Colombia - Cartagena

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David here...

An uneventful hour flight later and we were on the Caribbean coast in the city of Cartegena. The first thing that struck us was the heat. It was hot... much hotter than Bogota or Medellin where the altitude makes a massive difference to the climate. We walked out of the airport and were immediately accosted by taxi drivers, but we'd read that you should go to the taxi counter first to get a price otherwise you'll end up paying over the odds as the taxis have no meters and the driver will quote you a larger fare if you'd not got a fare up front. The counter was a left turn out of the airport and it cost COP 12,500 to get to our hotel.

The Hotel de Magdalena was a small, basic room but was clean and comfortable. It had the unmistakable damp smell that a lot of cheaper hotels have. It did have air-con, which really was necessary. We settled into our room and then headed out for some food. We'd done some research and decided to go to Stefanos Bistro at the end of our road as it had good reviews. It was dark when we stepped out of the hotel. We found a busy, bustling street which felt very different to anything we'd come across in Colombia so far. It felt more like Belize, with groups of men hanging around on the street and music playing everywhere. It was just a little intimidating.

After some confusion on whether Stefanos was open or closed and some getting used to the vibe, we both had steak and a coke, which was very nice, before buying some water for the room and heading back to the hotel for the night. We didn't feel like exploring in the dark and as we were not drinking and still tired from the previous evening we relaxed in the room before settling down.

It was a lazy start to the day and it was nearly 11:30 by the time we had showered and got out of the room. We headed straight to Espiritu Santo for lunch after reading good reviews. Cartegena is undoubtedly a beautiful place, with narrow streets winding around, beautiful architecture and lots of little squares where you can stop for a drink or a rest. It was really hot and we were both sweaty when we got to the restaurant, where I had chicken salsa and Suzanne had a recommended grilled fish, determined not to go for chicken. My dish came with pineapple sauce, which went really well with the coconut rice. Both dishes came with rice and salad and another accompaniment of your choice and was good value for the money. It was tasty enough but not good enough that we'd rush back.

After the meal we wandered the city for the best part of the afternoon trying to find a phone box so I could call my Mum on her birthday. We couldn't find a single one anywhere so quickly stopped off at the hotel to use the Skype credit we had to briefly call home before heading back out to find somewhere for a drink. During our earlier wanderings we did stop off for an lovely ice cream which cooled us off a little. We stopped in a little square and had a beer each, where we were constantly approached by sellers who all wanted to know where we were from. It got quite tiresome, it has to be said.

After a shower and some relaxing time where we booked accommodation for our next stops we headed out to Plaza de Tinidad for the evening. We arrived and found lots of people milling about, a few scattered food stalls, cocktail stalls and a shop doing a roaring trade on beer. In some town's you are no longer able to drink on the streets after recent changes to the law. Medellin and Cartegena are both places where the law is enforced, much to the dislike of locals, who have been protesting the new rules. To get around this, shops now sell beer in brown paper bags, much like in America, and the police turn a blind eye to the bags, as in theory it could be soft drinks. The exception to this is drinking in the square itself, which is not allowed. You can drink around the square, if not obvious, just not in the actual square or next to the church. The police are very polite when moving someone on, carefully explaining where you can go but it all seems a little silly and ridiculous to be honest.

We were about to buy a cocktail when Suzanne suggested buying a botle of rum from the shop and some diet cokes, which we did. We also bought some empanadas, poured out rum and cokes surreptitiously on the square, with the police behind us and enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. It was buzzing with locals and travellers alike all enjoying the evening with drinks. We quickly finished the small bottle of rum, had a pretty good and messy burger before buying some beers from the shop and sitting outside watching the world go by. We were annoyed by 3 travellers who decided it was a good idea to practice juggling in the middle of the road despite the traffic...idiots. Who goes travelling and thinks juggling clubs are a good idea? The same people who think they should take a guitar with them as everyone wants to hear them playing guitar until the early hours of the morning in the hostel perhaps?

Anyway, after being threatened of being smoked out by yet more inconsiderate travellers we found a quiet spot on some steps and had more beer from the shop, which was still raking it in. I had fun with the shop attendants as I learned the word for cans from them, which they found funny before we decided to call it a night, vowing to come back before we left as it was a good place to be in the evening. We did find that we were approached many times by tour operators and beggers, but were deflected by a polite 'non, gracias', except for one guy who wanted to know where we were staying, how long we were around for and what we were going to be doing, which did get annoying, which I think he sensed from us. Anyway, we got back to the hotel at 11:30 and were soon fast asleep.

The next day Suzanne wasn't feeling great but we decided to stick with our plan of going to the modern art gallery in the old town. It was late morning when we set off and when we got there we found it had already shut for lunch. We had 2 hours to kill so we got some lunch at a forgetable pizzeria near to our hotel. We finally got into the gallery after 3pm and were pleasantly surprised. It was very small but had some interesting pieces from local artists. As Suzanne was still feeling ill we went back to the hotel to get out of the sun and to relax for a while. We did spend the time in the room drawing up a feasible plan on our next country of the trip, Peru, so it was actually time well spent.

That evening we had a lovely meal at Chachara. The restaurant was big, well decorated, cool and had a lovely feel to it. I had a couple of beers with my Mexican burger and Suzanne stuck to water and had chipotle chicken. It was a really good meal and we left feeling very happy.

We had saved walking the old town walls for our final day, but were worried we wouldn't have enough to do to fill the time. We set off to walk the walls at 08:45 in the hope it would be cooler and we would be finished before midday. It was still hot but not too bad and we drank lots of water. The walk was pretty nice, it doesn't give you much more of a view of the town and some parts of wall are gone, so we were done by 11:15. We then headed over to the fort that overlooks the town. We felt that at COP 25,000 each to get in, it was not value for money so just walked round outside before heading into a nearby shopping centre for a coffee and then some lunch, a tasty lomo de cerdo from MB carnes that was a bargain, cheaper for the 2 of us to eat than one entry into the fort.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking to, around and back from the Bocagrande area of the town. This is the beach and condo area. We fully intended having a beer on the beach but everywhere was just too touty. People almost dragging you in to their beach bar or sunloungers. We tired of it quickly and moved away. On the way back we popped into a supermarket and bought 2 bottles of rum (cheaper than 1 big one) and 2 big bottles of diet coke. We were going back to Plaza de Trinidad that night so wanted to be prepared. We got back to our hotel room at 16:00 where we showered, relaxed, decanted our rum into the coke bottles before heading out for the evening.

Plaza de Trinidad was just as busy and bustling, with even more food stalls dotted around. We first bought a beer each and had that standing on the other side of the road to the square. We noticed that we were standing outside someones front door so moved away, leaning against the wall. I had my foot on a little ledge and a guy came out of the house and asked me to move my foot off of his property, which I of course did with a sincere 'lo siento'. It dawned on us that the new drinking rules in place must be hell for him as now everyone hangs around and drinks on his doorstep rather than the square. We moved as far away as we could, for 2 other people to lean up against his railings. The man was already talking rather animatedly to a police woman and we pointed out to the men that it was someones property and he was talking to the police. We think they appreciated the heads-up and they also moved away. We felt for the guy, he looked really unhappy with the situation.

We then sat and had a barbecued steak from one of the stalls. The lovely men handed us a menu and then showed us all the meat. We also got potatoes and salad with the steak, all for COP 24,000 for both of us. We also had empanadas con carne and an arepa con queso each to finish off. All the while, we were drinking our coke. After the food we moved to the square where the police didn't try to move us on at all, they must've known full well we had alcohol but chose to believe it was just coke.

We did head back to the hotel once all the coke was gone, all 3 litres of it, and found it was only 21:40 so we went back, bought a beer on the way and sat opposite the square, away from the man's house and had a big discussion about Europe. Possibly ill advised, as Britain is in a situation that has really devastated us both. Eventually we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning at 11:15 a waiting taxi whisked to the airport for our flight back to Bogota. We had a Subway sandwich for lunch and we were soon on our way, waving goodbye to Cartagena. We didn't quite take to Cartagena the same way we had with Guatape or Medellin but it was a nice stop and well worth the time there. Plaza de Trinidad was a real highlight and we loved the street food very much, especially the steak. There was something quite romantic about sitting on a chair on the pavement with a tray of food on your lap as the world went by.

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