Blogs from Cartagena, Colombia, South America

A relatively short flight took us to Santa Marta, the first Spanish settlement in Columbia and the second oldest in South America, where we were met by our guide for the hour plus drive to our next stop, a lodge just outside Tayrona National Park. Colombia has some 59 national parks, which makes up about 14% of the total area in this diverse country, which is impressive. Of course, you are going to need a fair amount of space to support all the flora and fauna this country has to offer. We arrived after dark and after checking in, made our way across a small pedestrian suspension bridge to our room. Luckily, we had someone take our luggage as the first time you traverse the swinging bridge, it can challenge your sense of balance. The lodge ... read more

http://www.heygo.com 27th February - Getsemaní: Culture, History, and Street Art Usually on these virtual trips you can connect with the guide around 10 minutes before the start time, that’s when people are logging in, saying hi to one another, stating where they are from and gives the opportunity for the guide to introduc themselves. Today the start time had passed & no sign of Jorge, our guide. These are live tours so anything can happen! Eventually Jorge arrived, all very apologetic because for some reason his phone was unable to connect to the VT App. Whilst trying to sort the problem a passerby offered to help and landed up lending Jorge his phone to enable the tour to continue. The guy then enjoyed our tour too, as I said all these tours are live & ... read more

I did finally figure out how to add photos on my last blog, and spent an hour downloading and writing captions...only to find out that I could not re-post! Arrrgggghhhh! But, think I’ve got it nailed (thank you Lynn, for your guidance and patience) and hopefully you’ll be able to fully enjoy this blog on COLOMBIA Part 2. MAGICAL COLOMBIA After leaving the densely packed resort town of Rodadero, we drove about 1/2 hour over a mountain to the beautiful town of Santa Marta. Upon arriving at our Air B&B, the BOUTIQUE HOTEL CACTUS SUITES, we realized we had forgotten to take our passports and cash from the safe in Rodadero! Drove like a bat-out-of-Hell (or, like a local) back over the mountain to get them, stopped on way back to Santa Marta at cute local ... read more

Now it’s time to go back to the sea side and there is a reason to do it, the reason it’s called Cartagena, and because this reason is far from Bogota’ we took a flight there. Arriving at the airport we had a thermal shock, from the “cold” city of Bogota (also called “La Nevera” by some Colombian people) to the humid tropical 33 degrees - all in 60 minutes. The sensation is similar to landing in Rome in the summer from London, the first couple of breaths when you step out of the plane is feeling that you can’t actually breathe at all, but then just after you feel a warm heat inside your chest that in my case make me feel happy. Daria is functioning better with the heat so she got happy and ... read more

Ich stand auf und wir hatten kein Joghurt mehr. Das Gefühl, das ich im Moment, als ich davon erfuhr, empfand, sollte sinnbildlich für den ganzen heutigen Tag stehen. Ich blieb vormittags im Hostel, um ein bisschen beim Blogschreiben aufzuholen. Gegen 1 bekam ich Hunger, Mathis meinte jedoch, er würde heute nicht Mittagessen. Ich fand jedoch zwei Leute, die meinten, sie würden zum Strand gehen und unterwegs vermutlich etwas essen und entschloss mich, mitzugehen. Mathis meinte, er würde ebenfalls zum Strand mitkommen, womit ich mich entschloss nicht nur bis zum Essen sondern ganz mitzukommen. Auf dem Hinweg kamen wir jedoch an keinem Essensmitnehmladen vorbei, nur an richtigen Restaurants. Da die anderen nicht so hungrig waren, wartete ich vergeblich darauf, einen Burgerladen oder ein paar Empanadas zu finden. Wir kauften unterwegs in einem Laden Eis und Kekse, die ... read more