Cartagena, Columbia

After 5 plus days on the sailboat it was nice to be back on land again.  Only my legs and head told me I was still on the water so I was a bit land sick (?) for a while.  Cartagena, Columbia is an old colonial city of almost a million people...with an amazing ‘Old Town’ featuring gorgeous architecture and various landmarks.  As you enter the city from the sea you begin to see the large high rises along the coastline of Boca Negra.  The view really was quite impressive and rivals a lot of medium sized U.S. city skylines, including Denver.  Since we left Panama from this small fishing town we were entirely expecting to see the same thing in Colombia.  Well, clearly if Ryan and I considered doing any research whatsoever on places we are going instead of just boarding buses and asking people once we’re on our way then we wouldn’t have been so shocked with what we found.  Aside from the ridiculous heat, (no it was not 115 like Texas so if you are going to make that reference let me stop you dead in your tracks) Cartagena was easily one of the nicer, more modern places we’ve been.  My only complaints are Colombians have no concept whatsoever of service and have by far (surprise, surprise) the most aggressive drug dealers I’ve ever seen.

We stayed in the (Media Luna Hostel) which was one of the larger ones I’ve ever been in, but for some reason we were pretty reclusive and did our own thing for the most part.  You can probably credit that to being around the same 12 people on a confined ship non-stop for the 5 days prior to coming.  What I will always remember most about Cartagena however are these two luxurious things:

1. We found out the Hard Rock Café there had NFL Redzone (ask Paul Rufener if you don’t know that that is).
2. We went to the mall and watched a movie.  Granted it was only (Planet of the Apes) (which I give a C+ in case you’re interested in seeing it) but it cost us all of $4 a piece so we were pretty stoked to be in A/C and enjoy that.  Plus, Ryan finally got to eat about 36lbs of sour gummies which apparently he is obsessed with and never stops salivating over.

Although I’m back from Colombia, I’m gonna post my trip back later.  It was a very sketchy, awesome, bumpy, lonnnngggg adventure and this post will be really good so check back soon.

Dueces,
-BP

View entering Cartagena by boat