Colombia Adventure - Day 6

November 25, 2016

Welcome to Cartagena!

Unlike Bogota, Cartagena did make a strong first impression. First off, you've got the heat! Hello humidity! And then there's the walled city: it felt like we were back in Marrakesh, getting lost on in the hustle and bustle of the city streets.

In truth, Cartagena's old city isn't nearly as confusing as Marrakesh and generally the streets are wider and with way less traffic. Still, there's no denying that Cartagena has real character.

We wandered the old city, with the first priority being to find and eat ice cream. We then hit the only vegan restaurant in town and enjoyed a full set meal for $3.00 USD each.

One location that was especially powerful was the Inquisition Museum. While most of the exhibits were in Spanish, there was enough English to appreciate just how thoroughly cruel and evil the inquisition was. I knew that Jews were persecuted during this time, but I hadn't realized so too was the local Afro-Carribean community. In the end, the museum stands as a beacon of acceptance, taking a place of unspeakable evil and re-purposing it for good.

The irony wasn't lost on me when, a few nights later, we'd catch a live troupe of dancers performing in the square in front of the museum. The dancers seemed to do both a traditional Spanish dance as well as a traditional African one. It was a visceral way of showing just how thoroughly the likes of the inquisition has failed to silence ideas and traditions.

We finished our first night in Cartagena watching the sunset from the Northern wall of the town. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Colombia Adventure - Day 5

November 24, 2016

Our fifth, and last full day in Bogota, began in the style we'd been accustomed to: with a huge, delicious breakfast at one of the nearby bakeries. After finishing breakfast, I was pretty sure I wouldn't need to eat for the rest of the day.

We then made our way back to the historic downtown area where we hoped we'd catch a view from the tallest building in Bogota. Alas, the building was closed. But we rolled with it, opting to head towards the famous Botero museum and shop along the way.

As we approached the main square in the center of the historic district the police and military presence started to vastly increase. We skirted around barriers keeping traffic out and men armed with assault weapons. Finally, we entered the main square and found a healthy crowd of people hanging out. Apparently, nearby they were signing the peace treaty between the Colombian government and the FARC. In the time it took us to figure out where to eat, the deed seemed to have been done, as the police and military dispersed without incident.

After lunch we made it to the Botero museum. Botero, apparently Colombia's most famous artist, is known for his distinctively chubby subjects. I have to admit, I got a kick out of them, though Shira was less impressed. Also at the Botero museum were a number of other works by famous painters, including Monet and Picasso. The whole experience was like taking in an art museuem in the most fun possible way.

After browsing art, it was time to get down to the real matter at hand: emerald shopping. Colombia is well known for its emeralds and the 'Emerald Trade Center' is a location in Bogota packed full of small shops all selling little chunks of green perfection. Like a walk through an art museum, Shira didn't rush the experience. Instead, we browsed every shop in the whole place at least once and finally settled on one particular piece she liked. Some store keepers in the center spoke English, but alas, the place that had the piece we liked, only spoke Spanish. Not to worry, between pointing and Google translate we got the transaction done.

When we finally settled on a price we had just one more detail to accomplish: we needed to withdraw over a million pesos from an ATM. Is such a thing even possible? We didn't know. But off we went to find out. Although it took a couple of attempts, we eventually did get the wad of cash we needed and made it back to the jewelry store. The whole experience was a positive one, and finally a non-bakery experience that Shira could get behind.

The next day we'd be leaving for Cartagena. To fully prepare, after our day of roaming the city, we plopped ourselves on the couch with our friends and watched "Romancing the Stone." I'd seen the movie years ago, and enjoyed it then. I have to say, it's held up well and was still quite watchable. Sure, the 80's action seems like little more than a Universal Studios attraction (so many bullets fired, so few people hit), but the story is still a good one.

Cheap and Effective: Backing up DSLR and Phone Photos On The Go

As we were chatting during dinner at the Miami airport I suddenly had a moment of absolute panic: where was my DSLR?! My mind raced. Had someone taken it off the back of my chair? Had I left it in a bathroom? And then it hit me: when we went through security, Shira had been randomly selected for additional screening. I had grabbed her and my carry-ons and must have left the camera at the security checkpoint. So off I rushed.

When I finally arrived at security, I encountered two jovial TSA agents who presented me with my camera and stood with me as I flipped through photos looking for shots of myself to "prove" the camera was mine.

It was a happy ending to a potentially very unhappy situation.

During those few minutes when my camera was lost I had one tiny bit of solace: I'd setup a backup strategy for my photos, so even if I had lost the camera, I wouldn't have lost a week's worth of pictures. Hey, it was at least one bright spot in another wise dark moment.

In the end, I didn't need the backups, but I certainly got one heck of a reminder of their importance. In the blink of an eye, cameras can be lost, stolen or otherwise destroyed.

While there are dedicated backup devices you can buy, I'm actually quite happy with my $18 solution. I actually used a variation on the method described below when traveling to Morocco, but during this last trip I definitely stepped it up a notch.

Here's the solution, which is built on the Android platform.

Step 1: Assemble the hardware and software. On the hardware side, you'll need an SD or Micro SD card reader for your phone. I use an older version of this one, however, the new version should work just as well. Note, I use Micro SD cards in my camera, so it only makes sense that I have a Micro SD card reader for my phone. On the software side, you'll need FolderSync. Once you've got a card reader, you can technically manually copy and paste files from your SD card to your phone. However, FolderSync can be easily setup to do all this copying for you.

Step 2: Configure FolderSync. My current photo shooting practice is as follows: when I need a telephoto lens, I grab my DSLR. When I need a wide angle lens, I opt to use my cell phone. The result is that photos are spread out between these two devices. And here's where I get clever: I copy all my DSLR photos to my phone, and all the phone photos to the DSLR. Sneaky, right? That way, if my phone is stolen (or dropped in a lake), I've got the pictures safely backed up to my DSLR's card, and vice versa.

I tend to shoot hundreds of photos a day, and even I can't fill up a 32GB card. So yeah, while carrying multiple cards or opting for a larger 64GB card may eventually be needed, for now I can do quite well with an $11 Micro SD card.

I setup two FolderSync 'folderpairs.' You need to make sure you've got the source and destination setup properly, but other than that, there's not much to it.

Step 3: Shoot away! Take them photos! Like I said, I shoot heavily with both my cell phone and DSLR depending on the subject.

Step 4: During a pause in the action, kick off the backup procedure. While driving between sites or at the end of the day, I'd plug in the Micro SD Card reader to my phone, pop the Micro SD Card from my DSLR into the reader, open up FolderSync and hit 'sync' next to each of the relevant profiles:

FolderSync would then churn away, making sure that any photos that needed to be copied over to the corresponding device had done so. Like I said, in the past I did this step manually, but no more! FolderSync is definitely the way to go.

Step 5: find a WiFi connection and effortlessly push the photos to cloud. I use the Google Photos Android App, which has support for automatic photo backup. With a stable WiFi connection, and properly configured backup settings, the photos copied over in Step 4 are automatically pushed to the cloud; this includes the DSLR photos.

On our last trip, Google Photos refused to backup files for the first few days. That is, until I realized that there's a 'roaming' option that needed to be enabled:

At this point, every photo I've shot is now saved in three locations. But wait, for the truly cautious, there's more!

Step 6: Copy and conceal a master set of photos (optional). I don't actually do this step, however, part of me thinks I should. Here's what you do: purchase yet another Micro SD card and setup a FolderSync rule to copy all the photos from your phone (including those captured with your phone, and those backed up there from the DSLR) to this card. After you've performed the backup in Step 4, pop the DSLR's card out and plug in this master backup card. Kick off the sync.

Now that you've got the Micro SD card with all your pics on it, it's time to conceal it. It could live on your keychain easily enough. If you're feeling more like James Bond, you could always hide it in a hallowed out coin. If hand crafted leather is your thing, Etsy has you covered. Apparently, can even stash it in your sock. The point is, even when a thief (or your own ineptitude) manages to cause you to lose your bag / phone / camera, you'll still have your precious photos.

Take it from my hard earned lesson, the 15 minutes needed to setup this backup solution will pay dividends when you least expect it. Like say, when you're rushing through the Miami Airport...

Colombia Adventure - Day 4

November 23, 2016

Day four of our adventures in Bogota started off with a fantastic hike about 45 minutes outside of the city. We drove out of the city on the twisty road that leads up and past Monserrate and caught some beautiful views of it and the city below.

The hike was supposed to take us by a number of waterfalls, and thanks to it being the rainy season we were not disappointed. Because of the altitude of Bogota (8675 feet!) and the additional altitude we had gained while driving, we were treated to a totally foreign set of plant life than what we're used to seeing. There were stunning flowers, apparently foxglove, just casually growing along the side of the road. We smelled (mmmm, lemony!), tasted (hmmm, spicy!) and touched (oooh, furry) our way through the hike which was a special treat. Even species that we have at home seemed to be supersized, like the stinging nettle which which was gigantic.

After our hike we made it back to civilization where we invented our own tourist activity: the Bogota Bakery Tour. Our friends Matt and Abbie took us to a number of their favorite bakeries so we could try it all (note: we'd already been to two of their favorites for breakfast). The first one was for savory treats, and was so exclusive that you had to ring an unmarked door to be let up. The second was for sweet goodies. The third was almost exclusively for cakes. And finally, we finished up the tour a place that specializes in cupcakes. Since leaving Bogota, Matt has informed me they've found another bakery in the area. The tour expands!

Finally, a tour up Shira's alley!