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Published: March 21st 2013
We left Capurgana with sinking hearts as we really got to love this place. It was time to move on however and we were about to replace that little Caribbean village with one of the biggest colonial gems of the whole Latin America - Cartagena. Not too bad at all so we were really excited.
The way to
Cartagena from Turbo is very tiring and it takes a long time (see details at the end). However, it takes you through the beautiful coastal landscape filled with Chiquita banana plantations and is dotted with little villages so it is not boring. When we finally arrived in Cartagena we were hit by the massive tourism infrastructure probably for the first time during our stay in this country. We had no other choice but to take a taxi to the centre but at least we were dropped in the hostel zone before it became really late at night.
As it was exactly the end of their summer holidays it was really difficult to find some place to stay. People had warned us before that it might be really expensive and hard to get a budget room but somehow we managed to find
little posada with private room and kitchen use for a standard price of 25$. It was not one of those famous, cute hostels but it was ok and location was great. We saw backpackers arriving everyday of our stay there, looking for some cheap rooms and wandering in despair as there were none available. I guess we were lucky.
We cannot even describe how excited we were about Cartagena. We love, love and absolutely love colonial architecture of any type and this place is known for its beauty and restored facades. Together with cobbled streets, many shady plazas, colorfully dressed senoras selling fruit and horse carts it is nothing else but a romantic paradise. Best not visited solo we could say, however the backpackers presence is big here so one can hardly ever be lonely. When we entered the old walls and crossed to
‘the other side’ we felt like we just stepped back in time. All these colorful buildings with cute balconies and the abundance of flowers decorating them took our breath away for a while. We could wander around for hours and we would not be bored at all. We must have crossed those streets tens of
times at different times of a day to see it in different light and with different atmosphere. Leaving soon was not an option.
Of course everything in this beautiful place comes at a high price so we simply could not indulge ourselves in dining and drinking we would have normally do when holidaying, but we don’t feel we lost much. We even thought that of all the places in South America this would be the place to move into if we ever decided to leave Europe. It was so pretty and so atmospheric. It kind of reminded us of Krakow, where Tomek comes from. The churches, the fortification walls, the streets and horse carts…so similar but of course of different styles - Krakow is medieval and Cartagena is from XVI century but nevertheless we felt some connection.
With our newly established fascination with this place we could not bring ourselves to leave and we made a decision to skip Santa Marta and San Gil before returning to Bogota for our flight out. You could wonder if we got bored. Not at all, even though our days were not much different from one another. One of our friends recommended
to us visiting Plaza Trinidad at night to get some food and souk in the atmosphere. So we did exactly that, eating amazing, freshly made hamburgers and drinking beer while watching local people around us. It was a time of a festival in Cartagena so we could see some dancing and film screening on the walls of the old Trinidad Church but most importantly we met an amazing couple of travelers – Mily and Alan and we spent the whole evening drinking and exchanging information. We love situations like that when we just bump into other people and find them so interesting and alike us. We still keep in touch and we will see each other in UK for sure:-)
Because of our flight due from Bogota we had to finally wave Cartagena goodbye and take a night bus to the capital. With this we also finished our stay in Colombia and South America for that matter. It was a fascinating journey through 7 different countries and we loved every bit of it even though traveling in South America is such hard work when compared with Asia. The journey continues though and we will soon find ourselves in the
lazy day for some
chilling next to a massive graffiti charms of Central America and the Caribbean.
Additional info: •
After taking a first morning boat at 7 am to Turbo you can catch a bus to Monteria for 38,000Cop/20$ and then switch to a bus or minivan to Cartagena for 50,000Cop/28$. If you take the first boat you have a chance to make it without any waiting time in between and just change buses from one to another. It takes around 14h all together including boat journey. •
Taxi from the bus station is quite expensive (8$) but you can take a local bus just from the street outside of the terminal (0.8$). People at the terminal will tell you that there are no buses to the old town which is not true. •
In Cartagena near the old town at Av Daniel Lemaltre is a great market place with very well stocked supermarket if you want to cook and cheap shops where you can replenish some of the supplies i.e. new clothes (2$-3$ price tag shops), shoes, toiletries and other stuff •
Journey to Bogota takes around 20h so it is better to take an overnight bus – we took Brasiliana company for around 65$ each but people say that Boliviano is also good. Prices don’t vary much.
Additional Note - Summary of Colombia: •
30 days, visited 8 places •
our favorite landscape: around Salento and the Cocora Valley •
our favorite activity: trekking around Capurgana •
our favorite place in Colombia: Cartagena by far •
our favorite hotel/guest-house: Plantation House in Salento •
our favorite food: we mostly cooked but we really enjoyed arepas •
our favorite thing about Colombia: people are amazingly warm and helpful •
our least favorite thing about Colombia: everywhere we went toilets lacked toilet seats – really weird •
our total cost per day: 41£/65$ per day for both of us (47£/75$ per day including flight cost from the Amazon to Bogota). It was more expensive than in Brazil for us even though we cooked and did not dine out. Transport is awfully expensive in Colombia but safe which is very important. NOTE: dangers in Colombia are really limited and one should not believe everything what people say about this amazing country. We felt Colombia was the safest of all the 7 countries we visited in South America!
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Fabulous blops and adventures!
So sorry your journey has come to an end--you've been the best guides and photographers, and I'll be following in your travel steps. And how great that Tomas is from Krakow, a city I love and spent a couple of months one snowy winter. I've so enjoyed your blogs and wish you the best in your transition to London life--remember, we'd all love to see blogs from your new life! Ciao.