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Published: August 29th 2015
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Cartagena beach
Our first day in the sun! 2 busy weeks into our trip already so backtracking a bit, trying to catch up but lounging in the sun is far more appealing!!...
3 flights, 5818 miles and 31.5 hours later we arrived in Cartagena, a city on the northern coast of Colombia. After a rough night's 'sleep' in Bogota airport the tropical humidity of Cartagena hit us as soon as we walked off the plane. The 35 degree heat was more in line with what we imagined than Bogota's feeble 12 degrees. Blue skies, palm trees and the Caribbean Sea is exactly what we'd been looking forward to!
It was a short taxi ride to our hostel, El Viajero. It seems instead of signalling, a loud blast of the horn is preferred so we navigated the narrow one way streets to a chorus of impatient tooting... and no seat belts either, a running theme so far (sorry Mum!) This wasn't our first taste of the laid back South American attitude towards safety. One minute before landing at Bogota airport a young girl and her family began swapping seats and walking up the aisle. It took a few strong words form the American Air stewardess to get them
back to their seats just in time as the wheels bumped down onto Colombian soil. Absolutely no sense of urgency... unless they are behind the wheel!
El Viajero was a little overpriced for the basic facilities on offer (by Colombian standards) but an ideal location in the old town inside the centuries-old colonial stone walls.
We fell in love as we strolled down the picturesque cobbled streets lined with beautifully coloured buildings, balconies, plazas and churches. Soaking up the atmosphere and character of the old town we rarely ventured 'beyond the wall' (Game of Thrones reference).
Being a top tourist destination both with South Americans and those further afield it was a good place to start our journey as our pale gringo skin didn't stick out too much!
We surprised ourselves by staying awake all day even while chilling at the beach, which wasn't hard as every 5 minutes we were pestered by people trying to sell us stuff. By the early evening the jet lag hit us like a ton of bricks as we looked for a nice restaurant. Spotting a kebab shop we jumped in and had a quick suizo hot dog - most.disgusting.ever
- cheese, pineapple sauce with crisps on top. At that we decided to call it a night and conked out.
The next day we took a boat tour round the Rosario Islands. Not realising it was a speed boat, we expected something muy tranquilo. Quite the opposite and by the end of the day our bums ached after continually hitting off the seats along with our cheeks from laughing, and Lucy's mild panic attack. We stopped off and jumped in the crystal clear water to snorkel. Once we were
used to breathing and stopped stubbing our toes off the corral it was great to see and feed all the beautiful multicoloured tropical fish. Then it was our turn for lunch, eating freshly caught pescado with rice, plantain and salad - standard Colombian scran - muy rico! The boat dropped us at Playa Blanca and the beach definitely lived up to its name - beautiful white sand, turquoise water along with a cerveza in the sun - paradise!
Back in the hostel we met a Brazilian girl, Juliana, in our dorm. We all went out for dinner at La Mulata an amazing fish restaurant. I had filete y frutos
del mar - sea bass with prawns, octopus and calamares - so tasty! We sat in Plaza Santo de Domingo for happy hour cocktails and met some of the local buskers/musicians who took us to a local salsa club, La Copinera. As it was 'beyond the wall' it was more authentic and our new friends taught us to salsa and Champeta - a local dance and even sexier than salsa - very close for comfort. We could not imagine guys back home casually dancing like that in a club!
On our third day we walked around the town, sat in a Plaza de Bolivar and popped into the Museo de Oro, the Gold Museum, to get out of the midday sun. They had a great collection of ancient ornaments, jewellery, relics and pottery. Learning the rituals behind what the tribes used them for was fascinating. Later we stopped at Cafe del Mar to watch the famous Cartagena sunset but after refusing to order an overpriced drink for the privilege we were swiftly punted out and enjoyed the anticlimactic sunset (too cloudy) further down the wall. Typical stingy Scots abroad!
We really enjoyed our time in Cartagena and will
maybe get to spend another day or two here before we catch our flight down to Medellin on the 2nd Sep.
Ciao for now!!
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