Morning family,
For those of you just interested in the women of Tumaco, I'll take care of you first. Most of the women of Tumaco are deep tanned & dark skinned. There is definitely beauty down there, but most of the women I saw (without being slapped by Stivalis) were not as polished as the women of Cali. I didn't see or hear of any organized on unorganized introduction services in the city. Since I'm no longer in the hunt, most of my interaction with the women were family & family friends. These family friends, were warm & very interested in me & Stivalis. If you go to Tumaco, you will basically be on your own. They have a number of discos, but no malls or cinemas. You read right...NO UNI-CENTRAL TYPE MALLS OR CINEMAS. Did I mention the heat....Daayyuum it's hot down there...hotter than Cali.
OK, hang on folks, this will be brief (yeah right, Hoda). The main reason for our trip to Tumaco, was to meet the family on Stivalis's father's side. Most of these folks will be unable to come to our wedding, due to financial restrictions. The other reason, was to check out the beach & just to do something different than Cali. Stivalis made arrangements with a Cali travel agent (more on this bee-yatch later) to spend a few days in Tumaco & a few on Boca Grande. Boca Grande is a ahem...resort island off the Tumaco coast. We flew from Cali via Satena airlines on a 24 to 30 seat turbo prop. The flight was late leaving Cali (surprised?). The flight was only 45 minutes in duration. No drama during the flight at all. If it isn't cloudy, you'll see some interesting landscape & coastal sites. After landing, the first thing that hits you is the heat. The second thing was how small the airport is.
There were about 50 people waiting for the passengers...half of them
cheering & waving for me & Stivalis. I asked her, if she was a movie star or something. Stivalis promptly delivered a love`elbow to my ribs. The family resemblence was there, no doubt about it. IN ALL TWENTY-THREE of them. Stivalis told me, don't stop counting, there will be more. I can see why she told me "NOT" to bring any gifts...yikes!!! After dozens of kisses & hugs, Stivalis told the family that we'll come to the house after checking into the hotel. The luggage attendent retrieved our bags & loaded them into the taxi. I tipped him a 2000 peso note. His eyes popped opened, Stivalis rolled her eyes & we were on our way. With our taxi leading the mini caravan of taxis & scooters.
The road from the airport was a little rough to say the least. With the common practice of Colombian taxi drivers dodging the pot holes.
As we approach the first residental area, all my senses really start tokick in. I did a little research on Tumaco, but I still wasn't ready for what I saw. Much of Tumaco is at sea level. The first homes I saw, were supported on stilts that were 3 to 5 feet high. Construction codes do not exist here. These houses were put together with thin planks of woods or anything else that would keep things together. Most of the roofs were made of tin or that hard green plastic material. To reach the houses, you had to walk on a rotten wood plank which was connected to additional wood planks to reach a specific house.
Gotta bounce for now, more later.....Hoda
