On the trail of the next apartment.

So, Brent had found that place for us to move into.

And then the owners decided not to rent it. They want to sell instead.

We still had almost two months to find a place, but those months go quickly. I contacted the property manager of the first apartment we lived in when we got here, and he did indeed have an unfurnished apartment available for a somewhat reasonable price. Brent's friend was looking into an apartment for us elsewhere, so I told our original property manager that we could let him know by Monday. He said that was fine.

On Saturday, we knew the other place wasn't going to work out, so I emailed our guy and said we'd take it! We enjoyed the apartment the first time, loved the location, and were excited to move back there.

He told me he just signed a contract on it the day before.

I was shocked that he hadn't bothered to give us the first right of refusal, considering he told me we had until Monday, but he must have his reasons. At any rate, it left us scrambling.

And we're still scrambling. We're supposed to move out on August 15 and we have nowhere to go.

Apartment hunting is tricky. Not only do you need to find the right apartment in the right location for the right price, like you do anywhere, WE, as foreigners, also need to find one with a landlord that will let us rent without having a co-signer and without giving them a six-month deposit (which, we've heard, tends to disappear).

Backtrack: not really nowhere. We do have friends here with a large apartment who told us we can move in if we don't find anything. This will be nice -- we're good friends who really enjoy spending time with each other, and we've stayed together before for up to two weeks and it has worked out great. They also have a dog with whom Max can play, which will be nice for him and us, and they're in a great location. Plus, it helps them out with their rent and takes the pressure off of us to find something.

But. Then we have to move twice. And these times, we've got furniture.

En Fuego

I'm looking out the window at great plumes of black smoke rising from a building I can't see, but it's just four or five blocks away. This is the third structure fire -- visible from our apartment -- in the last two weeks. The first one was just two blocks away and brought sirens from all directions.

Not only that, the hills have been burning. It is dry season and the lack of rain does put the foliage at risk, but we also heard a story about one of the forest fires (that has been burning for days) was the brainchild of someone who wanted to do something with that land but wasn't allowed to do it because it was a protected area. Sad deal.

It's interesting to see so much fire, which I associate with transformation, at a time when we're undergoing a lot of it.

In what sounds like a grievous setback for Brent's office, he fired one of his employees, who then took the secretary with him (we suspect a bit of a love affair, otherwise it just doesn't make much sense) and they proceeded to call and reschedule every client to their new location. Theft, plain and simple: they stole those people's private information from the company.

Then they had the gall to ask for "liquidation" which is, by Colombian law, basically a bonus for getting fired or quitting. Seriously. When someone willingly leaves her job, like the secretary did, her employer is obligated to pay her an extra month's salary.

We'll see.

So it looked bad, and for a couple of days it felt really bad, too. But then things started shifting. Dramatically.

The phone rang: people looking for a first appointment. Other people came in off the street when they were walking by -- something which, Brent told me, just wasn't happening before. A retired chiropractor with lots of experience and success in marketing called us, saying he was new in Medellin and just wanted a place to work and play. The other secretary and the new one Brent just hired are great people and they're getting along wonderfully. The negative energy, which we already had associated with the former chiropractor but hadn't realized the former secretary was responsible for it, too, is gone. The place is blossoming, and we're feeling great.

2015 P.M. (Post-Marathon)

I'm practically living online now, with more and more computer projects taking my time, so when it comes time to write something here, I usually don't.

We've had a great time in the States--such a long visit was really welcome for me. Brent came after I did, so he hasn't been here as long. He went up to SD to watch me run the marathon, which turned out to be a very wonderful experience. I was very happy with my time of three hours and 57 minutes.

It feels weird to be done with that. I spent four months spent training for and thinking about running 26.2 miles. The three weeks before the race especially were focused so strongly on the race. Now its over. What's next?

I would definitely do it again. My knees are a bit uncomfortable with the idea, so I'll see how they recover before I commit. In Medellín I have to train mostly on bricks, concrete and asphalt.

Speaking of Medellín, it's going to be good to see the pup again. Max has been at a kennel outside of town ("camp" as we've been calling it), where he gets to run around in a field all day long with other dogs. He did a trial run the week before Brent left, and he came back tired and happy. I'm sure he's done well there. I hope he hasn't forgotten me.

Brent has found us a new place to live. Which means we have to move. Again.

When we found the place we're in now, I was SO HOPING and we were SO PLANNING to stay there for awhile. But, it does feel far from everything, including his office, and I don't blame him a bit for wanting to shorten that commute. For me, it doesn't matter much, since my work is all at home (well, in Medellín it's mostly at the coffee shop in the mall, because we had to wait for our Colombian paperwork to hook up the internet at home, and that just went through before we left, so we never had a chance to get it). I will enjoy being closer to restaurants and grocery stores, and not having to take an elevator 11 floors to take Max outside.

The new place will enable Brent to have an office on the ground floor, and we will live on the top two floors. There are three little balconies and a much bigger kitchen. I'm in no way looking forward to moving again, especially now that we have furniture, but it'll be good in the long run.

For now, we've got one more day to enjoy here in Colorado, and then we're catching a plane and heading south.

Springtime Here and Away

Obviously, I fell behind here.

Spring settled in to Medellín. The rains were heavy in April, but there were still periods of just pleasant cloudy weather. That pretty much ended in May and it's getting hot again.

Internetty things got busy very quickly, and we still don't have access at home so I've been setting up my "office" at the Juan Valdez coffee shop in the mall near our place. This means I only work online for four to five hours a day instead of the marathon sessions I'd likely be doing (and need to be doing) at home.

The good news is that it has given me more time with Máximo, who is growing like a little champion...

...and time to train for the marathon. That was been going incredibly well, better than I ever imagined it could. Now here we are, just three weeks left until the race. I'm back in the States and running on dirt (and sometimes in the rain). Weirdly, I'm looking forward to race day.

Back to electric.

As I was typing that last post, the gas guys were there saying they still couldn't hook up the gas because the meter had never been used. Brent said, well, that's why you're here, to HOOK IT UP. They reused. He wasn't sure if they were trying to make more money or if they really couldn't do it or what, but he'd had it. I don't blame him. He's been the one waiting around the apartment for gas people who show up at 1:00 pm after they'd said they would be there "first thing in the morning."

So, they left. Still no gas.

The owners came by later, just before I got home, to apologize and say they'd bring us an electric stove the next day.

Which they did. The cabinets, fixed to accommodate the gas we'll never use, got put back in. The flat-top electric range has been installed.

We are, just in time to pay our second month's rent, cooking. To celebrate, Brent brought home Vietnamese take-out.

Now we're (still not) cooking with gas.

We got the keys for our new apartment on February 15. The property manager told us to let him know when we could be there for the guys to come and hook up the gas so we could, you know, cook and stuff. We said that Friday.

He called back the next day to say that we didn't get to schedule at our convenience, but rather that the Gas would call within the next 20 (that's TWENTY, yes) days to say when they could come.

So we waited. About two weeks later, we got the call.

They showed up and said sorry, we can't hook up the gas because some dumbass built a cabinet directly over the nozzle, which is an obvious fire hazard, and also there is a cabinet directly above the stove without any protective element, also a fire hazard.

The property manager shifted into high gear and got someone over the very next day to take the cabinets out in order to fix them.

At that point the gas guy was able to come back. Which he did. And he said sorry, we can't hook up the gas because the line is full of water.

What the WHAT?

So, a few days later some guys came to clean the line. It was so bad that they couldn't get it done in one shot, so they're back today to work on it.

Brent thinks that perhaps the gas had never been hooked up to this apartment, because the line is so ridiculously full. Not a great sign.

At any rate, the cabinets are still not back. The gas is still not hooked up. Also, I am at the mall because we can't get internet at home yet, either.

At least I've got my puppy.

And puppy makes three.

Unbelievably, with everything going on with the trip and getting back and getting ready to move to a new apartment, I forgot to share this most exciting news:

We have been talking on and off about getting a dog the entire time we've been together (four years, actually, which coincided with the arrival of this little dude). We always kind of said, no, we shouldn't, because we travel a lot. But, we find ourselves feeling pretty permanent about Colombia AND we found someone who will love dogsitting, so, for my anniversary present, Brent went ahead and found Máximo -- or, as Brent says, Máximo found us.

We think he's about six weeks old. We think he's at least part Husky. (But his ears are floppy and his eyes are brown....I looked up Husky puppies just now and even as babies their ears stand up.) But we're not sure on any of it. He was not in the best situation, so I'm relieved that we're able to give him a better home.

Can I brag about my brilliant puppy? He's SO SMART. He doesn't really cry at night when we put him to bed -- in a week, he only cried about it twice: one morning when he wanted to get out, and one evening when we didn't do a good enough job tiring him out that day. Otherwise, he goes quietly to bed and stays until I get him around 6:30 am. House training has proven to be fairly easy, much to my surprise, and within two treats he knew how to sit.

I haven't had a dog in a long time. Yes, it's a little extra work, but so far it's so incredibly worth it. He's so full of love and joy, and that spreads like wildfire. Max is the best addition to our household.

Your Body Best

I've been a bit restless in terms of what I'm doing with my time. Truth is, I really miss teaching fitness and helping people get in shape. I miss that sweaty, in-the-gym time with my class participants.

Not that this will get me sweaty (thought I'm still doing plenty of that on my own, as always), but in order to keep teaching and sharing, I've at long last started a fitness blog: Your Body Best. This is where I'll be sharing my thoughts, ideas, and tips on all things related to fitness and healthy living. There are already some posts I'm really excited about, including one on yoga poses you can do in the chair, why I don't listen to music when I run, and some of the many ways people make themselves hate exercise.

It's a labor of love, so I'd really enjoy seeing your comments on the posts, and if you feel so inclined you can click the little share buttons to put your favorite posts on your Facebook, Twitter, or what have you. Spread the good word, and all.

I've also got a Facebook page; if you'd like to like it, I would like that.

Thanks for the support! I'm looking forward to sharing the years of fitness knowledge and ideas I've accumulated -- I hope you find it useful!

Spelling Lesson

C-O-L-O-M-B-I-A

That's Colombia, with two "o"s. ZERO "u"s.

This is how you spell the name of the country where I live. North Americans tend to get confused, I think because we have Christopher ColUmbus, ColUmbia University, ColUmbia Sportwear, ColUmbia South Carolina, and so on. But there is no "u" in the name of the country.

Thank you.

December happened, so we went to Ecuador.

Our first trip to Ecuador: December 17-23. It was a bit of an unexpected trip, at least as I booked the tickets. We just wanted to go to Panama for Christmas, but they were far pricier than normal and I realized it would be just an extra $20 to do a multi-destination flight than it would be to just go to Panama. Welcome to Quito!

It's a HIGH city, and even though we were coming from Medellín, which is about as high as Denver (where Brent grew up and where I lived for three years), we both noticed the altitude as we were walking around. Especially because Quito is also very hilly. Being, as it is, in the mountains and all.

We had a great time.

We rode up the Teleferico (like a ski lift, no snow) and saw a llama.

Unfortunately, the rest of the pictures are on my phone and I'm having trouble getting them HERE where I want them. So, hopefully, more soon. We did do more than see a llama. Though that was pretty awesome.

My Birthday: Marking the Beginning of the Holiday Season Since 1982

My birthday was a quiet but lovely Tuesday, capped off with sushi (and cake!) for dinner and a Vemma meeting.

We debated for a long while about how to do Thanksgiving: invite people and cook, go have turkey dinner at one of any number of bars that were offering it, or what. We finally decided on the bar meal, which was surprisingly not too bad. Our friends from upstairs joined us, and it was a really great time -- just ended too soon since Melanie had to get to an appointment.

Birthday trip!

On Friday, I kept threatening to go to the grocery store and couldn't understand why Brent didn't want me to. He eventually spilled that it was because we were going out of town the next day -- my surprise birthday trip!

We've taken a little trip every year for my birthday, though I truly wasn't expecting it this year because we've been so busy getting settled here. But, on Saturday, off we went to nearby Guatapé, a town we had both been hearing a lot about.

It was a gorgeous two-hour bus ride up, up, up the mountains. We arrived and were delighted by a quaint little town on the lake.

We were hungry, so we dropped in to the first hostel we saw. They had a room -- a painfully small room, but hey, we just needed a place to sleep that night and store our stuff. And it was ridiculously inexpensive. We didn't realize it was on top of a discoteca the jammed until about 1:30 the next morning, nor that it was half a block from the church, whose bells pealed around 7;00. Over and over.

Anyway, we had a nice lunch, walked around town, and took a short tuk-tuk ride up to La Piedra, a huge rock that overlooks the lake.  The views from up there were absolutely incredible.

We walked back in to Guatapé, cruised around the market a little more, and stopped for dinner at a restaurant that served Indian, Italian, Colombian, and Mexican cuisine. We were concerned that a restaurant that does everything couldn't possibly do any of it right, but we were wrong -- I had an excellent veggie quesadilla and Brent had some awesome red curry.

We got up the next day (after that rough sleep), strolled around once more, and headed back to Medellín.

This is a must-see kind of place, and we look forward to going back there -- especially with some of you people who might come to visit. We'll pick a different hotel next time.

Home sweet gym.

The salsa class a couple of weeks ago was fantastic, and I was definitely interested in returning for more and more. But, they are private classes, and the price adds up, so I decided to keep exploring my options before committing.

We stopped by the gorgeous gym next door, where it took the saleswoman 30 minutes to explain the many enrollment options and the many, many benefits of being a member. It was an awesome place, but the only way to get it under $100 per month was to pay the whole year up front. Since we'll be moving in another month or two and we don't yet know where to, I didn't want to do that.

Up the hill there's a kid's dance studio which, to my great sadness, does not offer adult ballet classes. They do, however, have an adult rumba class every morning. First one's free, so I dropped by last week. It's a sort of mix of steps from a variety of dance styles, and as we got started I wondered if it was going to manage to be a big enough cardio challenge for me.

Uh, yes.

There were only two times when the steps tripped me up, and the instructor was quick to give me a little one-on-one attention until I was up to speed. Aside from that, they were big, fast movements that wore me out.

It was awesome. So I told the teacher I'd be back on a Tues/Thurs schedule.

Also last week, we met a guy in our building (from Colorado!) who does Crossfit. I've been wanting to try this for ages, and he said I should come along sometime. First class is, after all, free. So I did that today.

I had no illusions that this would be too easy. In fact, I was almost scared. I've been keeping in shape with yoga, pilates, running, and some cardio kickboxing, but I haven't done a workout with weights in over a year, let alone one as challenging as I've always heard Crossfit to be.

If you're not familiar, Crossfit workouts vary but they're always intense. Today's warmup was some walking lunges and wall sits while holding a 10-pound medicine ball at shoulder level. This was followed by a 12-minute segment. To start, we had one minute to do 12 squats (with weight). If you finish early, which you do, you rest until the second minute starts, at which time we did an overhead press with dumbbells. The third minute was 15 dynamic planks (hands to elbows and back). We repeated those three exercises four times.

Then came the WOD, or Workout of the Day: 300 jump ropes, 45 PULL-UPS (deargoddeargoddeargod), 45 thrusters (a squat into an overhead press with the bar), and another 300 jumping jacks. As fast as you can, with a limit of 15 minutes.

The pull-ups were every bit as difficult as I expected, if not moreso. I can do pull-ups, but I've never made them a part of my workout aside from proving to myself that I'm capable of them, so I've only ever done a couple at a time. Never 45. I did get to use an elastic band that helped a little bit, but not enough to enable me to go to sleep tonight believing I'll be able to move my arms tomorrow.

After that, the thrusters were tough, but I broke them into sets of 15, 15, 10, and 5. I finished the whole workout with about 30 seconds to spare, which was pretty much on par with the rest of the class.

Tired, but successful. And I really liked it. That free class. Always gets you.

The best part for my ego was, as I was thanking the instructor, I learned that he hadn't realized that was my first time in class. WIN.

Not such a win: tomorrow I'm going back to rumba, and I'm going to feeeeeeeeeeeeeeel it.

Back to school.

If you haven't heard about Coursera, you need to check it out. It's a site full of college-level courses you can take for free. You can't apply them toward a degree or anything, but there are tracks you can take for a small fee that give you a certificate or something in case you need proof that you're learning stuff.

I don't need the proof, so I'm just going to class.

There are courses in every subject you can imagine, and I've been browsing the site since my last days in Argentina. I didn't take a class then because we were getting ready to leave the country and I figured I would have other things on my mind. Over the last couple of years I went back and forth between forgetting about the site and not being able to find a class that interested me enough and started in the time frame I was looking for.

Until now. Three weeks ago I joined a class called Better Leader, Richer Life. It's not so much about studying as it is about reflection and self-critique and growth, which is more up my alley nowadays, anyway. It has forced me to think of a few things in new ways, and we've got some challenging assignments coming up.

Oh, and there are like 30,000 students in my class. Wild.

More recently, I discovered the Denver-based site Craftsy.com. They offer classes in a variety of artsy thing, from cake decorating to painting, weaving to gardening. They have a few free mini-classes, but most of them you do pay for -- though it's much less than you would pay to take a class at the studio or community center, and you don't have to go out in the snow. (Not so much a problem for me anymore, but definitely something I would have taken into consideration while living in South Dakota or even Denver.) I haven't taken any yet, but it's on my radar.

Yes, I am scouting real-world learning opportunities, as well. I'm taking a private salsa class tomorrow. I had found a fantastic dance -- and pole dance! -- studio to try, but it's a long walk from our apartment and in a sort of warehouse area. Not really a place I want to be walking home from at night, at least not yet. Of course, there are a variety of yoga studios and gyms to check out, too. We'll see what I land on in the next couple of weeks.

Back to the city life, and...

You may not remember, because when we first arrived in Buenos Aires I was excited and trying to keep my chin up after a very rough couple of months in Chile, but on our first day there I took a trip to the grocery store and spent the next week recovering. In fact, I never really did recover -- we had some wonderful times in that city, but it never quit feeling heavy and panicked to me.

Fast forward to a month ago as we were getting ready to move to Medellín. I was very excited about it, even though it was hard to leave our Panama friends behind, but there was a part of me that was dreading the idea of living in the city again. I was afraid it would be like Buenos Aires.

Good news: It's not.

It's still a city, with its traffic and whatnot, but as I've written about it's incredibly clean and friendly. We've got the movie theater just down the street again, and so many restaurants we'll never be able to try them all. I'm frozen by choices as I consider the various dance and yoga studios I could join -- and I haven't even looked at the gyms yet.

It's a great place to be. If you're reading this, I hope you're simultaneously planning a visit.

Happy birthday, Brent

In honor of one of my very favorite holidays: breakfast enchiladas, homemade banana pudding, and the Broncos game.

Happy birthday, love.

The rainy season strikes!

A few days after we arrived, Brent was told that the rain would start "any day now".  And so it did, about a week ago.

It's sort of like our Panama rainy season, in that it rains for a couple of hours a day. The difference so far is that it has been doing that every single day, with one day where it only STOPPED raining for a couple of hours. And I'm told the season doesn't last as long.

Today has dawned bright and beautiful, however, and if Brent wakes up we're going adventuring.

Let them look at cake.

The market seemed a little thin on Sunday, and when Brent got to talking to one of the vendors, we learned that it was because some of the other vendors were at a food festival at the convention center at Plaza Mayor.

Food? Okay! we thought, so we walked our purchases back to our apartment, consulted the map, determined it was a long but doable walk to the convention center, and we headed out. Luckily, since it was Sunday, Avenida Poblado was blocked off for pedestrian use and we were able to follow it for probably four miles before we had to turn left and walk just a bit further.

We happened to arrive just as the festival was opening for the day. When we walked in, it didn't seem like much -- a bunch of disinterested-looking wine vendors. But we walked through that and into another room -- and that's where it got awesome.

There was so much. We walked through it all twice, then realized we'd totally missed an upstairs AND a downstairs!  And downstairs is where they were holding a cake decorating contest.

I would have loved to watch it until the end, but the Broncos were playing that afternoon so Brent was in a bit of a rush to get me home and get himself to the right television channel. No matter -- we were at the festival for about four hours. Very well done.

Low-rise living in the high rise.

Our 24-floor building has an incredible view from the top (and the area's only rooftop pool, though we know how many cares I give about that):

We live on the second floor.

It's a nice little apartment, carefully chosen after an exhausting online search from my over-hot living room in Panama: two bedrooms, furnished decently (awesome purple barstools, stupidly uncozy living room chairs). The price is higher than one should be paying in Colombia, but we have to keep in mind, A.) it is the lowest 2-bedroom price in this building; B.) this building is brilliantly located and pretty nice with its amenities and security; and C.) we are living in a furnished vacation rental in the nicest, most expensive part of the city. So.

I actually really like it (would love it if it had a couch you could sprawl on). We've got lots of big windows, so it's always light and airy. The bathroom is big, the closet is okay for one (Brent doesn't like to share closet space with me, so he took the spare bedroom. And bathroom, for that matter.)

I've let myself forget that we're only here for two months. We just wanted something to get us started, at which point we'll find a longer-term arrangement. That means more apartment hunting, which I'm pretending doesn't have to happen....

At home in the new city.

We got to Medellín on Saturday (after a nutsy two days of packing and cleaning in Panama). Life in Colombia is off to a fantastic start.

We went to a Vemma meeting and got to see the absolute excitement and momentum that is building here. The first shipments -- and the first checks -- have been received. So awesome.

Brent's office is fantastic. He's got a great assistant who is so excited about the changes and new ideas, and a couple of great doctors who are going to stay on with him.

I've been catching up on work, doing some local research, and walking around our neighborhood -- which is pretty fantastic. We're close to the farmer's market on Sundays, not much farther to the main, trendy bar and restaurant area, and a couple of blocks to two huge malls, grocery stores, and movie theaters.

We've got a gym in the building, but it's lame -- four cardio machines, the treadmill of which I can't seem to get to work. So we're casually scouting gyms and yoga studios, and hiking up these monster hills in the meantime.

Chi-town.

Our first trip to Chicago, and we were delighted.

We got back to Chicago on Sunday after the wedding in Michigan. We were a little early to check into our next airbnb apartment, so we watched football. Then we checked in. Then we watched more football.

That evening, we went to see a show at Improv Olympic, but not before going into the 3rd largest Whole Foods in the world, which is right across the street. Really hard not to do a serious shopping spree there.

Monday was Lincoln Park and the zoo (much bigger than I thought it would be) and lots of walking around before a game at Wrigley Field...one of the last ones in this 100th season at that park.

Tuesday was museum day, which turned into only one museum: the Art Institute. We were there for about four hours. It was enormous. Really, really good. Just so, so big.

That night, we managed to connect with a friend of mine from college, and he took us to a great taco place and a local brewery before we parted ways, only to meet up again later that night at a piano bar. 

I enjoyed Chicago more than I ever imagined I would. We'd both like to go back.

Here comes the groom's friend, all the way from Panama.

September was a busy, busy month. There was something sort of mind-bending about trying to plan a trip to my friend Josh's wedding in Michigan by way of Chicago while planning our move to Medellin (which was to take place two days after we got back from Chicago), wherein I've decided I'd make a terrible personal assistant.

So, let's skip the boring part where I was pulling my hair out, and fast forward to everything being perfect as our plane touched down at O'Hare.

We spent our first night at an apartment I found on airbnb -- where our hosts were Colombian, which we didn't know until we met them!  We then went down the street and had a drink at a Colombian bar!

The next morning I took my CPR re-certification class, and we hustled downtown to pick up the rental car and drive to Holland, Michigan: the reason for the trip.

Josh is a special friend of 12 years, and missing his wedding was quite out of the question. I've had our plane tickets for a year. We figured we'd go to the wedding but then spend more time in Chicago, because....what's in Michigan?  Turns out, Holland is a very cool little town near Grand Rapids. 8th Street is great with its shops and restaurants, which all led to a big farmer's market that Saturday morning. The area is also getting known for its craft beers, and we stopped off at one brewery that makes numerous ales and lagers as well as its own gin, vodka, rum, and whiskey.

The morning went quickly, and we went off to the wedding at 3:00.

Even though Josh is important to me and I was looking forward to being there for him as he got married, I wasn't expecting to have a great time at the wedding: because he's the only person I knew there. How silly! We had a fantastic time! His friends and family were wonderful, and even though Josh was busy with being a newly married guy at the reception, we still got to chat a bit. The food was awesome, the cupcakes were killer (even though I'm not usually a wedding cupcake fan), and Brent danced with me.

Big changes of the best kind.

In true-to-us fashion, we're moving.

To Colombia!

The last few weeks have been full of development. Even when we visited, we didn't imagine we would be living there any time soon -- though we did put it on our list of things to consider. Then Brent found a chiropractic office to take over. And Vemma is days away from the official launch after weeks of incredible pre-launch momentum, and we're excited to be a part of that again.

So we're going at the end of September.  Which makes it sound like we have a month left here, but in truth, we're going to Chicago (and to a very special wedding in Michigan) on the 18th for a few days, so by the time we get back we'll have to turn around and go again. That gives us about two weeks here.

There is much to be done, and I'm moving as fast as I can.

On top of the city.

One day in Medellin, David (tired of walking) decided to stay home. Brent, Stephanie, and I hopped on the metro and rode it all the way through the city, nearly to the end of the line. We switched lines and got on the cable car to go up the mountain.

The map made the cable car part look like such a short little ride! But it was at least a good half an hour. We went through three stations, and actually had to change cable cars at the last station for the final ascent up the mountain and to Parque Arvi, a national park-like wilderness area.

The views of the city while riding the cable car were impressive, and the park itself was beautiful.

Right at the top, there is an informational station and a little market, where we enjoyed a variety of food for lunch. Afterward, we joined a 90-minute guided hike through the forest. It was so cool and comfortable. There were these two apparently stray dogs hanging around the market area, and they joined our hike -- having a blast the entire way.

Cleanliness is next to....

Medellin is a striking city for many reasons, but one that we just couldn't get over was how CLEAN it was.

True, we're coming from Panama, where things are definitely not clean. As Stephanie put it after using a pay-to-pee public restroom under an overpass, "That was cleaner than the one at the bank in Panama."

The bathrooms were clean. The metro system was spotless. One day while we were in the city center -- a somewhat crowded and urban-feeling area -- a man was wiping down the phone booths. We passed numerous workers cleaning the streets.

The people of Medellin are definitely proud of their city -- and it shows.

Flowers? What flowers?

By happy accident, booked our tickets to Medellin over the exact same week as the city's annual flower festival, which was apparently a big enough deal that we had a hard time finding a place to stay. (After several stressful search days back in July, I found us an apartment in the Poblado/Envigado area, where we stayed after our first night in the hostel.)

We browsed the event schedule online and decided we needed to go to Santa Elena, because there were numerous events going on up there and we figured it would keep us busy all day.  We thought it was like a street or something, but when we finally found it on the map we realized it's a huge area in the mountains outside the city. No big deal -- doesn't look TOO far. So we hailed a cab.

He said it would be about a $50,000-peso (roughly $25) ride up there, and suggested the bus. We agreed to have him take us to the station, but about half-way there, after enjoying a long conversation with him, he said he's drive us there for $40,000. For simplicity's sake we agreed.

It was a long, windy trip, but luckily I didn't feel too sick when we got up there.

Where there was absolutely nothing going on.

He dropped us off at this little town center, which was charming -- but at 11:00am, there still wasn't much open. There were a few booths selling crafts and food. The library had a very small exhibit of flowers.

We were told we could hop on a tour and go out to the fincas (farms) where there would be, apparently, more flowers, but we opted out and took off walking up the road.

Luckily for David, there was a man selling cotton candy along the way.

We didn't come across any more flowers, so we stopped for lunch at a local place and shared the bandeja paisa for about $7.

It was one of the best lunches I've ever had. Tasted good, sure, but the women who ran the place were so helpful and loving. They were excited and proud to prepare for us our first ever traditional Colombian meal.

And we talked. And laughed. And laauuuuuuughed. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

The only bummer was that we took the bus back down to the city, and that did make me sick. I spent the next couple of hours with my head on the table while the rest of them enjoyed an afternoon drink overlooking these huge flower sculptures in the center of town -- more flowers than we'd seen all damn day.

Ohhh, the food.

Maybe it's just because our most recent comparison is Coronado, where there are only a couple of choices for good restaurants, but eating in Medellin was a dream. Our top meals:

1. Bandeja paisa at the little restaurant in Santa Elena.

2. Ribs at Mu, where the only thing they serve is, as they say, "fukin good ribs."  Have to make note of the killer guacamole that came out as an appetizer.

3. Tacos at Jacinto -- where all they serve is tacos. It reminded Brent and me of La Fabrica del Taco in Buenos Aires.

4. More traditional Colombian fare at Mondongo's. Rice and bacon and banana and meat and an egg, plus a soup that we topped with avocado and cilantro and spicy salsa. Delicious. Brent and I shared an order and were totally full.

5. Chocolate fondue at the House of Chocolate. The only downside to this experience was that we were still pretty full on ribs when we happened upon this place -- but the fondue was delicious and we very nearly cleaned it up, anyway. Note to self: return here and take advantage of making my own personalized chocolate bar, for which this place is well known.

6. Mexican food at Chilaquiles. We can never get enough Mexican food.

Touchdown: First Impressions

What a place.

Medellin is a city of about four million people nestled in a valley. We landed at the airport on August 2 and took a taxi ride of about an hour to get to where we were staying our first night.

Our first impression was definitely about the cleanliness of the city, closely followed by how friendly and helpful everyone was. We asked someone for directions once, and two people who were standing nearby stepped in to offer their suggestions, as well.

We stayed in the neighborhood of Poblado that first night, very near the very happenin' Parque Lleras...an area full of restaurants and bars. The beer drinkers among us enjoyed stopping by the local brewpubs and sampling their beers -- which, I'm told, were very, very good. We then had a fantastic dinner at a southern-style restaurant, Humo.

Brent and I went out for a drink while David and Stephanie rested at home. It's not necessarily a cheap city, and a lot of the restaurants where we stopped had $10-15 cocktails on their menus. There is also a lot of variety, even within this very popular area, and we found 2x1 margaritas, which at $14,000 Colombian pesos worked out to a little over US$3.50 per drink.

For the rest of the week, we lived in a great two-bedroom apartment near the metro line -- and it was only about a 40-minute walk to the Parque Lleras area, anyway, which was a perfect delight for us.

Hotel BA. (AB? A&B? I love it no matter how you put it.)

Our friend (and new co-worker!) Greg came down last week for an all-too-brief visit so we could tackle a project. It was a joy to have him here, and we miss him already.

We haven't hosted many long-term stays since we moved into our current home last December, but we have had lots of one-night guests -- friends who didn't want to drive home after a late night, or who wanted to be close to whatever they had going on the next day.

At the end of August, we'll FINALLY be welcoming Brent's lifelong friend, Jack, for a few days (and hopefully longer).

Since we moved to Panama, we've lived the majority of the time in places with plenty of space for guests.  Our house-sitting house on the golf course had three bedrooms.  Even though one of them didn't have a bed yet, the one that did was occupied for a week or more on three separate occasions.

That was a new house owned by North Americans. The place we're in now is a Panamanian-owned beach condo, designed for long weekend escapes from the city.

Therefore, there are lots and lots of beds.

We have one bed in our master bedroom. The first guest room has two single beds. The second guest room has two BUNK BEDS. In a pinch, the maid's quarters has a bunk bed (currently being used as very large shelves). In this home, we have a total of nine beds. Come on down -- there's space for you.

Good thing, too, because the couch is not at all comfortable for sleeping. Or sitting, for that matter.

Things They Don't Tell You About Living in the Tropics

I remember when we decided to move to Panama. Packing my bags for one season (HOT!) was incredibly easy and joyful, and I imagined what our beach lives would look like: surfing lessons, long runs down the beach, and so on. Don't get me wrong -- we really like it here. There are just a few things that didn't really come out the way I would have expected when I moved to a beach town.

1. You don't go to the beach that often. I can't say this is true for everyone, as I know people who take beach walks every single day. It's just weird to me: we live, literally, right across the street from the beach. Yet our twice-weekly beach volleyball games are almost the only times I ever go to the beach (and that beach is in a nearby town). I feel somewhat ashamed of this, but I'm admitting it anyway.

2. You're not the only one who notices the heat. I sort of feel like the bad gringa when I complain about the heat, so I don't do it very often, particularly not in the presence of Panamanians. But the Panamanians notice the exceptionally hot days, too, and will comment on it if the door is open for the conversation.

3. There is not the abundance of organic fruits and vegetables that you might expect. When we moved here, I was picturing weekly or even daily farmer's markets filled with delicious fruit untouched by the Monsanto-style devils. While there are a couple of guys who set fruit trucks up outside the grocery store every day, and there are a couple of weekly markets in nearby areas, there is no guarantee that the produce is pesticide or chemical fertilizer free. Unfortunately, that ugly nonsense is far-reaching, and it may in ways be evens worse here because the education about how terrible it is isn't wide-spread. We aim to buy organic when we can, and we pick mangoes off the giant tree in our yard.

4. Once scared of the water, always scared of the water. Not that I'm really scared -- I just never have (and still don't) enjoy having my head under it, and I certainly don't enjoy getting smashed into it when I least expect it. There go any ideas I might have had of becoming a surfer.

5. Beach community doesn't mean "fit" community. I enjoy a life of fitness, and I expected Panama to support that and even take it to the next level. The good news is that I am staying in shape, trying new things, and feeling generally happy with my body and what it can do nowadays. But the process is nothing like I thought it would be. I don't have a gym, so that's out. It's really hot outside! So the desire to get out there and run for miles just isn't there. Many people here are retired, so fitness isn't necessarily the first thing on their minds. (With notable exceptions -- there's a group who regularly trains for triathlons, and several who have started yoga and exercise programs for the first time.)

The ballet hole.

I miss ballet.

We're taking the month of July off, because many of the little girls are on vacation, so my teacher wanted a vacation, too.

As for me...not so much.

When I took a couple of weeks off to go to the US in April, it seemed to be good for my body. My hip had been hurting, and the two weeks allowed its recovery without losing the progress I'd made. With a month off, I'm nervous I'll go back in August and find myself in the same ballet mess I was in when I started in January.

I've been doing a few of the exercises, but it's just not the same when you're holding on to the back of the couch and moving your feet in time to the silence and the vague memory of the music in your head.

Everyone loves beach volleyball.

Last week, a pelican touched down on the beach very near to where we play volleyball, and he stayed there for quite awhile. It was the closest I had ever been to one for a prolonged period of time -- they're so big and beautiful. I love the pelicans.

This week, he returned. And this time, he set up camp right beside the pole for the net. He doesn't seem hurt, but I wonder if he's well -- it doesn't seem like your average pelican would just hang out with a bunch of humans and one very unpredictable ball. Maybe he just loves volleyball.

The bird remains unimpressed by Marek's antics.

We played our game like usual (almost usual...I was a little distracted by him). He would watch, then he'd look at the ocean for awhile, then he would watch again. At one point the ball rolled toward him and against him, and he just spread his enormous wings and hopped away from it.

Update: THIS is the closest I've ever been to a pelican for a prolonged period of time.

After an hour or so, he flew just slightly farther away, and stood there looking out at the water.

He arrived at the court just before I did, and he was still there when I left -- so he hung out for at least an hour and a half.

Such a handsome guy. I hope he's okay. I hope he comes back next time.

This is TODAY! Vemma Colombia Pre-Launch

We've been waiting for this day for a long time! Vemma is pre-launching Colombia RIGHT NOW!  Which means Colombians can place their orders or start their businesses, and products will be shipped out starting next month.

This opening is right on the heels of Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic is up next. As if we need excuses to go anywhere....

Tickets to COLOMBIA!

When we came to Panama, our grand idea was to visit Brent's dad and use the isthmus as a jumping-off point to spend long lengths of time in Colombia.

A year and a half later, we've still not been there.

But that's all changing on August 2, when we fly to Medellin for a week in The City of Eternal Spring. Two of our friends are going with us and we're looking forward to a great time, despite my brother's prediction that we will be kidnapped by the cartel. The truth is that Colombia has cleaned up its act quite a lot over the last few years. Everyone we know who has visited has loved it, and Brent recently spoke with a Colombian business-owner from the States who said the crime rate in Washington, D.C. is worse than it is in Medellin.

Vemma is opening in Colombia this month (pre-orders) and August (deliveries!), and we're excited to meet some of the leaders there. We'll be hitting town during the annual flower festival, which I've read is quite the event. Also on the agenda: food.

The rawer, the better.

I first tried sushi in Denver with a good friend of mine, who was very excited to introduce me to the world of raw fish. I wasn't overly excited, but I figured I had to give it a go (and see what everyone was raving about), so I let him place the order and I got my chopsticks ready.

He liked shashimi (big chunks of raw fish and nothing but raw fish, for those of you who are ever so slightly less versed in sushi language than I am). So that was my first step into sushi. It was a terrible one.

I managed to eat two of them, then I told him I really couldn't do anymore. Yucky.

Then I met Brent, and we lived in South America, and he loves sushi. He kept saying he wanted me to try sushi with him (apparently Denver can't possibly be the best place to eat raw fish) but he was waiting for a good opportunity because he knew he only had one shot -- if I disliked it again, my sushi days would be totally over.

When we got that chance, I tasted an assortment of sushi rolls, and it wasn't so bad. When we were in Argentina, the Benihana on the corner had a daily half-price roll happy hour, which we would go to occasionally. I started to really enjoy it, even look forward to it.

When we had the four-hour brunch at Gamboa, my meal consisted mainly of sushi. (And dessert. Come on, people, you know me.)

And now there is a sushi restaurant in Coronado.

They have other food, too, and Brent keeps annoying me by wanting to try it all instead of just ordering sushi to share with me so there is MORE SUSHI on our table. But, the curries and stir-fry have been very good, as well.

I never imagined I would be so excited about a restaurant like this just down the road from where we live. I didn't know it was even coming in until after it was open, and we've been there four times already. It's not the cheapest place in town, but it is a hotel restaurant -- and for most items the prices are pretty on par with what you'd expect around here. (There's an occasional $9 cocktail, but there's also a $5 Pisco sour -- the only Pisco sour I've seen since leaving South America -- and I'm good with that.)

I'm no connoisseur, but I know what I like -- and the general consensus among the Coronado folk is that it's a good place to eat. Just when we were getting bored with our meals-out options, this little place saved the day.

Burnin' up.

When you live in the tropics, you really shouldn't complain about the heat. That's just the way it is around here:

• You don't walk short distances if you need to look put together by the time you reach your destination.
• You take multiple showers every day. (Yesterday I took four. Yes, they were short, but still. Four.)
• You get used to being slightly sticky all the time. 

We don't have air conditioning in the main room of our condo -- which is fine, most of the time. But sweeping, washing dishes, cooking, or cleaning Nacho's living space all mean sweating like crazy. We shut up the bedroom at night and sleep with the air conditioner on, because otherwise it's just too hot to sleep.

I let slip a heat complaint every now and then, but for the most part I don't get negative about something I can't control. I grow really weary of a couple of friends we have who insist on reporting on the temperature every few days. The benefits of living here tend to outweigh the issues with the heat.

The worst part, though, is that sometimes it makes you crabby. It makes you snap when you shouldn't and wouldn't, in a normal situation. So that part -- that part is really too bad.

Independence Day and other celebrations.

I love holidays at home, but holidays abroad have been incredible, too. Celebrating a homeland holiday in another country is, in some ways, extra special, because all the expats come together in that commonality to celebrate. We had a wonderful 4th of July poolside with friends and a barbecue.

A few days earlier, Canada Day was celebrated by Americans and Canadians alike. I missed this year's festivities, but last year was quite a good time.

July 1 last year -- Canadians and honorary Canadians.

We also enjoy experiencing and learning about the local holidays (the Netherlands' Sinterklaas, Chile's Día del Niño, and Panama's Carnaval all come to mind), but we keep our native holidays close at heart, too, even though the only place they have here is with the many expats who share them.