Playa Blanca to Cartagena

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Last night it poured down rain. It was nuts. The wind was blowing & the rain was dumping down on us. Due to the fact that we don't have a door or a cover on the little window, we could feel the rain drops occassionally when the wind would blow just right. It was fun but very very damp. The craziest part was when the wind would really blow we could feel the entire structure sway under us. A bit unnerving at times, but we survived.

We woke up this morning to a continuation of torrential downpour. The clouds were so black, it looked like we were stuck in the middle of a huge rain cloud. So, we hid out in our room for as long as we possibly could until we were starving. We read & snoozed. We finally ventured out & had breakfast at our usual place. The nice thing about tropical rains is that it isn't freezing cold when it rains. It's definitely cooler but not cold. Although, because everything we had on was damp we were a bit chilled. Hot coffee helped a lot.

We headed back to our little room & hid out there until we were totally stir crazy.

We packed up what little we brought with us & decided to go sit on the beach in the rain since we have to leave this afternoon. May as well enjoy it while we can, no matter what the weather is doing. We sat under cover & watched it rain. Finally the clouds decided to part & the sun came out. Woohoo! We took that opportunity to walk along the beach & shell hunt. We had a big cute dog walk with us the whole way. The dogs are always entertaining. They will just randomly decide to be your pal & then they stick with you. When we would stop walking, he'd sit down & wait for us. It was sweet.

I laid in the sun for the last moments before we left the island. Soaking up every minute of sun. I am going to surely go through Vitamin D withdrawal when we return to Seattle...

Eventually we had to say goodbye to Jo & Sam & catch our boat off the island. For some reason the return trip to Cartagena is $6 cheaper per person. The ocean was super wound up at the time we were boarding the boat so it was not an easy entrance. There were two guys pulling on the bow line trying to keep the boat near the beach & the waves were just bouncing the boat all over the place and water was crashing over the stern. I tried to pull myself up on the boat & timed it all wrong & almost got punched in the face with the boat. Graceful. Then before I knew what was happening one of the guys picked me up & threw me up on the bow like a piece of luggage. It was pretty funny because I did not expect it at all & then I was in the air. It took quite a bit of time to get everyone on the boat & it was funny to watch. It wasn't graceful for anyone because of the waves. Once we were on our way the captain could only get one of the engines started & we were barely moving along, all the while the waves were lapping over the edge of the boat & we (in the back of the boat) were all getting splashed with water. Almost everyone was laughing about it & all the ladies were screaming & laughing of course. Our boat was filled with primarily locals from Cartagena out on a day trip to Playa Blanca. Only a couple of gringos.Once he got engine #2 started we were off & relatively dry.

We arrived in Cartagena & walked back to our hostel & got a new room. We showered off three days of salt & sand. (oh, there were no showers at Hugo's or anywhere on Playa Blanca, we just got one pitcher of water one day & rinsed off). Needless to say, the shower felt amazing. We headed out to dinner & had delicious fried rice & grilled chicken with mushrooms. Yum! Then we went in search of money. Again. We were trying to find the only HSBC in town hoping it would give us money, but we never found it. Unfortunately the money exchange places were already closed so we have to wait until tomorrow to change the remainder of our dollars tomorrow. We headed back to our hostel & did some blogging & such for the rest of the evening. Then off to bed.

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Photos

On the boat ride to Cartagena.
Looking back at Playa Blanca.