Colombian Honeymoon

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We decided we didnt want to be conventional and spend our honeymoon lay on a beach in the maldives or a holiday along those lines. When you have 3 weeks off work its worth making the most of it and doing as much as you can so we chose Colombia.. So many people asked us why we would want to go there and the simple answer was for an adventure. Plus its a country that has so much to offer which seems to have lost a lot of its tourism in last last few decades due to unrest with the drugs trade.

All of that seems to be changing though and like anywhere as long as you use your head and a bit of comman sense its no problem at all. We flew to Bogota but booked seperate flights from UK to JFK first as we wanted to spend a few days in New York when we were on our way home. From Bogota we then go a connecting flight to Cartagena.

Day 1-2 When we landed in Cartagena the sun was shining it was already touching 27 Degrees and the early moring humidity was sweet smelling in the air. We had only booked flights and at this point still had nothing sorted for accommodation so it was out with the trusty travel guide and choose something out of there. I think we quickly agreed that we wanted to treat ourselves to something nice as with all of the build up of the wedding and the crazily emotional and amazing wedding day itself had completely zappped us and we wanted nothing more than to relax and not have to stress about anything.

That being the case we asked the taxi driver to take us to the Hotel Caribe which is in the Bocagrande area of Cartagena. The taxi fare is set from the airport at 15,000 Pesos which is roughly $7.00 despite this its always advisable to ask the price before they drive off as you could be faced with a much higher bill.

We got to the Hotel and Kiki the chap on reception greets us with a friendly face, we tell him we are on honeymoon and ask if he can do us a good special rate to which he offers us a room for $200.00 US per night.. now, whilst we were enjoying an 8 hour wait for a flight to Bogota in JFK we did a little research on Expedia and new that this hotel was offering rooms at $130US per night. Kiki then ushered us to a small internet area and said book it here and come back to reception when your done? weird but then it saved us 140 bucks so happy days.. The next 2 days we spent just lazing by the pool , reading and then deciding what we were going to do for the rest of the trip.

During the day we went and had a wander around Cartagena starting with a taxi ride to Castillo San Felippe de Barajas. 15,000 Pesos each to enter but it is one of Colombias largest and most impregnable colonial fort towers which is set on a hill 40m high. This was the strongest fortress ever built by the Spansih when they came to South America in the colonies. Underneath it has a large laberynth of tunnels which is well worth a visit but quite claustrophobic if you don't like small spaces.

We walked back through the area of getsemani which seemed to be host to numerous back packers hostals and cool bars. We stopped for some food in the Luna Backpackers which had a nice fanned area which was a welcome break from the 40deg and very humid heat. We met a chap called Stuart who was an aussie but now lives in Panama and runs a hostel over there, nice guy and the first time in 2 days we had spoken english to anyone 😊

Day 3 - Day 6 we decided to take a few days going to the Isla Rosario. This is an island that is part of a group of 27 Islands roughly 2 1/2 hours on a ferry from Cartagena. I think we paid way over the odds for it though as we booked it through the hotel Caribe with a lady who organises the daily excursions. We were still that tired that we didnt really mind that much as we still just wanted to relax and not do a great deal. The poster on the wall showed a hotel called the Coca Lisa, it had a beach and crystal clear ocean right on the doorstep, hammocks in the gardens and that was good enough for us.

We had to catch the ferry from the harbour at 8am where all the boats congregated waiting for throngs of people to board. I think we were probably the only non colombians there with the exception of a few. It wasnt until we got to the island after talking to Angie the compere on the ferry ( who spoke amazing English) that apart from us everyone else on the Ferry was going to Rosario just as a day trip. People pay to go and swim in the sea, laze around the pool and enjoy their lunch and then return to Cartagena about 5pm the same day.

So.. when they left we were sat on an island with 1 x Barman, Santa the Senior Waiter and the Owner of the Hotel!! very very quiet but just what we needed.. ( The second and third day they had a few more guests ) Everyone on the Resort was outstandingly friendly and couldnt do enough for you, we were greeted at reception with a glass of frozen fruit juice which tasted amazing and were shown to our apartment which overlooked the gardens via a small balcony. Perfect.. the Food was amazing, beautiful gardens and a nice lagoon just a short walk away to swim. The only downside which wasnt really that much was that a few guys from the Isla Baru come to the island in the days and are selling necklaces and bracelets not really understanding the word no. Despite that they are nice and freindly and once they know you dont want to buy anything they still wave and say hello when they see you afterwards..

The day before we left it was back to the travel guide for inspiration on where to head next and we decided we would have Day 6 spending the night within the city walls of Cartagena and then head to the Bus terminal the following day and take a 5 hour trip to the city of Santa Marta.

Day 6 we headed back to Cartagena on the Ferry and then walked over to the main Historic part of the town which is surrounded by huge city walls. We booked in to the Hotel Centro which is located near to the Cathedral, a nice secure basic hotel with a choice of rooms, we decided we were going to go for a cheap option as we had been a bit exhuberant over the last week so took a room which had no windows. despite that they had hot showers, a lockable safe, AC, and a large room fan so it so still pretty good in contrast. That night we walked around the maze of streets in the city walls and chanced apon a nice italian restaurant and ate a very non columbian Pizza 😊

Day Seven - An early start and a lovely breakfast at the Hotel Centro of fresh fruit, egg and tomato on toast and lots of fresh columbian coffee. I cant explain how much nicer the coffee is than anything we have back in the UK and couldnt get enough of it. After Breakky we headed out to Ave Santander and called down a taxi to take us to Terminale de cartagena which is the main bus terminal and situated on the outskirts of the town, taxi was about 10,000 Pesos and that takes you right to the main door. We were told to ignore the people asking where you wanted to go outside the terminal as they were people who would either charge you more than you would pay at the ticket office. Angie on the Ferry had recommended using Brazillia Bus company which we did. Ticket to Santa Marta was 20,000 Pesos each and was 4 hours duration direct. ( in reality it was 5 hours including an hour stop at Baranquilla to pick up other passengers ) In my opinion I would go to the back of the bus and NOT look out of the front window. It seemed to be that the drivers without exception have to overtake ANYTHING that is in front of them. On the few occasions I did look out of the window I witnessed our driver overtake on a blind crest of a hill, pull out from behind a lorry to very quickly swerve back in to avoid a MAHOOOSIVE Kenworth Juganought and also get half way through an overtaking manouver to slam the brakes on and swerve back in behind the vehicle to avoid on coming traffic. I resigned myself to falling asleep for the remaining 3 hours in the hope that I might wake up without becoming a columbian RTA statistic.

Our first impression of Santa Marta was pretty grim. it seemed to be a lot dirtier and shabby than we had seen in Cartagena but despite that seemed to be pretty friendly. We took a taxi from the Terminale to a hostal called Casa De Familiar, the Hostal is owned by a husband and wife who are extremely freindly and made us feel immediately relaxed and at home. The rooms with a fan, TV cost 34,000 Pesos per night which is about $15 US and are very basic and clean. At the top floor there is a roof terrace which is nice for relaxing and having a cold beer. Dorm style rooms are also available for 15,000 Pesos.

We dumped our bags and headed out for a few cold beers, later on we were asked by the owner if we wanted to do the Ciudad Perdida Trek, if we did then it was leaving the following morning at 8am. our only issue was that we didnt have a sleeping bag or torches etc but we were asured we would be provided with blankets for the hammocks and that the shop across the road sold everything else we needed. We headed out for some food that night and discussed if we should do it or not.
We were aware of the trek and it was soemthing we really wanted to do when we were planning the trip despite the fact that our foreign office advises against all travel to that area. Now that we were there it seemed quite daunting. You can do the trek in either 5 Days or 6 Days so to give ourselves a day and a night back in cartagena and to allow for the travel back there we would only be able to do it in 5 Days.
Decision made we headed back and agreed that we would go on this basis. We were told to be at the Hotel Miramar across the road at 8:30am and to be ready with a small back pack. The Casa Familiar has a storage area for you to leave your main luggage which is secure while you are away on the trek.

( ( Day 8 Tuesday ) is the start of the Most epic adventure I have ever had to the Ciudad Perdida and it is worthy of me writing a seperate blog entry just for the trek so please check it out) for that reason I am going to skip to

Day 13 Sunday - Starting to feel the body start to ache after a 5 day trek it was time for us to head back to Cartagena, It was also 4th July and Katharines 32nd Birthday. Unfortunate that we had to spend 5 hours of her birthday on a bus but I promised to take us to a nice restaurant to make up for it when we got there. We headed to Terminale De Santa Marta in a taxi that had a small old chap who must have been 80+ and I think a taxi of a similar age. I tried to open the door and pulled the handle off and then as we drove off down the road the car was rocking from side to side which I'm very sure is neither normal or safe.. amazing we managed the 20 min drive in one piece and bought our return tickets.

At Baranquilla we were asked to get on to a different bus but as no one spoke a word of English it wasnt until we actually arrived in Cartagena that we actually knew if we were on the right bus or not. We arrived back at Cartagena about 5pm and better the devil you know went back to the Hotel Centro. As it was kats birthday we proceeded to haggle with the receptionist and managed to get a nice room with wimdows and balcony for 160,000 Pesos per night. about 80 Dollars P/N. we only had 2 more nights and we would be leaving columbia and heading to New York and having 4 days / 3 nights there on our way home.

As promised we went out for a nice birthday meal in the evening to a small restaurant which had an upstairs balcony overlooking one of the many plazas. The Restaurant had a 3 piece band playing traditional music on guitar and violin, all three band members were 60+ and brilliant. The waiter was quite chatty and we mentoned it was Kats birthday and without us knowing he asked the band to play and sing happy brthday in both spanish and English which was a lovely touch.

Day 14 and our last full Day in colombia 😞 do it was going to be spent doing a few touristy type things around the city starting off with a visit to the Sanctuary and Museum of San Pedro Claver

This was place where San Pedro Both lived and died and still houses Jesuit Priests today. San Pedro Claver was probably one of the first human rights activists and defended and housed as many african slaves as he could. The museum still holds the coffin with a glass front with the skeleton of San Pedro Claver in the cathedral part of the building. the ocst was 6000 Pesos each but we kinda got conned in to a guided tour with a chap who at first acted like it was included in the cost. He rushed us around and told us what effectively was in the free pamphlet and asked for 10,000 pesos for the pleasure. Cheeky bugger even asked us for a tip..

From there we went to the museo Arte Moderno de Cartegena which had a display of mexican artwork on at the time and also a resident amount of artwork as well. it was very cheap to enter, not really my thing but it was quite interesting all the same.

From there we had a wander around the edge of the city walls with a view to finding Las Bovedas. This is where the City Dungeons once were which have now been turned in to about 23 Shops selling everything from Emeralds to Baseball Caps. Built between 1792 and 1796 the housed the citys un-desireables. In my opinion the shops and boutiques were filled with a lot of tat and over inflated tourist rubbish. There are stalls there selling bags of colombian coffee for 28,000 pesos when you can buy exactly the same thing in EXIT Supermarket around the corner for 16,000. Worth a wander around but i wouldnt put your hand in your pocket.

To finish the sightseeing we went to the Museo Deloro Zenu which is the gold museum in Cartagena, its free entry and houses several rooms full of gold artifacts from around columbia's Zenu Region from the different tribes of Indigenous Indians. There wasnt a great deal there from Tayrona as I was hoping to see some of the artifacts taken from the Ciudad Perdida. There is also a room which plays a video on a cinema style screen which narrates a history of columbia which was quite interesting. Definately a good way to spend an hour if your short of money and want to cool down from the heat outside.

sightseeing done = find a bar and a cold club colombia which is what we did for the rest of the afternoon watching the world go by.

Our last night we Went for a nice meal and headed back to the hotel fairly early as we needed to check out early and head to the airport for about 7am.

When we checked in at the airport we were asked if we had applied for ESTA which we had but the chap wrote NO ESTA on the tickets as we didnt have the ESTA numbers to hand? there was nothing said that we had to carry a copy as it should show on the system when you enter thr USA. So we were taken in to a back room where most of the Avianca Staff were and it was only when i asked if we could use their internet that we could get the numbers from the confirmation email. ( tip for anyone travelling via the USA is to keep your esta number to hand)

Once that was sorted My rucksack was randomly searched, then we checked the bags in and were told that we would be having another bag searched which again turned out to be mine This time it was in the departure lounge and conducted behind a screen to the whispers of all the other passengers waiting there.. anyway, nothing found and bag checked on to flight but secuity is high and between check in and boarding we were searched or put through x ray machines about 4 times. good though as it gives you peice of mind there are no nutters going to be on the flight.

Finally we boarded and the next stop was NEW YORK NEW YORK. Sad to leave Colombia as it was really growing on us and so much more we could have seen but I guess we will have to come back another day


Next Blog in New York will be published as a seperate entry 😊

Thanks for reading...

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Photos

Puerta Del Reloj ( Clock Gate)
Entrance to the walled City in Cartagena

Cartagena
Colourful Colonial Buildings in the historic City of Cartagena

Fruit Seller
One of the colourful ladies who sell resh fruit on the streets of Cartagena

Cartagena
Huge doors to one of the few Cathedrals in the Historic Walled City of Cartagena

Dungeons
The Tunnels and dungeons under the fortress of San Felipe

Cartagena Skyline
View from San Felipe of Cartagena

Columbian Dancer
Dancer in the town plaza of Cartagena

Cartagena Skyline
View from Ferry of Bocagrande area of Cartagena

Laguna
Swimming Lagoon on the Isla Rosaria

Distant Island.
One of the many Islands

Local Hawker
Paulo the Hawker.. Local from Isla Baru selling his Necklaces