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JAWM: Stepson went to company meeting in a Caribbean beach resort


Lanny
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He left Cali this morning, went up to Medellin (34 minutes, take off to touch down) and then from Medellin to Santa Marta (about one hour in the air), which is on our "Atlantic" (Caribbean) coast. Now, he is sending photos...  They will have one day, completely free, and the other days are for meetings and presentations.   The weather there is probably about what it is here, but we do not have Caribbean beaches or ocean views here.  Vicariously, I will try to enjoy this trip "with" him...  My wife told me that for us (in Colombia) this is a very low time for tourism, because all of the kids are in school.  But, for anyone coming from the USA or Canada, or Europe, they would consider coming here to be "peak" season, so they can escape the cold.  His wife, made some comments about getting sand in your shoes and other bad things.  I'd like to try that...   Hoping he enjoys this trip.   Santa Marta was the first city in Colombia and Bolivar was buried there, but then they moved Bolivar to Venezuela. There is a snow capped Volcano and a National Park nearby.  

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 I was thinking of you last weekend Lanny.  I saw a NatGeo show about airport security at El Dorado airport.  At least in the parts of the airport they showed, I was very impressed by that airport.  So much nicer than the big airports I have seen here.

 

Wow... Thank you for sharing that!   I had no idea there is a NatGeo  show about El Dorado.  During 2014, they opened the brand new terminal building, before it was finished.  We were there after it was opened.  Far nicer than the old terminal building.  There are so many flights going in/out of there, that they really need another terminal building.  After our flight from Orlando landed there, on May 1st, and we went through Immigration and Customs, the gate where our flight to Cali was scheduled to leave from was  being used for multiple flights that night.  Immigration here is very strict.  Especially with regard to Minors. I will ask my wife to see if she can locate that NatGeo show on Netflix or something.  Thanks again!  My wife told me that Cali is the next city that will get a new Terminal building. Badly needed. Cali is the 3rd largest city in Colombia. 

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Follow on: He took a photo this afternoon of the pool area and there are people in the pool.  The file size is 165 KB.  I reduced it (on an online site) to 35 or 45 KB, but the WTM file uploader tells me it needs to be smaller than 3 KB, so I can't include it in this post.  Those of you with Snow on the ground would probably enjoy that photo and thinking about being at the beach..

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He left Cali this morning, went up to Medellin (34 minutes, take off to touch down) and then from Medellin to Santa Marta (about one hour in the air), which is on our "Atlantic" (Caribbean) coast. Now, he is sending photos...  They will have one day, completely free, and the other days are for meetings and presentations.   The weather there is probably about what it is here, but we do not have Caribbean beaches or ocean views here.  Vicariously, I will try to enjoy this trip "with" him...  My wife told me that for us (in Colombia) this is a very low time for tourism, because all of the kids are in school.  But, for anyone coming from the USA or Canada, or Europe, they would consider coming here to be "peak" season, so they can escape the cold.  His wife, made some comments about getting sand in your shoes and other bad things.  I'd like to try that...   Hoping he enjoys this trip.   Santa Marta was the first city in Colombia and Bolivar was buried there, but then they moved Bolivar to Venezuela. There is a snow capped Volcano and a National Park nearby.  

 

What a rotten child. You should disown him.

 

Unless he promises to take you next time.

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Follow on: He took a photo this afternoon of the pool area and there are people in the pool.  The file size is 165 KB.  I reduced it (on an online site) to 35 or 45 KB, but the WTM file uploader tells me it needs to be smaller than 3 KB, so I can't include it in this post.  Those of you with Snow on the ground would probably enjoy that photo and thinking about being at the beach..

 

I dunno, Lanny.  From your other posts, I would believe you to be a very nice guy.  Torture does not seem to be within your usual character.  :confused1:  

 

 

 

(It is snowing here.  Over the ice.  And the wind is howling, so we have negative wind chills, poor visibility, and getting around is a...challenging experience.  Enjoy your sun.)

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Follow-on:  It is Saturday. I got home at about 1 P.M.  My wife told me he'd sent her a Video Chat, via WhatsApp.  They were done for the day and he was going to the beach.  They are at the Irotama. Below is the URL of that property.  If you have Snow or cold weather, the beach probably sounds nice...

 

http://www.irotama.com/en/

 

When I went to the supermarket to buy a few things, I entered the next raffle, which is for one of 6 motorcycles.  The one after that is for 1 of 100 gift certificates. The one after that is for 10 trips to Santa Marta. Each trip is for 2 people.  

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For all your fantasy vacation needs, here's La Invitación:

 

 

(This music is vallenato. If you like it check out Carlos Vives, too.)

 

THANK YOU!   LOVE IT!   My Stepson's favorite is Vallenato.  My favorite is Merengue (Juan Luis Guerra/440, they are *very* nice people).   The first musical  instrument I played, when I was a young boy, was the Accordion, so I enjoyed seeing the Accordions in the video.  That's the only musical instrument I enjoyed playing...

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I dunno, Lanny.  From your other posts, I would believe you to be a very nice guy.  Torture does not seem to be within your usual character.  :confused1:  

 

 

 

(It is snowing here.  Over the ice.  And the wind is howling, so we have negative wind chills, poor visibility, and getting around is a...challenging experience.  Enjoy your sun.)

 

Yes. I gave up on trying to shrink the file size of that photo down to less than 3 KB.  However, now, I just posted the URL of the property where they are staying, so y'all can check that out and see a lot of photos of the property and the beach. Thank you for the kind comments!

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What a rotten child. You should disown him.

 

Unless he promises to take you next time.

 

Yes. I think all of us have thought about that, since he announced they were going to Santa Marta.  They had a meeting in Bogota, just before Christmas. Probably a big Christmas party.  I'm sure Santa Marta is higher on his list.    He could not take his wife. He could not take his mother. He could not take his half-sister. He could not take me, his Stepfather.

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My wife said he told her the ocean water temperature is warm.  That is the worst case. That is perfect. When  you are in the ocean and the water is warm, it is like a bathtub and you hate to get out of the water.  Our high temperature today was approximately 86 F. That's about normal for us, throughout the year. And it was a very nice day here. However, we do not have a one kilometer Caribbean Beach in front of our house.

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He got back awhile ago. I now have a T-shirt that says "Santa Marta Colombia" and it has a colorful design on it.  I asked him, "This is the USD $64K question: If you won the lottery, would you go back there in 2 seconds?".   He certainly would.  There were 200+ people from his company. He was in a 3 B.R. unit with a Jacuzzi. I think it is a Timeshare, like where we stayed in Orlando last April. He had a great time...   :hurray:

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One bad thing did happen. He damaged his eyeglasses. When my wife and DD heard that yesterday, they both immediately said "ZenniOptical"   However, he bought new eyeglasses locally, today, because he needs to wear eyeglasses when driving.  I'm wearing the T-shirt he gave to me yesterday.

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