Our journey to Cartagena involved a shorter bus from Guatapé back to Medellín and then a night bus. We knew there was a chance traffic could be bad in the early evening, but our contingency time didn’t account for a road incident which led to us arriving into Medellín minutes after our night bus was due to depart. Fortunately, we vaguely knew the station and Chris broke into a run to take us to the bus bay where they knew exactly who we were. We were the last ones on and so relieved to have made it. We were also very pleasantly surprised by the huge reclining seats and both managed a good 6+ hours of sleep.
Getting off the bus in Cartagena was like hitting a wall of heat. Given the temperatures, we took our days slowly and with well-timed aircon breaks. We enjoyed seeing the colourful architecture of the old colonial city, walking the walls, Colombian dance performances, and slightly strange but quite nice religious projections on churches in celebration of Santa Semana.
Weather:
When we were in Medellín, our tour guide said wow it’s hot it’s like being in Cartagena – he was not wrong. The city is hot hot hot, reaching temps of 37°C in the day and dropping to a not so cool 27°C overnight.
Where we stayed:
We stayed in a hostel that was nothing to write home about. It was quite hard to find reasonably priced accommodation here, probably thanks to it being so popular with Americans 😉
The Getsemaní neighbourhood where we stayed, just outside the city walls, was great though. Full of street art and colourful buildings, it was a lively and fun place to be.
Best thing we ate:
Cartagena seems to have lots of tasty restaurants, one being Doña Lola, which was a bit of a treat. It’s a Caribbean restaurant and we both chose to make the most of being by the sea: Florence had the fish of the day (a white fish, we’re not quite sure which) and Chris had the grilled octopus. They also happened to make it pretty fancy cocktails which we enjoyed to start. We topped it off with a tiramisu for Florence (unsurprisingly) and a carajillo for Chris. 10/10 would recommend.
On the liquid side of things (Chris’s wording), we went to the no.8 bar in the world. Chris had an intriguingly dark goats cheese cocktail, but other than that we were not amazed by the drinks. The atmosphere and vibe was pretty cool though.
Coolest thing we did:
Following on from our treat of a dinner, we decided to continue the theme. When in the Caribbean, how could we not go to an island for a beach day? After much research online (thanks to Chris) we landed on Isla del Pirata. Whilst we may have spent as much time getting there and back as we did on the island itself, it was pretty special. We bagged ourselves a beach bed – yes, a four poster – and set about reading, swimming, and drinking Caipirinhas. Do you hate us yet?
The water was as promised, blue and clear, and somehow we managed not to get too burnt despite the extreme UV. Chris even spotted some cool fish and a colourful crab without paying extra to rent the snorkels.
The only downside was that we had to be back on the boat to return at 2pm because the Caribbean Sea gets choppy. However, the return journey included a ride along a river lined with reeds, grasses, bright green palm trees, and even an iguana perching on a branch.
Bonus:
We had been saying for a while that while in Colombia we should do a dance class. On a whim one evening Chris booked us a salsa class for the next day. After a bit of a false start (being sent to the wrong location an hour early), we learnt the salsa basics: marching on the spot, side to side, forward and back, you get the picture. There was one other couple there and while it wasn’t a competition, Chris was quite pleased with himself and Florence was chosen to be the demo partner to the teacher. We have no video evidence of this so you’ll just have to take our word for it.
Bonus bonus:
We saw a sloth in a tree in a park.
Next up is a trip into the rainforest, hasta luego!
Besos,
Florence and Chris