Cartagena
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2008
1
11
29
Trip End
Sep 2009
Cartagena,
Colombia
Friday, October 24, 2008
Fought our way to the flat, luckily just around the corner and after sorting ourselves out went for some shopping and some alcohol. To our horror this is the weekend where Ali would be introduced to the Ley Seca - literally dry law that is imposed during voting days, and means that you are not allowed to be drunk in the street, or even order a beer in a pub. Gutted!! First accounts were that this would start at 3am in the morning and so despite our tiredness we had no option but to go out that same night
Cartagena
. After walking around for a bit we decided to go into a local bar that had a lot of ambience... the bottle of aguardiente 'evaporated' pretty quickly while we watched the costeños in their own environment. They are simply a unique type of people and in general incredibly friendly. If only you could understand what the hell they are talking about... - Caro along with the rest of the Colombian population struggle so Ali really didn't have a chance.. We did start talking to the waiter and he gave us a note pleading with a friend of his to let us into his club without paying cover. Apparently this is one of the most popular nightclubs in Cartagena, so we felt pretty lucky, and the drinks so far had given us the feeling to dance- not like Caro needs much persuading.
We enjoyed ourselves a lot, although there was noone else in the club... and we are not exaggerating. There was no one!!!! On the plus side we had the entire dance floor to ourselves for refining our drunken merengue skills. After realizing Caro had lost her flip flops we decided to head back to the apartment before allowing ourselves any more disgraces. The disadvantage of being the only ones in a club is you can't get away with hiding.
Thank God for maids. An aguardiente hangover is horrible due to its sugary content which leaves you even more dehydrated than normal. She turned up at around 10, and made possibly the best breakfast of Ali's life. This was eggs and meat all wrapped together in a greasy arepa
The flat
. Add to that the typical Colombian coffee, and the hangover was quickly forgotten about. We felt we had made the most of Ley Seca, and were a little surprised to find that the liquor shop across the road was still open for business. Apparently the mayor had decided to change it last minute to start the next morning - almost unheard of - and we half regretted spending all our party money already.Being the smart people we are, we realised the laziest and best way of seeing all of a city is to go somewhere really high. So we got a taxi to La Popa to gain a view of the entire city, and are quickly met by an eager guide who dragged us around the rather uninteresting church speaking English that makes Caro´s look good. Then he charged us 3 times the price of the entrance for the privelege. Feeling a little bit robbed, we soon learnt that this is common practice in most tourist attractions especially around here, as we would find out when we arrived to our next place, the infamous castle!
Caro had already sworn that she would not be doing this at midday, since the tempeture is sweletering, and there is no shade in any part. We arrived bang on midday in the sweltering heat with no shade and eager guides trying to sell us there services. Not today thank you very much. The castle is incredibly impressive, a huge fortress built and fortified numerous times to protect the city from the Spaniards. Without a guide we did miss out on a lot of information, though to be honest not sure if anything would have sunk in in the heat
Cartagena
. Towards the end of our 'tour' we discovered a maze of underground tunnels and spent a long time getting lost in them waiting to discover if the reason behind them would be round the next corner. It wasn't, but it was a laugh searching for it!One of the best things about Colombia is the natural juices. We've found that we have been more frecuently for a fruit juice than for a quick beer. Sad I know, but they are delicious and cheap and huge. On this basis we found ourselves drinking pints of juices in a flower market for 25p. It will not be the last.
Spent the night celebrating our first month travelling at a very nice restaurant in some Plaza, with live music and the best steaks ever (at least til we arrive to Argentina).
We filled the last couple of days walking around the streets - almost every street is full of character and life and has something of interest to it, visiting the inquisicion museum - fulls of ways of toture that were used everywhere except Cartagenaa, and finally the almost compulsory guided tour horse, carriage and all. Having spènt most of the days and nights wandering the streets there wasn't much we hadnt seen around, however our guide managed to make it interesting by showing all the important sight that we had missed - such as (and no joke) The Exito supermarket, and 'a house with a sea view'.
The trip finished with an important lesson. No matter how cheap a country seems to be - you do not buy 4 'drumsticks' of chicken for 50p. They might be chicken arse.
Hope you are all well.
Lots of love
