center (or whined about why he wasn't front and center). THB had a moment with him: while everybody was chopping and prepping at the cooking class, without saying a word he moved his pile of work onto THB's chopping bloc . THB stared at it for a few minutes while chopping and slicing his own pile (this meant THB had a sharp instrument at hand) and then moved the pile back on the bully's block without saying a word. Then the pile moved on to his wife's block. Beneath him? When he wasn't the center of attention, and his seatmates were ignoring him often, he would pull out his phone and start scrolling. He also bought work at many of the studio stops. While monopolizing the staff at each stop.

The Food

Plentiful, lots at meals, frequent treats, water and snacks available all the time on the bus. Usually 1.5+ hours to relax, chat, and await the next course. In general the format was shared appetizers and desserts, a choice of entrees, all the beer and wine you could consume at a sitting.
The style of food was actually pretty similar. Most entrees choices included beef and THB found its prep was the best of the bunch, maybe because it was the simplest.
The white wines were almost always better than the reds (to THB's taste) and the beers were usually mild lagers.

Everything else

Music was ubiquitous and generally way tooooo loud for THB's comfort. Just our misfortune to be in a country that really likes to ramp it up in December: we overlapped with 3 office parties, one band in the lobby doing their best imitation of Dylan's famous "play it loud" first European tour after going electric, and restaurants (e.g., the Marriott breakfast buffet) drowning out any chance at talking across the table. Post-Covid exhilaration? Is Covid "post" now? Pretty much if you use mask-wearing as benchmark.
Our local personal fruit and clothing guide, Angelina, was terrific, above and beyond. And she led the group for the Museo de Oro visit. She also coordinated a purchase of emeralds for DB.
Smoking was rarely seen in public. THB did not find out why. Certainly weed, legal in Colombia, was found in public places.
Traffic in Bogota was like getting around in LA in pre-pandemic days and most likely kept the group from seeing even more art.
The dollar went pretty far in Colombia, most things were reasonable to inexpensive. Not the art, it seemed to be priced similarly to other places THB and DB have visited in the last 5-10 years.