LadyTrvlr Nomadic Wanderlust

"Seeing The World Through My Eyes"

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A concept for all woman traveling for all races, creed, color, ethinicities and backgrounds. Some women travel incrementally on a budget seeing the sights of the world, some women travel the luxurious life at 5-star accommodations and most other women travel “in-between”. One trip at a time. Are you a LadyTrvlr?

  • Don’t forget your Tourist Card – San Andres, Colombia


    As exciting as it can be going to almost any island where you expect to see blue or turquoise water, bright sunshine and warm or even hot weather, you still must remember your traveling chores. Packing..check. Purchase airline ticket….check. Boarding pass printed with multiple copies if needed…check. So now you are ready to go. Well not quite. You’ve done your travel chores and you get to the airline counter to check in. All goes well. Your bag/s are within the weight limit. You show your passport and you receive your luggage claim ticket and confirmed boarding pass. Off you go!!

    I’ve heard great things about San Andres Island and Colombia as a whole that’s why I wanted to add it to my travel list. The Island of 7 colors it’s called. As I sit on the top floor of my hostel, in the empty bar because it’s midday, I can’t help but admire the beautiful view of the ocean approximately 300 feet in front of me. Most of the shore is rocky and docked with what looks like fisherman boats of small to medium sizes. Nonetheless, the ocean view is breathtaking. Construction is in abundance right now. The sounds of banging, hammering, dredging is the music of the moment. Hard Hats, scaffolding and materials are all around. Not to mention the enormous amounts of cement piles used to keep it all together. Yet there’s beauty in that also.

    So in order for me to enjoy this beautiful island I must be able to make my connecting flight and go through Customs. “Houston, we have a problem”! It appears that when I arrived into San Andres Airport at 330am, I did not have a tourist card to enter the island. Some countries/islands require this small type of tax as additional revenue for the government. My origination flight on LAN Airlines out of Barranquilla airport is where I’m told, after the fact, I was to purchase this “tourist card/visa” for $50mil Pesos. ($25US) Well this didn’t happen. So it’s late, I’m tired, I’m hungry and to top it off, I speak English with little Spanish and no one speaks English in the Customers area. What am I to do? As another hour progress until this slow start to my island relaxing gets underway, there is a Customs Agent who comes to my rescue and speaks enough English to translate. I’m told I was supposed to have this Tourist Card before arriving and my connecting flight in Bogota should have asked for it when boarding. The supervisor comes and when she realizes I had no pesos on me to pay she isn’t the happiest and leaves to attend to other flights. I would have gladly paid with my credit card, but that wasn’t an option at the time. So no, I sit and wait til morning to resolve this dilemma. I go to a waiting area and fall asleep until sun comes up.

    Morning. It’s approximately 8:30am and that Customs agent has come back to check on me. Wow, great customer service I thought. He walks me down to the office of the airline to speak with a supervisor. It turns out, she was on the connecting flight with me and was sitting right next to me. She speaks no English, but was able to say something to the agent about seeing me at the connecting destination. So I’m thinking I have an ally. Not exactly. She isn’t sure what happened, but made a call to the airline to open a claim about the customer service and the inconvenience I had coming to San Andres. By 10:30am, I finally received an apology and was able to pay for the tourist card and be on my way to enjoying this beautiful island. Whew! What a rocky start, but it’s turned out good afterwards.

    So, remember, when travel to San Andres island or almost any place, double check the destinations main and primary websites for current entrance and exit requirements. You want to be able to enjoy your experience of traveling verses dealing with avoidable delays.

    Happy Trvls!!!!

  • Best thing to waking up is not Folgers in a Cup, but an incomplete airline ticket purchase. Bogota, Colombia 5/13/2015

    Best thing to waking up is not Folgers in a Cup, but an incomplete airline ticket purchase. Bogota, Colombia 5/13/2015


    Morning started off with coffee, ham & cheese panini sandwich and fried egg. There was a grape juice from some Jamaica flower also waiting for me on the formal dining room table in the lovely Colombian family’s home who so graciously hosted me. Abuela, Tia, Tio and Hijo. Family is what I felt in this home. Brown old fashioned wooded cedar chest, hutch, curio cabinet with tiny Colombian artifacts and figurines. The feeling you’d get when you may have visited your own grandmothers home. Casa de Abuela, “home of grandmother”. Thank you. 

    Now it’s time to meet a Colombia friend at the local Juan Valdez coffee shop. Cappuccino was my choice as my second round of coffee in less than three hours. Yes, three hours from breakfast to the coffee shop around the corner cause I was struggling to buy my ticket to my next destination… Cartagena. A beach town on the northeastern side of the country. Why am I booking a ticket for my next city visit three days away? Great question. It seems, Colombia celebrates a lot of holidays and there’s another this weekend and flights may not be available for my normal departure date of Friday. Today is Wednesday.

    So my host and I walk over to the coffee shop and in Bogota it’s an inland city unlike the beach cities I prefer to visit, but hey, you have to experience all geographical areas to call yourself a true “Trvlr”. So upon arrival to the shopping center I have my first opportunity to exchange my American dollars for Colombian Pesos. One hundred twenty U.S. dollars I give the attendant and he gives me $273.600 pesos. I know what you’re thinking. Yeah, sounds like a lot of money. To some, yes. To put in perspective, $1.00 = $2,280 pesos (on this day). A McDonalds Big Mac is $5,000 pesos ($2.19 US). So you see how your money can stretch a bit here in Colombia.

    Now my second round of coffee has been had. Money exchange check. Next, headed to meet my hosts friend mom because he’s told her all about the lady from the US who’s a solo traveler and visiting Bogota. Across the street we march all the while I’m noticing cement construction apartment building going up everywhere. Multi-floor high rises on almost every corner so of course I inquired to my new friend. How much are these apartments? He said the range is between $500-$900 furnished. I just looked in awe. This is the north part of Bogotá well one would think you are making it ok. Not the extreme ok, but just ok. My mind is thinking. Nah, keep it moving Lady. So upstairs we go, I meet mom who looks like his sister and speak no English, but with my “what’s left of eighth to twelfth grade Spanish” I tried to hold a conversation with some

    Bogota city view by motorcycle

    translation help and we had a lot of laughs. She’s nice, sweet and kind. I guess I understand now when people think I’m my sons’ sister or girlfriend.  Again, Nah..I don’t think so. After great dialogue and laughs it’s time to head out to see the city sights when my host friend, who happens to have a beauty of a motorcycle parked downstairs offers me a tour of the city and some countryside. How could I pass this up? As we departed the apartment you best believe I was donned in my/his spare riding gear. I’ll share more in my next post. Please come back to check it out. I’m sure you will love it.

    Now it’s time to head back and gather my things to head to the airport and I’ve been checking my email all day and noticed I hadn’t received my confirmation for my flight tonite leaving for Cartagena. I remain calm and ask for help. Come to find out and researching what I thought was my reservation number was absolutely nothing. So my hosts suggest we go to the airport to see what happened and if I can finalize the ticket. VivaColombia Airline is similar to Spirit Airlines in the states. No nonsense, alacarte, no apologizes and no freebies. If they could charge for information they probably would. The representative tells us in translated Spanish that my payment never went through because they don’t take credit cards only debit cards with Visa or MasterCard Logo. HUH? Are you freakin’ kidding me? There was no error message telling me this nor was there anything telling me that my credit wasn’t processed. Now I’m upset inside, but doing my best to be better at handling freakout and spasms. So I was calm. My host and his friend did a lot of Spanish talking to convey my concerns. NOTHING!!!! I have to rebook. Now it’s one hour before flight and the airport internet or their website is extremely slow and buffering constantly. I made over 5 attempts to purchase a new ticket and the prices kept fluctuating from $50US to $147US. Well my original ticket with a checked bag was only $60. Would have been $35 if I would have booked it before I left the states. Lesson learned. So finally I get a new ticket booked but for 7am the next morning. Can you guess what I did next? Come on, guess. Some of you got it. I stayed and slept at the airport. There is no way I was leaving with the overly congested traffic and make it back for 5am to catch my flight. I will be sleeping at the foot of the gates’ door. Funny and serious. These are some of the things that go on in a nomadic travelers life. I can complain and get upset. Sure, but why? I will still have the opportunity to volunteer with the youth in the Old City of Cartagena when I arrive. Things happen for a reason and I will go with that. So now I wait. My phone and Ipad is charging and next my computer. Buenos Noches de Bogota.

  • Sitting on top of a Hill – Port-au-Prince

    Sitting on top of a Hill – Port-au-Prince


    I finally woke up around 11 am after a long day of travel and sightseeing around this city filled with local home-made vendors who shows what small business enterprise is all about. You have something to sell, somebody needs it and there you have it…commerce at its simplest form. New, Resale and of course bargains. That is my first overview of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

    As I sit on the barred porch looking at the hillside filled with homes, I didn’t realized Port-au_Prince was mountains and steep hills. Even through the layer of humidity or exhaust fumes are continuous mountains and more mountains surrounding me in the apartment where I’m staying. I’m being hosted by a local traveller I met back in Hollywood, Florida. My second home on the beach away from Los Angeles. Ironically, my loves have the same name. There’s this nice little niche’ spot I found when I started traveling again back in 2009 that has stolen my heart. My accommodations there are only 200 ft. from the sandy beach, but I’ll share that later in another post. So my host was gracious enough to pick me up from the airport and open up his home to me, by the way, which he shares with his mother and family. That’s very normal in a lot of Caribbean communities. His mother, a sweet French/Creole speaking woman greeted me with a great big smile as if to say.. Welcome my new child into my home. You are welcome. I felt welcome and the warmth of family. We talked through her son as my translator and enjoyed a great cup of coffee—Haitian style…..black with sugar, no creamer. I see I’m going to have to get used to not having
    in “International Delight-Hazelnut” creamer. We finished and off we go to see the city.

    HUMID – is the word of the day. It’s hot and dry and I love it. Something about the heat makes me feel good and keeps my body loose. As we are driving I see so many things. Men and women selling everything you can think of. CRT televisions, clothes, fruits, phone cords and so much more. Seems like the same thing you might see on any street in an impoverished and torn down city, but something was different from what I’ve seen on my other visits in different Caribbean, Latin, Central and South American Countries.

    There was an abundance of organization and order. As seen by the ladies and some men I saw selling produce and items from the top of their head. No wiggle, no giggle, no swaying and no swerving. I thought most waitresses was good at balancing a tray. They’ve been beat at the balance game.

    Local woman selling eggs balancing them on her head walking.

    We can forget the past. There were constant reminders of the 2010 Earthquake all around me. Construction and rebuilding are ongoing. On our way to the local museum we stopped so I could take pictures of the NATIONAL CATHEDRAL that was destroyed and noticed that the passersby were stopping to pray even in its destructive state.Then we pulled up to the presidential palace which was destroyed and the perimeter is covered with a green sheeting around the gate so you can’t see in. I was told he still has a residence inside, but won’t rebuild the full mansion until the people have rebuilt in their own communities. I thought that was nice.

    Then there was the High Court of Justice building that’s under reconstruction.

    The bi-centennial Anniversary Tower of Independence monument built with 200 steps to the top. I always find the work and building by the human hands remarkable.

    Later toward the evening we did more driving and sightseeing. A nice cool breeze I felt as we drove up and up and up into the mountains that still feels like the lower city life. The streets are tight and the roads are a little less to desired and very bumpy. Watch out for those potholes. But the view down below is magnificent and the dark blue yet clear sky was lit up by the shinning stars and made it feel magical. There is peace atop this mountain.

    Oh that’s right, COPA America is going on. The FUTBOL game is on. Brazil vs. Colombia. Futbol is big in the Caribbean, Central and South America and these two countries make it very exciting. So like most sporting traditions, we ate pizza, drank beer and scrolled down our Facebook timelines. Today was a great day!!!!

  • A small piece of Costa Rican paradise

    A small piece of Costa Rican paradise


    Guanacaste, Costa Rica

    Today I went on a search and exploration for potential areas to consider living for a time frame of about 3-6 months and if I like it, then a full year. Tanya, the nice expat American I met at the airport upon my arrival was kind enough to come and pick me up in Tamarindo. She lives in Playa Flamingo, the neighboring city. As she drove on the rocky, bumpy unpaved roads it was quite fun actually. When I though she was turning down dead end roads or into someone’s driveway, it turned out to be an actual road leading to a beach front area. These roads appeared to be very narrow and hidden, but Tanya says, it’s common and ok to drive. Just use caution for oncoming traffic.

    So I thought, based on my research and pictures online and a travel guide I used, the beaches and beach water would be something to my liking as it is in south Florida or one of my new special places in the Dominican Republic. To my surprise, this is not the case. The beaches in this area remind me of the beaches at home like Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Cherry Beach and others. The sand was dark, grainy and dark black. The hotels sitting on the beach drains what appears to be their pipes to the sand and out to the water it goes. This doesn’t seem good to be. However, for the surfers, this was and is a great area to surf. Tamarindo is a surfing beach and town. Boards everywhere and the tides are a great starting point for beginners.

    So off I go looking at the different areas and I wind around the roads to these various areas and Whah-Lah, I found it. The type beach I’ve been looking for that’s quaint, quiet and bluish-green water. At least today that is the color. I understand it changes from day to day. But today was a good day. Playa Potrero is a small niche area on the Pacific side with a beautiful clear view of the sky, the small islands that sit out in the ocean and the nice home up on the hills. There isn’t a boardwalk or even any traffic. You have to know how to wind around the Costa Rica unpaved roads to find this beauty. And thanks to Tanya, we found. All thanks to her.

    You know how you feel when something is just right? Something goes right? Something just is right? Well, this how I felt when I walked through the small tree path and looked out to the ocean and saw the water and heard the waves crashing on the sand as they turned over. Finally. A small piece of paradise.