Blogs from Cartagena, Colombia, South America
May 23rd 2012
So. After the hard work of trekking up a mountain, I was ready for beaching, relaxing and some partying. Therefore, as soon as we arrived back to our hostel (The Dreamer, Santa Marta - thoroughly recommended!) and reunited with the lovely Sara Mansi, the 4 of us booked ourselves onto something called a "Chiva bus" for a night of, um, bussing?? A shower, a nap, a Cuba Libra and we were good to go. However, the first glimpse of this bus brought memories of LAST year's Easter trip and boat sinkage flooding back... a wee beaten up, wooden affair with the seats all taken out and, in their place, some poles and ropes for the "passengers" to dance around whilst parading through the town. It was hilarious. We were driven around (successfully) for 2 hours, thrown ... read more
May 14th 2012
It's all in the name, really: Cartagena de Indias. Probably the best-preserved colonial town in the whole of the Americas, and perhaps beyond. Likely setting of García Márquez's wonderful Love in the Time of Cholera. A place I've dreamt of seeing for years and years. And we're here! So, annoyingly, are the heads of state of almost every nation in North, Central and South America. Yes, it's the sixth Summit of the Americas. If you'd never heard of it before, the widely-publicised naughty behaviour of a few of Obama's trusted secret service agents - to summarise if you've been living in a dark hole these past few weeks: a group of these highly-trusted, black-suited, wraparound shade-wearing spooks thought it would be a good idea to contract the, erm, services of some pretty Colombian ladies for the ... read more
May 7th 2012
We left Saturday morning to Santa Marta, a 4 hour bus ride, to meet up with Stefan and Willie for my nice, long weekend off. After a confusion of sorts on where we were supposed to meet up with the boys and losing my phone in a taxi, which Juan Manuel immediately jumped on some motorcycle to go chasing after the taxi in a sea of taxis in order to try to get my phone back (but returned with no success, the motorist wouldn´t drive fast enough); we all decided to head to Palomino, an hour and half past Santa Marta. I felt really bad since Juan Ma was only coming for the night since he had to be back to work on Monday, but he said he was ok with going so much further than ... read more
April 28th 2012
Hello everyone! I hope this blog serves to keep everyone up to speed on my goings-ons. It was a rough start at first when my Mom´s car broke down on the way to the airport, many thanks to Andrew who came to the rescue. Got there just as they were boarding. In LA I got to say hi to Elsa and Jose for an hour, and they brough me some much appreciated In n´Out. Sort of surreal stopping in LA for just a few hours on the way to a much less familiar place. The flights were extremely uncomfortable for the most part, having had the middle seat on the two long flights, and neither happened to recline. I did, however, meet some very interesting people - some of the friendliest flights I´ve ever been on. ... read more
April 20th 2012
With this working 6 days a week while maintianing a social life, i´m not going to be updating the blog very much -besides, now it´s everyday things so I don´t think they´ll excite you too much. But do keep checking every now and then for a new entry! So I´ll try to give the highlights in short: 1) My bday. Yamile threw me a surprise bday party, complete with a bakery-bought cake, on the rooftop of blue house hostel along with my blue house family and few other friends. The girls there had actually offered the rooftop to me the day before for my bday, and Yamile must have sprouted this idea once I had told her in shock that they wanted to open the place up for me. It was sooo great and Yamile is ... read more
April 18th 2012
9/4-21/4-2012 Cartagena Vi ankom Cartagena (på karibienkysten av Colombia) om kvelden etter en mellomlanding i Medellin. Det var utrolig deilig å komme ut i varmen etter regn og kulde i Quito. Ola hadde en del hotellpoeng til gode på hotell Hilton, så vi tok like godt inn her. Vi regner med at det ikke er hver dag det kommer ryggsekkturist-gjester, men vi ble tatt veldig godt i mot. Det vi ikke var klar over da vi bestilte, var at president Obama var ventet få dager seinere. Et sikkerhetsopplegg uten sidestykke møtte oss da vi gikk ut av drosja. Det var tett med politi og sikkerhetsfolk, og både vi og bagasjen ble sjekket. Bagasjen ble også sjekket av en bombehund. Som dere sikkert har fått med dere, så var de fleste amerikanske presidentene samlet til en stor ... read more
April 5th 2012
Day 173 Sunday 1st April Oh joy another long bus journey we got up at 6.00am and got ready, paid the bill and asked reception to book a taxi. We were soon on our way to the bus terminal or as Scott says Boos terminal, once there we grabbed some breakfast and tried to find which gate our bus was leaving from. For some reason our bus company did not appear on any of the departure screens, but yesterday the lady who sold the tickets had pointed in the general direction so we joined a line to get onto the platforms on that side. This was the right line and we were soon on the bus, but unlike Argentina they do not seem to leave at the exact time and our bus drivers were ... read more
March 24th 2012
Wow Karma works fast! My last day at the Blue House Hostel was the 13th. Since then, the other three staff members left within the same week and the place has gone down the drain. The girls are not paying their employees, and if they are, they've cut their pay without notice, and the amount is not enough for these women and their families to survive off of. Two weeks have gone by and they haven't been able to fill the rooms nor hold down a new cook down, they're barely hanging on to the new cleaning lady. At the moment, they're in the process of converting the cafe into more of a diner/hang-out sorta place. I don't think they know what will be come of the hostel part yet, especially since they can't get any ... read more
March 22nd 2012
Op naar Cartagena- ofwel Cartagena de Indias ofwel Cartagena of the West Indies. De naam verraad al dat het een oude havenstad is gesticht door de Spanjaarden. Het is verbazingwekkend wat nog overeind staat van de verdedigings werken die door de Spanjaarden gebouwd werden. Die verdediging was dringend nodig want vanuit Cartagena vertrok de Spaanse vloot met al het goud wat ze in Zuid Amerika van de verschillende volkeren geroofd had naar Spanje. In enkele musea's worden de verschillende belegeringen van de stad en de zeeslagen toegelicht. Een van de museums is gevestigd in de ruimtes in de oude vestigingsmuur. Een doolhof aan gangen, dikke muren en koele ruimtes met een hoge luchtvochtigheid. Met een beetje inbeeldingsvermogen komt die tijd van de Spaanse heersers, de zeerovers, indianen, kanonnen, kruitdampen, de katholiek... read more
Colombia - The Beautiful City of Cartagena
Published: March 20th 2012South America » Colombia » Cartagena
March 18th 2012
After getting the private room I was craving following the trip and having a lie down on the comfy bed, it was time to meet the others at Harry’s Bar and collect our passports which hopefully have a nice big Colombia stamp inside. Harry’s Bar was situated only around 200m from our hostel so it was ideal and we didn’t have to think too hard to get there. When we arrived a few of the guys were there and it was slightly strange to see each other with different clothes on and looking clean after our adventure, everyone was a lot more upbeat and we all started reminiscing from the past few days. One by one everyone arrived including Fritz with our passports luckily enough. We all hung around for an hour or so having a ... read more
