Cartagena, baby!

We landed in Cartagena, Colombia! Another dream come true! I’ve heard so many excellent things about Cartagena, and I’ve been itching to go for a while now, and I’m so glad we worked it into this trip! After El Salvador, we were supposed to go to Nicaragua, but it ended up being too complicated, lol. Either a 16-hour bus or expensive flights in and out, so the natural solution to the problem was obviously to fly to Colombia! Hehe.

We got a quick Uber ride to our airbnb, which wasn’t ready yet, so we left our bags in the apartment and walked to the walled city. There is a part of Cartagena that is surrounded by an old wall, and that’s the main attraction here. We went in search of an ATM and some food. Another typical routine of ours…cash, food, and a grocery store, lol. We found a place to try arepas, a typical food from Colombia. Not completely unlike pupusas, they are fried corn tortillas stuffed with a variety of ingredients. Delicious! And of course, Dana and I tried a local beer, the Club Colombia. We were served the coldest, crispest beers we’ve had on this trip so far. Perfect for such hot weather. Although, the wind is also brutally strong here, too, so that helps to cool off a bit. 

After a trip to the grocery store to get some staples for breakfast, we walk back to the airbnb and check out the rooftop pool! The airbnb is in one of those tall condo buildings I saw from the plane and it has an infinity pool on the roof. What?! Haha. This is awesome! We get up there, and the water is luke warm at best, and the wind was so fierce, it actually made us cold, hehe. So we didn’t stay for long, but we observed our surroundings, which were still very hazy. I wonder if it is like this all the time, or if today is just especially hazy. Time will tell!

Once back inside the apartment, we shower…hot water! Woohoo! And begin doing our work :). Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Alarm is set for 6:30am, but I’m awake before then, as has now become customary, lol. I stay in bed until just before 7, when I finally get up and put on a pot of coffee. I’m excited (anyone surprised? Haha) to try the coffee we picked up at the grocery store yesterday. It was the cheapest bag we could find, but it is Colombian coffee. I settle in and get some writing and picture editing work done while the java is brewing. As soon as it’s done, I grab myself a cup and dive in. It smells heavenly, and my first sips of the black gold can only be described as pure bliss. It’s so flavorful, with notes of acidic berries and rich chocolate. I’m in love. Hehe. 

We head out the door by 8:30 and walk to the walled city, hoping to grab a few pictures before meeting our walking tour at 10. It’s morning, but the sun is out with a vengeance, and sweat is literally dripping down my face, and I’m quite positive each one of my pores was on overdrive, lol. This is gonna be a tough day. 😅

We meet our walking tour just outside the walled city, near the clock tower. We’re early, naturally, and end up waiting quite a while before the tour starts. It’s a HUGE group, and Dana, Hayden, and I all give each other the look, thinking this isn’t gonna be good. Our guide takes us over to some shade, and begins explaining a couple of basic facts about the city of Cartagena. She has a microphone and a small speaker, but it just doesn’t compete with the busses and traffic passing us by on the road. This will be a long 2-hour tour. 

We move on to the next stop, now inside the city walls, and again, even protected from the main street, it’s difficult to hear our guide. There are other groups near us doing similar tours, and honestly, it’s tiring to strain your ears to hear. I’m doing alright, and she asked us a trivia question about something she had just told us, and I answered and got it right! And was rewarded with a little mango candy. Hehe. Yes! And now, onto the third stop. By this point, the three of us were already discussing whether or not we’d stick it out. We didn’t want to waste 2 hours following a guide around that we could barely hear. So we stay for another two stops, and finally decide we’ll conveniently “lose” the group and go on our own self-guided wandering tour. Haha 

While plotting our getaway, we did actually lose sight of the group, and we just slowly skirted away to the opposite of the plaza we were in. Success! We all felt a tad guilty, as it wasn’t the guide’s fault, but it just wasn’t worth it to us. We hope she made out okay with her tips, despite us and some others bailing on her, since it was such a large tour group.

We walk around on our own, simply letting our eyes guide us. If we spot something interesting, we’ll head in that direction. We eventually come to a road lined with tour busses which we think must be from cruises. And sure enough, each of the busses has a sign identifying which cruise it’s from and which number bus it is. Oh god. There have got to be hundreds, if not thousands of cruise people roaming the streets with us. Hehe. I wouldn’t say that’s a terrible thing in itself, but the sheer quantity of people inundating the city sure is. The sidewalks are so filled with people it’s difficult to walk on the sidewalks without nearly tripping over someone’s feet, or being bumped into the road, narrowly missing the one brave car that has attempted to traverse the people filled streets. Yikes! 

Continuing on our stroll, we see various artwork on the streets, and start asking for prices. To our surprise, most people give us a similar price, although we know we can probably haggle and get it for cheaper. We make a plan to come back tomorrow with a game plan. Our walk takes us past beautiful colonial buildings with the most ornate balconies, covered in flowers and vines. Cartagena is such a beautiful place to just walk around and admire the colorful architecture. 

Expect for the heat. Haha. We’re good and toasted at this point, so we head to a restaurant for lunch. One of the sides that came with our meals was coconut rice, and it was so delicious! I ordered a fish fillet with a creamy garlic-lemon sauce. It was also yummy, but the sauce was all I could taste. I figured getting fish in a sea-side city would be the right choice, and maybe it was, but not with a strong flavored sauce on top hehe. 

Once we had our fill and cooled off for a bit, back out we went, iinto the sauna that is Cartagena. We had a few missions to accomplish before heading back to our wonderful apartment. I was tasked with getting a t-shirt from a specific hotel for a friend of mine, and Hayden was bent on getting “the shot” he saw on google. We attempt to find the street that would give us said shot, but it’s just not quite right. We look at the picture again to try and determine where it was taken from, but we finally decide it must’ve been photoshopped or manipulated to the point where we couldn’t take the same shot naturally. Oh well. We got really close, but didn’t quite complete the mission. Onto the next: operation find a t-shirt. We walk to the boutique hotel, which is wicked adorable, and ask for a shirt. They have plenty, and it turns out to be really cute! I’m almost tempted to buy one for myself, but we weren’t staying there, nor were we going to go to the rooftop bar, so I opted not to. I was simply satisfied with fulfilling my mission! Maybe there will be a girl’s trip there in the future? What do you say, Josie and Connie? 😁

On our way back to the apartment, we stop by the grocery store and get some goodies for dinner. We’re calling it early today. Start early, end early, haha. We take an Uber back to the apartment because we’re just not up to walking it again, and the Uber is a whopping $2. We get back, put the groceries away and take showers. Hayden made us some dinner, and we found Netflix on the tv, and put on the latest season of “You.” We didn’t know it then, but we were gonna binge it all, hehe. It was so nice to just relax and do nothing for a change. I think we all needed it after such a long and hot day walking around in the sun.

Until next time! 🤗😊.