Hotel Estelar Oceania Cartagena

... thing. Or the whole Spanish language barrier...I must say, my spanish has greatly improved since being down here. I can speak it pretty well and have a conversation with someone as long as they dont talk pretty fast. Jamie is OK with his spanish. So he has me tag along just incase stuff gets lost in translation and sometimes I have absolutely NO idea what they said. so then we are both pretty much SOL. Its nice to be moderately proficient in spanish to the point where Jamie ...

... and to change it in the morning.

It was at this point that Jody had discovered that we had left our beloved size 2 football at the beach. It was an excellent travel football, great for practicing and small games, and we were unlikely to be able to get a replacement. Initially we dropped into the super market for some basic provisions, then we split, Christie and Niamh went back to the accommodation whilst Jody and I grabbed a taxi to return to the spot where we ...

... over a hundred apartments co-located and only accessible through a single entry which was manned by a guard. The apartments had a courtyard, which was surrounded by a high wall.

Our first disappointment came when we found out that the apartment was not to be entirely ours. The apartment had two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and one kitchen. We could choose which bedroom we wanted. We chose one that had a balcony, it was small but adequate ...

... no choice we planned to cycle 5 miles down the motorway to get to the next town (no other option mum, blame the Spanish for poor project management and wasting money on statues of imaginary people)

Highlights:
We asked someone watering there garden for water and she took us into her house and gave us threee unopened botttles of mineral water.

we made lemonade from liberated lemons and water.

Lowlights:
The lemonade tasted like ****

... and order Churrioes which they found hard to understand what we were ordering cuz its pronounced differnt than how it is spelt.

Later that evening we cooked some we wedges on the BBQ then we had those which sausage and curry sauce!

Then we went to a spanish bar which was quite exspensive but it was all locals except for 2 other english people.

... spanish familes.

We went to a spanish bar and had a few drinks there and then we saw the road train which went back so we got onto it the lady came over for us to pay and started pointing at my eyes and speaking in spanish i think she was saying i had nice eyes lol!

We got the road train back to bolnuevo which played music and when u went past people everyone waved at you!

... selling these long things which looked like long thick chips. I wasnt that good at spanish to ask what they were so i just went a pointed saying una! She said Ingles and i said yes she gave me one portain( six sticks) and i put sugar on them as i saw other people doing

They were very nice it was like donut dough in a long stick which was fried, I later found out by my nan that they were called Churrioes.

Then we went back layed by the pool that night we had dinner at me nans.

... all the locals seemed to be at this bar and no tourist except for me and Josh and this is exsacly what i wanted to go to the more spanish areas with the locals and not the tourist areas.

Then after a drink there i went for a swim in the sea and we walked back to the villa and swam in the swimming pool.

It was about 3pm and 39 degress now!! Then sat on the balcony read a book and walked down to the restaurant at 8pm to take my ...

... selection but you need a cab to get there or a mini bus. Jon and I had decided that after a few days relaxing in hot Cartagena we would jump on a boat trip to see the Isla del Rosario ( an array of island south of Cartagenta) and on the way back it stops at a beautiful beach called Playa Planca ( white beach) where we would jump off and stay for a few nights.

Isla del Rosario unfortunately had torrential rain and meant all was not worth it and to be honest ...

... him 50 cents. Worth it? Certainly...you don't get to swim in a mud crater every day and the whole experience was worth it - you get to see the new (scary?) side of Cartagena. Besides, you could do it cheaper DIY, but it's not an easy bus route and it is hotter than hell up here...and you'd have to walk too! Pay the $11.

On the way back, we stopped in some small fishing village for lunch. Clearly they had a deal with the tour company. Big tables were ...