FedEx please!

About a month ago a good friend sent a package from New York to Barbados containing some rather important documents.  One of which was a drivers license replacement for my dear husband who still has no idea how he lost his in Germany after he rented a car and probably drove way too fast on the autobahn.... 

Some how the request to send it via FedEx got mixed up and it was sent via USPS with tracking, this one week before Christmas when the whole world is sending packages...Ahhh!  I figured we would be in Barbados for a full month so even with all things considered it should arrive before we leave the island.

The USPS website gave this estimate-

EXPECTED DELIVERY DATE

   6 - 10 Business Days

This is what actually happened.. I suppose nobody in the postal service works between Dec.18 and Jan. 7 OR it was on the slowest boat from New York to Barbados that took 20 days to get there! Then WTF is payment of charges?? They should pay me money for taking this long to deliver..

January 13, 2014 3:27 pm Payment of charges - Scheduled for another delivery attempt today ,   
January 7, 2014 9:07 am Customs Clearance ,   
January 7, 2014 9:06 am Processed Through Sort Facility ,   
December 18, 2013 11:09 am Processed Through Sort Facility ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS),   
December 18, 2013 11:07 am Arrived at Sort Facility ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS),   
December 17, 2013 8:17 am Processed through USPS Sort Facility JAMAICA, NY 11430 
December 16, 2013 Depart USPS Sort Facility BROOKLYN, NY 11256 
December 16, 2013 10:41 pm Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility BROOKLYN, NY 11256 
December 16, 2013 9:26 pm Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility BROOKLYN, NY 11211 
December 15, 2013 Electronic Shipping Info Received ,   

By Jan.5th Daniel was getting antsy since he was leaving for Ecuador in a few days and would have liked to have a license. Since I wasn't going with him he could do what he did in Barbados which was have me rent a car and then drive the car himself for most of the trip (I was not impressed with this, but luckily there were no incidents or traffic police checks)

Daniel left for Ecuador still no sign of the package, a week later I forgot about it thinking some pelican flew off with it. Then I get an email from high up in the Andes.. "please check on this for me?"

I call the main post office in Bridgetown and they tell me that the package is at the local post office close to our apartment and that i need a pick up slip to collect it. This slip was aparently delivered to Rostrevor hotel a few days ago which I find strange since I went there numerous times asking for any sign of the package. This time I don't give up I call the hotel and insist that there must be a slip of paper somewhere that they must search every corner, finally the guy at the front desk finds the damn thing. Now here comes the fun part..

The package was addressed to my friends Robyn who is the hotel manager there, but she was in Miami for the week and by the time she gets back I will be gone. They warn me that more than likely the post office will not hand over the package to me without some kind of authorization, but I go there anyways hoping for the best. Of course the postmaster as the fat slow guy standing before me is called looks at me and Ivy and with no remorse for my long sop story turns us away. We need an authorization. I call Robyn in Miami and suggest she write a note and take a picture of it with her phone and then email it me. So 2 hours later with the note in hand I head back to the post office. Mr. Postmaster appears looks at the note then asks me for $1.50 in charges and then gives me the long lost package! The thing looks like it was dragged around by a stray cat and taped up to repair the damage... 

To celebrate our last day in Barbados I went straight to the beach from the post office to meet Heidi (Mimi) and enjoy a beautiful sunset with gin and tonics. 

Will the bus come?

There I was sitting on the side of a lonely road at Quilotoa at 3800 m waiting for a bus that never came. 

In the morning we visited a bustling market of the indigenous people. I tried some good looking soup of 'meat and corn'. Turned out out to be inards such as heart and lungs and the family next to us on the table took happily the left overs when it all was a little much for me.

Futher along the way we visited with a family of indigenous people who lived happily with a bunch of gineau pigs in some sort of mud covered yurt. The landscape around the Quilotoa volcano is like nothing I have seen before. First it is so high up you can touch the clouds, it is bare like the moon but also intensely farmed land and full of people as the soil is so rich from the volcanic ash. 

After another hour of spectacuar scenery we arrived at Quilotoa crater. A blue hole in moon. We hiked all the way down into the crater, a very steep and muddy track.  

The water still bubbles in places but one could swim in it if 10 degrees is not too cold. Then I invested the best $8 dollars in my life. I took a mule to go back up to the rim instead of hiking. I felt sorry for the rather skinny and boney looking creature I was sitting on the entire way.  At one point it was so steep I thought now the horse will die right under me.  But I felt evey more sorry for the folks hiking back up a brutal 350 m, they did not look so good when they came in 30

min later.

After lunch I said goodbye to my group and found myself at this godforsaken road to bloody nowhere waiting for the bus. 

And then somebody sent me an Irishman and an Uruguayan going to Chugchilan as well. After 45 min a truck arrived out of nowhere going in the wrong direction but my new Uruguayan friend negotiated a trip for all of us to Chugchilan for $10 dollars. 

After 23 muddy and rainy and bumpy kilometers sitting on the back of truck and nearly hitting the only oncoming traffic there was we arrived at our Guesthouse the Cloud Forest. My Uruguayan friend again negotiated for me a large room for $15 dollars including dinner and breakfast. They put on a fire, served a nice dinner and met a 19 year old German guy who lived in the town for 5 months teaching children English. 

Tea of what?

Here I am at 2700 m sipping my tea of coca leafs and trying to stay on? fight? 'the Andean High'. Walking up a hill here makes you feel like you climbed a mountain. At the cathedral today they put steep open iron ladders to climb one of the towers. A literal tourist trap - I only went half way and then shook my head laughing on the absurdity of it all. 

But Quito turns out to be a stunningly beautiful city with the most magnificiant churches I have ever visited. They are all build on top of an ancient Inca city and one can still feel the energy of the place.

It is a very lively town and full of interesting faces, shops, sounds and foods. It reminds me a little bit of Barcelona. Even the nightlife is a little crazy. Tomorrow it will be up into the Andes for 5 days, even higher up...

Home away from home in Barbados

For as long as I can remember our family has been coming to Barbados for vacations... Usually during Easter the whole Donelan clan would relocate to St. Lawrence Gap to stay at Rostrevor hotel. The hotel is owned and run by friends of our family, my mom and Yvonne go way back, best friends as teenagers... Still looking as young as ever!

Funny my mom and Yvonne both had 3 daughters all around the same time now the next generation is having kids around the same time. This picture was taken 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Ivy, Renee with Abigail and Reesa with Zayne. All 3 kids were born within a month of each other early in 2011... Imagine that!

 Here are a few shots of the kids over the years :)

My sister Frances-Anne used to live in Barbados a few years ago, actually its because of her we started coming back to this island and I introduced Daniel finally to this area of paradise. This is Ivy as a baby with my sis and her girls in their back yard and then swimming in Carlyle bay.

This year we had the pleasure of having an extended stay in Barbados, and what could be better than spending long lazy days in the sea and sun with both grandmas.