What I learned

I cannot believe it is finally the weekend. Since I was traveling for work last week, I lost last my weekend time in my commute from Cartagena, Colombia, gorgeous place that it is, to Boston, and I entered this week thinking for some reason that full steam ahead was the way to go. How the majority of my colleagues do this - live without weekends and in a state of constant first impressions, I do not know. I am wiped.

But I wanted to at least post a few pictures and to talk about Cartagena. I'll be honest - I really don't think I got much of an authentic experience there. We stayed at the tourist hotel and went on the tourist tour, where our guide referred to my colleague and I not by our names, but as "Boston" and "Massachusetts" respectively.

I didn't really get a feel for what the people of Cartagena live like, but I did have some aha moments while there nonetheless. One was toward the end of the 5.5 hour tour, when we were outside of the Emerald Museum waiting for our open-air bus to swing back around and take us to the hotel. I asked our guide, who I started referring to as Cartagena toward the end of our time together, how he was doing, and he said, "I am just so stressed from giving this tour. It is horrible to have to herd people around. They never do what you want."

Oh, how I know this feeling. But how odd that a dude living in paradise and parading people around this beautiful place for fun would feel the same kind of stress I feel day-to-day. And come to think of it, odd that I would feel the same kind of stress that an air traffic controller, or surgeon, or prison warden, or - I don't know - anyone else employed on the planet would feel. How similar our plights are. I bet my buddy "Cartagena" is happy it's the weekend now too.

I also got a chance, while in Cartagena, to take a dip in the Caribbean Sea. It was abbreviated by a mosquito swarm, some sharp underwater rocks, but it was still warm, freeing, glorious. Maybe I am just a loner, or a primordial creature, but there's something about me, alone, starring out into a deep somewhere that helps make everything in life come together.

I really think travel is one of the very best ways in life to gain perspective.