http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Colombia , Cartagena en-us Thu, 15 May 2008 13:45:52 BST Thu, 15 May 2008 13:45:52 BST Cristobal Colon may well have picked the best of the bunch of Latin American countries to name after himself as Colombia is absolutely amazing.Im tempted to leave it at that really as this isnt going to be a blog of derring do and swashbuckling adventure. Weve been sat on our respective asses its more comfortable that way round for the last two weeks with little to occupy ourselves excep http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-274529.html For the many friends worried about us being kidnapped dont worry We are not being held hostage We landed Friday morning in Cartagena as planned checked into our hotel in Bocagrande and got some breakfast. I had forgotten about all the different kinds of exotic juices they have in central and south america and Colombia is no different. My new favorite is mora blackberry. That morning I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-273986.html Eens even kijken. Terwijl Joost zich ligt op te fokken omdat hij geen Youtube kan kijken een echte junk ga ik maar eens een update erop gooien. Het is iets van 30 graden buiten maar ik ben natuurlijk weer verbrand. Dus even schuilen voor de zon.Het vervelende is dat het alweer twee weken geleden is eer ik de laatste update erop gooide en er daardoor teveel verteld zou moeten worden om alles te http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-272292.html CARTAGENAYvonne was still not feeling well and the busride didnt help. The airconditioning made us feel freezing cold again. We had sleep with our coats covering our heads. We stayed in Casa Viena a basic hostel in somewhat rough street near the colonial old center of Cartagena 10 mi walk. It is a beautiful city but very touristy. Loads of American cruise boats stop here so no its a lot http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-269704.html The last week or so of my time in South America was spent on the Caribbean coast of Colombia in Santa Marta Taganga and Cartagena. I have included all three in a single blog as I got lazy towards the end of the trip and I didn't do too much on any one day. It could have been a result of the warm and humid climate that makes you constantly sweat or simply the fact that I had travelled the entire http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-264760.html Having recently returned from a Caribbean cruise aboard the excellent ship Celebrity Constellation I came to the conclusion that the Caribbean is actually rather short of interesting places to visit. The weather is great in the early part of the year and there are many superb locations for diving snorkelling or just sitting on the many beaches but there is a lack of interesting towns. Cartagen http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-263734.html A noticeable change in topography occured not long after the border as we moved into the outskirts of the Canaima national park area before stopping at our spectacular campsite Salto Kama nestled next to a 40m waterfall with a plethora of biting insects. There was little time to enjoy the falls however as we all mucked in with a couple of notable exceptions the usual suspects slinking off w http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-261753.html And a bit left over for a bag of chips....Under the cover of nightfall me and me dear brain reunited once again where I left him at the airport in Bogota made haste for Lima. There are times I guess over the last month where he would have come in handy...my grasp of the spanish language seems to have gone to pot without him...I think he feels the same way however after getting a few nice ladies http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-259685.html Well needless to say its been an adventures few weeks. San Jose was a lot different than I remember it from 8 years ago. A lot more cosmopolitan. Did some good shopping and some good wandering. But after a few days started to get the beach urge again. Made my way to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side. It is amazing just how different the Caribbean is from the Pacific visually and culturally. S http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-253434.html MoiTanaan paasin vihdoin kuivalle maalle tosin askeleet ovat hieman hatarat pari paivaa menee varmaan totutellessa. 3 viikon Linnanmakireissu oli....kokemus. Alunperinhan matkan piti alkaa Bilbaosta mutta kyseinen purtilo ei sitten lopulta lahtenyt ollenkaan joten suuntasin Italiaan Genovaan josta hyppasin toiseen laivaan. Reitti oli GenovaMarseilleGuadaloupeDominikaaninen tasavaltaKo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-249345.html Playa Blanca is a beautiful isolated beach on an island off Cartagena where we stayed for three nights sleeping in hammocks on the beach. No electrcity no running water.The days consited of waking up in the morning for a swim relaxing on the beach eating fresh fish relaxing more eating more fresh fish and a little more relaxing. You get the picture.Next stop was Cartagena a old colonial c http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-245215.html After meeting lots of other travellers who had already been to South America the general consensus seemed to be that Colombia was pretty high on the list of their favourite places. Although my original plan was to fly straight from Panama to Ecuador I decided that it seemed a bit silly to miss out on a country that was so close to where I was already. After a quick phone call to my mum to check http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-240869.html I have said it before but it really seems like the whole world is in Colombia I haven't come across this many travelers locals or other South Americans in any other country. I know I have been here over Christmas holidays but it doesn't seem to be stopping even now. Some one said that the locals here are only just starting to feel safe enough now to travel again in their own country and I guess http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-240492.html Hola mis amigosRight now I'm at an internet caf in Cartagena Colombia after a day full of strolling and swimming at the beach. This city is incredible It039s the oldest Spanish city in the new world The conquest world that is and it has an enormous amount of history to tell and tresures to show. The city has about 1 million inhabitants and is hence a large city but its size doesn039t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-239421.html Cartagena is a beautiful complicated and most importantly fun city on the northern coast of Colombia. At the heart of the city is a large stone wall encircling what is now refered to by tourists as the old town. Characterised by stunning Spanish colonial architecture busy streets loud music and great restaurants the old town of Cartagena gave me such a buzz But there is a lot more to Cartagen http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-237228.html Well this is a long and adventurous story with so it is going to take me sometime to tell I think. Our plan was to get a yacht from Cartagena to Panama which would stop on the way at the beautiful San Blas Islands. We had met many people who had come from Panama and also many that were also planning on doing what we were and along with that we had heard many mixed stories. So armed with this kn http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-231330.html We had gone back to Cartagena to find ourselves a yacht to sail to Panama and found that we had a few spare days. I decided that some sightseeing was in order as the previous time I had been in Cartagena was spent partying at the fiesta. I booked myself on a tour to the nearby mud volcano something that was pretty rare and I had been told was definately worth going to see. After being picked http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-231309.html After a quiet christmas spent baking under the ferocious sun of Santa Marta I took a 5 hour bus ride along the coast to the old colonial city of Cartegena to meet up with Tina Lisa and Aimy whom I had met and travelled with in Costa Rica and then the excitement really started...We spent the first part of the day strolling around the old town within the city walls. Once we got to the walls themse http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-230886.html Irsquod bought a new rod and reel I didnrsquot want to be catching whales or anything bigger than I could eat so I went for a medium size reel with 200m of 50lb line. I chose this reel because it has a little arm that swings back and forth laying out the line as itrsquos reeled in. The old reel was slightly larger but I had to be guiding the line onto the reel with finger or thumb. This http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-226809.html Just finished our trip in colombia started in Cartenega on the carribean coast nice old colonial town and hot narrow streets and lots of shops stayed in a great little hostal called hotel marlin really freindly and loads of information then on to Santa Marta about an 8 hour bus trip along the coast a small town with a beach that looked at the port nice onlystayed for a couple of nigh http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-225124.html Alors aprs Carthagene nous sommes alls a la dcouverte des alentours en passant de la boue aux plages de rves.Il est bien vident que nous dtestons les plans touristes a savoir prendre un gros bateau pendant une heure pour arriver sur les plages de rves. Nous nous prfrons les plans plus roots a savoir un premier bus pour trouver un petit bateau sur le march qui va nous emmener. Mais http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-223194.html Alors nous voila dj a la dernire tape de notre passage en Colombie a savoir CartagenaC est une ville sublime cf les photos Ok notre ami Pierre trouvera cela encore surfait certainement mais tan pis il faut y aller quand mme... Du coup nous flnons sous des tempratures oscillant entre 30 et 34 C on ne peux que flner a ce niveau. Sabine a chaud et du coup n a pas faim jusqu a ce q http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-222067.html After yet another long bus ride this time consisting of a couple of screaming babies I finally made it to the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. I had left Sharyn behind in Medellin and jumped on the bus with Darragh an Irish friend we met in Salento in order to get to the coast to smell the ocean air. I did guess that Cartagena would not be the ideal place to be to enjoy the ocean but it was a grea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-221335.html Cartegena goes down as the best city Ive ever visited. Best as in... the amazingly wellpreserved achritechure and atmosphere of the old city is stunning live music pours out of every other bar friendlybeautiful people armed guards for most businesses the best fruit shakes on Earth the list goes on. Yes a group of us were almost robbed some local guy saw it coming and started yelling to s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-221070.html Het is gelukt vanaf Ushuaia het uiterste zuiden van Zuid Amerika tot het uiterste noorden in Parque Tayrona in ColombiaOkay hier dus het laatste deel van mijn ZuidAmerika trip. Weer eens afscheid genomen van Michal voorlopig en dan 3 dagen in de bus van zuid Ecuador naar Noord Colombia. Ja het leven van een backpacker is hard en onrechtvaardig Gelukkig ontmoette ik in de bus Froilan http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-220725.html quick up date just finished 5 days of spainish lessons Donna struggled a bit but i let her copy my notesjust getting packed to go up to Cartagenta for a few weeks of Carribean sun top up the tan been pretty busy with spainish and shopping post up date in a week from the sun C D http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-219363.html Colombia the Beautiful the land of Milk and Honey. We had been longing for the Carribean beaches and the beauty and friendliness exhorted by other travellers and we wern't dissapointted. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-219093.html ldquoYo soy Miss Colombia.rdquo The bold claim leapt defiantly from the text. My eyes flicked back up to the accompanying photograph. Catalina the septuagenarian fruit vendor undoubtedly had the poise of a beauty queen and certainly wore her age well but I wasnrsquot entirely convinced. Reading an inflight magazine from cover to cover on a grounded plane I had chanced upon an article a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-219081.html On arrival in Cartagena rich and I found a nice hostel near the central square called Hotel Holiday. THe old city is beautiful. Full of old restored Colonial bulidings. The streets are so colouful and paved with cobblestones. I is easy to tell it is a very touristy area because outside the Old City there is a marked difference in the condition of the buildings. Also there are not so many police http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-212351.html