Cartagena....back to the coast at last...
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2008
1
8
54
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Cartagena,
Colombia
Monday, April 14, 2008
I arrived in Cartagena last night from Medellin, flight was drama free which is always good for me!! :o)
I have booked into the Marlin Hotel in Getsami...the dogey part of the old town...the Hotel is nice and cheap at USD$10 per night own room and bathroom. ...the security is fine as all guests have to be buzzed in through the door so no one is in the hotel that isn't booked in here.
The street of course is filled with the down and out or undesirables but they aren't interested in me as I am not interested in them. There is a lovely brothel next door ..haha....but also a useful tailor to fix my skirt and the laundomat is across the road, Hectors Bodega a short stroll to get the morning milk for my cereal... so the good with the bad aye!!!!
My first night in town I thought I would take a look around but I arrived in darkness and then never left the foyer of the hotel as I bumped into Andy and Cheryl an English couple who had stay at the Black Sheep in Medellin so we sat there chatting about traveling and other things drinking the Colombian coffee that is free for all...talk about a caffeine rush!
Frey is arriving tomorrow lunchtime and I will be going to the airport to pick her up...we are booked to stay another couple of nights here at the Marlin then we will make a plan and move on for a few days.
To celebrate Freya's impending arrival I went and got a pedicure & my hair washed and dried...again a bargain for a few hours pampering...USD$10.
Freya's here Freya's here !!! :o)
Then off to the airport...while I was still haggling with the cabbie to wait for me for the return journey I heard my name being called and there she was out of the gates already!!! She looked great and was beaming from ear to ear to be in Colombia. Last time we saw each other was 3 and a bit years ago in Brissy!!Once we were sorted back at the hotel we strolled the streets for awhile to find a place to have lunch and get a cold beer...then it was catch up time for a few hours!!
Our first night turned out to be quite posh...so much for being back packers on a budget!!!...we bumped into Jorge a Colombian guy that had also joined me for the coffee drinking with the POMs the night before...he was from Medellin and in Cartagena on business...His business was town planning and architecture...we asked him if he wanted to join us for dinner as were we were off to search for some Italian he agreed and met us later to go for dinner. By then tho we were no longer going for Italian he had become our mini tour guide and was taking us to a beautiful Santa Clara Hotel, converted from a Convent, for drinks on the terrace...then to a bar on the fort wall called Café Del Mar which had fantastic views back to the new city across the water and of course down on the old city...they played cool lounge chill tunes and we ordered half a bottle of rum and chatted about Colombia and of course the elusive Spanish language!! He mentioned that he had taken the liberty of booking a table at one of the best restaurants in the old town where musicians and famous people generally go and hang out listening to the Cuban band play their tunes.
The streets were we were staying
The seafood was amazing as was the music....we were late arriving so our best table had been given away to no less than a famous Colombian rockstar and his chica...so we sat at the table next to them!!! Lol...mind you Freya and I have flops on our feet and are pretty much dressed for a bowl of pasta and a beer. It was a fun night and well worth the dinero to see some of the sites we would never have found ourselves! Thanks Jorge!We spent another day checking out the old city and taking a tour to the mud volcano...as you can see in the pictures this is all a bit messy...Freya and I were laughing at the fact that instead of getting boob jobs all you had to do was cake yourself in mud and you could look HUGE!!! Haha! Check out the pics and you will see what it is all like...the mud is thick and holds you up...it's kinda hard to move around in .. the guys giving out the mud massages...supposed to be theraputic...sort of just push you into place.
Neither of us thought to take a pic from the outside but it's a little volcano about 20 metres high. It is said that a priest was riding by when he saw the the volcano start and bubbling lava on the earths surface...he poured holy water on it stop the devil and from that time forward it has only spewed forth mud!!! We washed off in the nearby lake and then went on to the beach and had lunch.
Tomorrow we are heading to Taganga down the coast more.
