http://www.theshangs.com/blog Follow our Progress as we blog around the world Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:38:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Although most of the instructors (Aicel and Esteban, to name my 2 favorites) were fantastic, the Spanish By The Sea administration left me wanting. Firstly, their confirmation letter states ‘be there 18:00 Sunday for orientation and an oral and written placement exam’. An email to me ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=335 After 2 days of grueling travel, a morning run made me ready to face the world again. As I entered the guest house, tattooed Juan was bustling around like a colorful humming bird cheerfully flitting about. He stopped suddenly when he saw me, “Want to go on ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=330 The water taxi arrived from Almirante to Bocas within 30 minutes.  Like lemmings, we all filed out onto the main street. I turned left and within minutes arrived at Casa Verde. The girl in the office seemed a bit bewildered and heightened my stress of being up ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=324 Nearly 2 ½ hours on the bus, we stopped for 10 minutes to use the bathroom & get food. I got off simply to give my bum a break – the roads in Costa Rica are atrocious. One major pothole caused even the driver to gasp and ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=307 At 5:30 AM, I waited sleepily at Reagan National Airport to be processed through the enormously long lines at check-in and security in the hopes of leaving before what they eventually dubbed “the blizzard of 2010”. The security signs screamed “high alert” status as we inched along. ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=301 First of all, we would like to thank you all for humoring us as we discover this amazing world that we live in. We are now home, but we would be remiss if we didn’t do our final entry on the very nice city of Bogota. Thanks again for ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=284 Opting for the slightly more expensive, but door-to-door service and air-conditioned MarSol van to Taganga, we arrived 4 hours later at Hotel Techos Azules. Taganga is a fishing village just outside Santa Marta. We had over ten days to relax, practice our ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=272 We arrived at the Cartagena airport and grabbed a 8500 pesos taxi ride to Hotel Vienna in the Getsumani district (backpackers ghetto) just outside the old city. The hotel was booked, so they called Hotel Villa Colonial. A guy arrived and insisted on carrying both our large packs (a ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=255 We arrived mid-afternoon in Medellin’s large, two-level, clean and surprisingly calm bus station. At the information booth, we showed the woman the address of Melissa’s apartment and after consulting with another fellow, they had no idea where it was - so much for “information” booth. She said for 100 ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=238 At 7:10 AM, loaded with our big backpacks, we watched several sardine-packed trolleys go by before we decided to act like Ecuadorians and force our way on. Physically propelled off the bus at the stop for the bus terminal (Cumanda), we walked to the lower level and bought a ... http://www.theshangs.com/blog/?p=216