El Dorado Hotel Cartagena

... boats and casting off back to Spain with their stolen bounty. But numerous pirates (Francis Drake amongst them) were there to try to steal it back. This set off, likely, a spectacular canon battle against this city for who knows how long - but inspired the city to build the walls, complete with canon outposts and a huge fort on the edge of the bay to sit up high as a lookout and command post. (Built from stone, it was way more ...

... Cartagena tomorrow. There are some nice beaches and islands near here to visit, but the next town im moving too is a beach place with scuba diving, so no point doubling up and wasting money going to another beach, plus all the beaches people rave about here always tend to disappoint me. Australian beaches are so good!<br><br>Went out for some dinner and had a few quiet drinks at the hostel, nothing too exciting, as Im off early tomorrow morning to continue the Colombian adventure!<br><br>

... connections had rotted away and some muck had got into his carbs, but we eventually resolved all the issues and got going into the old city and the Hostel Holiday which had a courtyard to take our bikes in safety.<br>We spent most of the afternoon re hydrating and recovering after the major ordeal. We had to meet Fritz at 7 that evening to pick up our passports.<br>We still had to sort out the legal importing of our bikes but that was a job for manaña!

From Santa Marta, we took a bus to Cartagena. Cartagena is an old colonial city, known for its charm and being a hot vacation spot for Colombians. Guide books had pumped up Cartagena as the colonial city of South America. We had high expectations, but Cartagena fell flat. The beach directly outside of Cartagena is not for swimming. The beautiful beaches are on the islands, and these are heavily touristy. A "nice" man ...

... ready to protect the city from theiving pirates. The new city in comparrison to the old is just a lot of high rise bulidings on the beach. . . .?does it remind you of surfers paradise?<br><br>About an hour outside of Cartagena is where the mud volcano is located. Initially the volcano, which is not much more than a three story high pile of mud, is unimpressive; but after floating on the gelotine like mud ...

... they found an old tomb containing the remains of bishops and abbots and other people and apparently a blonde slave girl that inspired one of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Pierre-Paul and I have been hunting for this hotel since we arrived (we weren't sure which one it was but had read about it in ´´Of Love and Other Demons´´). So it was very, very cool. Sorry, Granny and Grandpa, if you are reading this. The breasts on the mannequins ...

... patience and tenacity is beyond what I call normal.<br><br><br>Culture box ticked, we head on out to Huanchaco beach that afternoon to catch a few waves, some sun and a seafood lunch. A perfect way to spend the rest of the day. Then back to town to pick up our bikes and back to the guesthouse.<br><br><br>That night we venture out with a few locals and end up in Cafe Bohemia, a groovy little bar hidden off the main drag with the promise of live music. After an Axl Rose style wait for ...

... a tiny seaside town famous for having the cheapest (but quality!) scuba diving in the world. We haven't scuba dived since our Belize honeymoon, but after a bit of a nervous start we were back in the wonderful underwater world, communing with the tropical fishes. We even braved a night dive during which we saw a blowfish (puffed up and trying to get out of ...

... their hotel was cheaper than ours. They always go out of their way to help you and make sure you´re having a good time. So eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the dancers in order to eat - ate the most enormous dinner and then stumbled across what turned out to be one of the best clubs in Cartagena called the Havana Club. They had a live band playing Salsa and Son music - so ofcourse there was also lots of ...