Blogs from Cartagena, Colombia, South America - page 4

The city of Cartagena , known in the Colonial era as Cartagena de India's is a major port founded in 1533. Located on the Northern coast of Columbia in the Caribbean coast region. Became the main port of trade between Spain and established it's importance by the early 1940's The city was founded on June 1 1533 and named Cartagena. Settlement in the region around Cartagena Bay by various Indigenous people dates back to 4000 bc. During the Spanish Colonial period Cartagena served as a key role in administration and expansion of the Spanish empire. It was the center of Political, ecclesiastical and economic activity. When the Spanish conquistadors discovered the interior of Columbia was rich in gold and emeralds wealth of all kinds flowed to spain. The fortune soon invited pirate attacks. The defense the ... read more

After leaving our favourite place in Colombia, Capurgana, and leaving a sad Paco behind, we had to push on and continue our travels along the north coast, besides there was still lots to look forward to. Yes, we're going back in to the past for a moment to when we left Capurgana and took a boat and bus to get to a place called Tolu. We came here to base ourselves for a day trip to the San Bernardo islands which consists of several islands bathing in the warm waters of the Caribbean. We took a boat to the island of Murcura, latching on to a group who were doing a day tour from Cartagena. We had several hours on the small island and somehow found ourselves soaking up the sun on a quiet stretch (besides ... read more

Oscar our personal taxi driver took us to the airport, giving us our last views (albeit in rally style) of Medellín. Absolutely fantastic place but ready for some new landscape. I required 4 large red wines at the airport, building up to the “bumpiest flight ever” which turned out to be as smooth as peanut butter, and just the poor guy next to me who had sweaty palms. On arrival in Cartagena we admired the beautiful streets briefly, but had some priorities: - Quickly change into “cossies” (Hayley language) - Get a cold drink and go to the pool - Catch up on Love Island - The prospect of Boris Johnson arriving in the villa was too exciting. Unfortunately, the pool was being cleaned but we headed to our terrace for a cold beer. The travelling ... read more

Mittwoch, den 23. May, kam die Sailing Koala in Cartagena an. Nach unserem letzten gemeinsamen Frühstück und unserem Abschied haben Patrick, Ingrid und ich uns ein Taxi zu unseren Hostels geteilt ; das Taxi war super klein und ich musste mich mit meinem ganzen Gepäck auf den Beifahrersitz quetschen, aber ok, es ging. ^_^ Mein Hostel, das One Day Hostel, befand sich in einer super Gegend,, ruhig und sicher, aber nahe zum historischen Zentrum und dem Plaza de la Trinidad. Das Personal war super nett und ich durfte sogar schon Stunden vor dem Check-in duschen. Das war sehr nötig nach 30 Stunden segeln... 5 Tage auf dem Schiff ohne WLan bedeutete auch eine halbe Stunde Email, Whatsapp und Facebook checken... Als das alles erledigt war, bin ich dann zu Patrick und Ingrid ins Hostel gegangen, 5 ... read more

Cartagena 16/04/18-23/04/18 Due to terrible Colombian WiFi and painfully slow hostel computers, most of this blog has been written 4 times.. please bare this in mind :) According to my trusty Lonely Planet, Cartagena is "the undisputed queen of the Caribbean coast, a fairy-tale city of romance, legends and superbly preserved beauty lying within an impressive 13km of centuries-old colonial stone walls. The Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage site – a maze of cobbled alleys, balconies covered in bougainvillea, and massive churches that cast their shadows across leafy plazas". Some of you may know the prize-winning Novellist, Gabriel García Márquez. Márquez arrived in Cartagena in 1948 as a penniless student from Bogotá and was inspired and influenced by this charming city in much of his work. We spent one week (that is a long ... read more