Barranquilla

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Wednesday morning, I was packed and ready to go.
I needed to withdraw some money from the cash machine to pay for the hostel (they don't take card). So I headed down the main road towards the old town, stopping at Cafe Media Luna for some breakfast.
It was a swelteringly hot day.
Honestly, the Cafe Media Luna offers nothing special in terms of breakfast. But it does benefit from being the only place in the immediate area that actually serves breakfast (from what I could tell). But the service isn't particularly friendly and the food isn't particularly cheap or plentiful. Well, that's my opinion. It's OK. Just not great.

Before leaving the hostel, I'd asked Diana (of Hostel Casamara) to book me a ride with Marsol (the bus company) to Barranquilla. It seemed that I'd misunderstood the Marsol concept. I thought that they would drop you directly to the front door of your hotel - but that's only the case in Santa Marta / Taganga / Cartagena. Not in Barranquilla. I guess that Barranquilla is a fairly big city and it would take some time to drop everybody off at their chosen destination so it seemed to make sense. I figured that I'd get a cab from the Marsol bus depot in Barranquilla so it was no big deal. But I needed to be back at the hostel at 11am.

Time was getting on and I figured that the quickest (and least sweaty) option from Cafe Media Luna would be to take a cab to the cash machines (which are located just inside the old city walls). It's only a 10 minute walk max....but, as I said, time was getting on and it was super super SUPER hot.

I hailed a cab and as we set up off the street it became very apparent that the driver had taken me for an idiot gringo. I asked him why we seemed to be driving in the exact opposite direction to where I wanted to go. He said "I can't go any other way". I disagreed strongly. But by this time, it was too late, we were heading out on a dual carriageway and there was no way that he could do a U-turn.
Further and further we headed out. I didn't want to complain too much for fear that he would turf me out of the cab miles from anywhere. But I made it pretty clear that I really didn't agree with the route he'd taken. 25 minutes later we finally arrived somewhere near to where I wanted to be. He told me the fare was 10.000 COP. I explained in my best Spanglish that I'd taken a cab because I was in a hurry and he'd made me 15 minutes later than if I'd walked. If he wanted to go on a nice drive around the outskirts of the city that was up to him, but I wasn't going to pay for it. I gave him 5.000 COP. Honestly, he was lucky that he got that.

Arriving at the cash machines, sweaty and in a foul mood, I tried my VISA debit card. No joy. This happens quite a lot here. You need to try a couple of machines / cards before you get any cash out. You get an entirely useless message like "System Error". Which could mean that you have no cash left, your card has been blocked, they don't have any money in the cash machine, they don't take your particular type of card, you selected "credit card" when you should have selected "checking account", you've tried to draw more than the maximum amount that that particular machine wants to give you....honestly, it could mean anything.
I tried another card. I tried a smaller amount. I tried a different machine...and another...and another...at another bank...I must have tried 7 different machines with 2 different cards selecting 3 different amount / account type options before I finally got some cash out. I was hot, frustrated...it's the first time that I've been really in a bad mood since I arrived here.

Honestly, getting cash out or paying for anything by VISA credit / debit / electron etc card here is a bit hit and miss. You need to carry adequate cash just in case and you need to be pretty patient and accept the fact that, quite a lot of the time, you're going to need a few attempts before things work.
While I'm on the point of cards and money, I discovered today that if you use the Post Office prepay VISA card, the maximum that you can top-up over the phone is £500 every 14 days. You can top-up much more if you visit a Post Office in person. But the Post Office doesn't seem to be very well established here in Colombia! How useless is that?? I mean, I'm sure that there's a good reason for it - but it's a TRAVEL MONEY credit card...how are you supposed to visit a Post Office when you're thousands of miles away from the nearest one???? It's nuts! Please Mr Post Office boss, explain!

Anyway, I digress. I refused to get a cab back from the old city to the hostel so I walked back...arriving looking like I'd just taken a shower with my clothes on. I paid up at the hostel and went to pack the last few things.

Diana from the hostel had very kindly given me a guidebook for Medellín (my next port of call but one), so I thumbed through that whilst I waited for the bus to arrive.

At 11.10 the there was a pip of the horn outside and I was loaded into the bus. Of course, now I had a guitar to carry around - I didn't really want to put it in the boot of the bus. I tried to load it in the overhead storage area of the bus but it didn't fit. No matter, there was nobody else on board. I asked the driver if the bus was going to fill up and he assured me that it wouldn't. So I bagged a double seat and settled down for the trip.
We stopped to pick up another couple of passengers. Then at 11.40 we stopped at the Marsol depot in Cartagena. I've finally figured out how this company works. The scheduled time for the bus was actually midday, it's just that they spend the hour before picking people up from the hostels. It means that I was slightly unfair regarding their timekeeping for the trip to Cartagena.
Of course, the bus filled up to capacity. I did the old trick of keeping the bag on the seat - I was determined that if the seat was taken, it would be the last one taken. But eventually I had to give it up. My bag wedged my legs to my seat and my guitar to the seat in front. It would only be a couple of hours...

The journey was largely uneventful. I listened to my iPod and tried to ignore the lack of mobility that the journey afforded my legs.

I keep telling you how things always seem to work out in Colombia...eventually. And so it proved with the bus trip. As we entered Barranquilla, we stopped at a set of traffic lights. I noticed a sign saying Calle 84. I seemed to remember that my hotel was on Calle 84, so I grabbed my notebook to check the address (Each Calle could be MILES long - I wanted to check the Carrera number). I found the address and as I was searching for the street sign that told me the Cra number, I felt a tap on my arm. My fellow passenger was pointing at my hotel! We were stopped DIRECTLY outside my hotel. Que suerte! Just as we were pulling off from the lights I squeaked at the driver to let me out (such was my surprise) and he pulled over and unloaded my bag. Success!

I was staying at the Hotel Windsor. A very plush establishment indeed. Check in was similar to immigration in the states - finger prints, photographs, a billion documents to sign. But the staff were friendlier than US immigration - and they spoke perfect English.

By the time that I had unpacked, I was starving - it was about 4pm, I guess. So I wandered down to the restaurant and grabbed some "lunch" - an enormous chicken sandwich with chips and salad. That hit the spot.

I'd called a contact that I have here called Myriam. She works nearby and and we arranged to meet in the hotel bar when she'd finished work. So a quick shower / check up on emails later and I was back in a bar.
We had a great chat (she speaks perfect English) and, before I knew it, it was late. I wasn't particularly hungry given that I'd eaten such a vast quantity for "lunch".
So we opted for Sushi. I'm not sure why I was expecting the Sushi here to be average - I mean, Barranquilla is a port town...it should have fresh fish, right? RIGHT. The sushi was as good as anything that you get in London - my only complaint being that they didn't have Tuna on the menu. As usual, the restuarant was empty and they were sweeping up and putting chairs on tables as we finished up. I wonder how these places can continue to run with so few customers??

And so, the night ended. I dragged myself back to my room and my super confortable football pitched sized bed...and slept like baby.

Where are we up to? Thursday, I guess...right? I'm losing track of the days a bit.

So I'd asked Myriam what there was to do in Barranquilla and, it seems, not that much. There is a museum...maybe two. And errrrrm, shopping malls. And, errrm, that's about it. It's a "working" city. And it's plenty lively enough. It's just not touristy.
Well, I was planning to leave on Friday anyway so I spent the morning trying to find a place to stay in Medellin (and a means to get there). That was harder than I thought. Everywhere that I checked had no space on Friday evening! Eeeeek.
I called Myriam and we arranged to meet for lunch at a mall - where there was also an Avianca office where I could get a plane ticket to Medellin. (Avianca is the flag carrying airline of Colombia).
I jumped in a cab and asked him to take me to Portal del Prado. As we pulled up it looked like were at a hotel. I checked with the guy - this was definitely the place. Midday. I was exactly on time. Perfect timing.

I wandered into the courtyard and realised that this was, indeed, a hotel. I called Myriam. Was there a commercial center inside the hotel? Nope. I was in the wrong place. I was in the Hotel Portal del Prado. I needed to be in the Centro Commercial Portal del Prado! Doh!!!
Another cab ride later and I arrived (finally) 15 minutes late. Looks like I'm getting the hang of this Colombian timekeeping lark!

We went for lunch at Crepes and Waffles (remember I went to the same place in Cartagena?)
I tried something called "Panne", I think. Imagine a small football-sized ball of crunchy bread, hollowed out and then filled with a chicken and mushroom soup (but with proper bits of chicken). Was delicious. Was enormous. Of course, I couldn't finish it!

Filled to bursting point I waddled around the impressive shopping center. I was considering buying some clothes but Myriam told me that they would be MUCH cheaper in Medellin.
So off we went to the Avianca office - I really needed to get this plane ticket. The Avianca office was actually in a supermarket. One of these supermarkets that sell everything - I guess that that makes it a Hypermarket, right? I've never bought a plane ticket from a supermarket before. Wonder why Tesco don't sell them?
Any way, it tured out that the only direct flights would cost a fortune - every reasonably priced flight involved a stopover in Bogotá. I really didn't want that so Myriam said she'd check some other airlines from her office computer.

We walked the few short (but super-hot) blocks to her office. She runs a shop which sells fencing materials (sorry Myriam, can't think of a better way to describe it). And I sat in the shop whilst she ran through some things with one of her employees. It was roasting.
Eventually she stood to leave. I said "errrrm, you were going to check flights...". But she was right, the shop was noisy (from the traffic) and hot. She had to go visit her sister who lived nearby so she said we'd check there.

Her sister had just had a baby (maybe a week ago). And the flat was full of family. Was quite nice to see, tbh. Time was cracking on and myriam called airline offices whilst I scoured the internet for a deal.
But no joy. It was no good, I was going to have to take one of the stopover flights. Grrrrrr.
We hotfooted it back to the Avianca office. It turns out that the great price that I'd seen on the internet for the stopover flight almost doubled if I bought it from the counter! But I had no choice, I had tried to buy the ticket online but it didn't accept any credit cards that were issued from outside south america!
I handed over my card at the ticket office. "What do you mean, you need my passport???". "Why would I bring my passport to the shopping center???". "Right, I'll go get some cash out."
By some miracle, the cash machine worked first time.
Every time I went through the security gates at the supermarket, the alarm went off. We never worked out why. But this was my 6th time through the gates and it was becoming a bit of a joke with the security guards.
Finally, I had my ticket. It was a 1.50pm flight from Barranquilla on Friday. Then change in Bogotá for a flight to...."what do you mean it's not ACTUALLY going Medellin?" Apparently all the domestic flights to Medellin fly into an airport 50 minutes away from Medellin called "Rio Negro". Too late, it was paid for. I had no choice. The flight cost about £80. The cab would cost another £20. I really should have investigated the bus options more closely.
But it was done. Finally, as evening began to fall, I had my ticket. I didn't have anywhere to stay yet. But, exhausted from the heat, we headed off to a small bar near the hotel and had a couple of beers to cool down.

Myriam was going to a club that night with her sister and invited me to join them.
We arranged to meet at 9.30 in the hotel bar.
I used the time to shower and, finally, find a place to stay in Medellin.

At 10.15 they finally showed up and we had a beer before jumping into a cab to the club - called "Agua Helada" or "Frozen Water" on what seemed to be the outskirts of town. It was soooo cold inside the club and the place seemed relatively empty. But within a half hour, there was the usual sea of bodies dancing in that, oh so elegant way. I wish that I could dance. It just looks so....

At 2am the club closed and we headed off to another club. I have no idea what it was called. I think that we stayed their for 2 hours.
And then, back to the hotel. It was a really good night after a fairly frustrating day of journey planning.

I guess that I've not really gone into much by way of detail in terms of how I get from A to B. It actually takes more time than you think to investigate which areas are the best to stay and the best way to actually do the journey. And it's one of the problems with travelling around so much without a specific itinerary. And I think that's part of the reason why I've decided to try to stay in Medellin for a while. There seems to be LOADS to see and do. And, having been on the road for almost 4 weeks (FOUR WEEKS!) it will be nice to settle in one place for more than 4 days.

Well, I'll update you on that later.

Before I go, I just want to say a BIG thank you to Myriam (and her sister) for looking after me in Barranquilla. Hope it wasn't too much hard work for you! 😊

Hasta luego!

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