No orine aquí

August 8, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

One of my favorite areas of Cartagena is the Getsemaní neighborhood.  My favorite spot in that neighborhood is a quiet one-way street that leads away from the friendly prostitutes of Calle Media Luna toward Plaza de la Trinidad… and happens to smell distinctly of urine. When I lived in Cartagena this past winter, I walked from a residential neighborhood at the foot of Castle San Felipe through Getsemaní every day to reach the language school where I was studying Spanish. […]

Categories: Cartagena, Colombia, Getsemani, Graffiti, Travel

Las Olimpiadas have begun!

August 4, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

Yes, the 2012 Olympics in London have begun, with much fanfare and a Mr. Bean appearance.  But more importantly (because I don’t have a TV), so have Las Olimpiadas de Cartagenito! The athletes, having trained long and hard, were eager to begin the competitions. They listened attentively to their coaches and stretched their muscles in anticipation of the great feats of athleticism they were about to undertake. Behind the scenes, official Olympic artists worked feverishly to complete the Olympics-themed flags […]

Categories: Actuar Por Bolivar, Cartagena, Children, Colombia, Community Development, Microfinance, Playtime, Volunteerism

Paradise in Parque Tayrona

July 28, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

Packing list: One large yellow backpack stocked with six cans of various precooked meats, too many girl clothes, toiletries, and one towel One small red backpack packed with an enviably small and sensible selection of boy clothes and three books 3 liters of water (which would be sweated out in under an hour) and one bottle of coconut flavored rum One plastic grocery bag full of high-sodium and/or high-sugar individually packaged snacks and one roll of toilet paper (Notably absent from above […]

Categories: Colombia, Friendship, Parque Tayrona, Playtime, Santa Marta, The Great Outdoors, Travel

Back on the map

July 21, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

But where exactly? A few months ago during a conversation about ambition and happiness, a friend mentioned that she feared “falling off the map.”  In other words, she feared disappearing off into some corner of the world and becoming irrelevant, however quietly happy that little corner might be.  It’s the “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it…” conundrum for the internet age. In the past few weeks, I have most definitely been […]

Categories: Colombia, Touchy Feelies, Travel

Goodbye to My Quotidian Colombian Life

March 14, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

  Since the uninhibited mayhem that was Carnaval, I have lived in a small apartment on La Calle de las Damas, in the center of the old city of Cartagena.  I shopped for groceries, did laundry, made friends with my neighbors, failed to cook anything besides jello, and threw parties for new and old friends.  I spent hours walking the cobbled streets until I knew them intimately.  I built a happy little Colombian life, and glimpsed what it might be […]

Categories: Colombia, Music, Playtime, Touchy Feelies, Uncategorized

¡Quien lo vive es quien lo goza!

February 22, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

“¡Quien lo vive, es quien lo goza!” – The motto of Carnaval de Barranquilla, translating roughly to “He who lives it, enjoys it!” People often ask me why I have chosen to spend so much time in Latin America.  I respond by saying that it is a remedy, a medicine, that I have needed for a long time to combat the influence of three years in finance and another four years before that in a high-pressure university.  I don’t mean […]

Categories: Colombia, Music, Playtime

A walk through the Old City

February 17, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

I’ve run out of words for the time being.  Hopefully I’ll recover them at the Carneval in Barranquilla this weekend.  Until then, enjoy this photo tour of the Old City in Cartagena.

Categories: Colombia, Travel

Full moons and magic nights

February 9, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

“Que te amo con desespero como loco en luna nueva que cuando no estás conmigo la tierra se me acelera. “ I kick myself every time I go out without my camera in Cartagena.  Every square inch of the old city is a photo op.  The most recent self-butt-kicking was while walking along the four hundred year-old fortress walls surrounding the city, watching a sherbet sunset over the ocean.  It almost feels cruel that I can’t share the neon pinks […]

Categories: Colombia, Music, Playtime

Caribbean beaches trump super-powered mosquitoes and bad dancing

January 31, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

I have a number of things to update you all on, and I’m not entirely sure where to start.  I’m suffering from sensory overload here in Cartagena, and as giddy as I am day-to-day, it’s making it difficult to piece together a narrative of the city or its people.  I don’t presume to think that I will be an expert in coastal Colombian society in two months, but I work pretty hard to develop an understanding of the places I […]

Categories: Colombia, Playtime, Travel