Monday 14th February 2011
We set off after breakfast for Cartagena, on what turned out to be a 4.5 hour bus ride. Travel tip, make sure your headphones are in your day sack for any long journey. Sadly for us this bus driver had replaced the normal upbeat tunes with dreary rubbish. It felt like the longest journey yet, but it was worth it to get to Cartagena.
Lovely colours. |
What a beautiful place. With the combination of the heat, the colours, the music and the buildings, it's easy to see why this place is a world heritage site.
On arrival it immediately felt like the temperature had been turned up another notch, hovering around the early 30s. After reading some pretty shocking reviews, and finding the good places booked, we decided to treat ourselves and stay in a nicer hotel. We have not been disappointed.
Nice hotel. |
Before dark, we had just enough time to get our bearings and take a walk along the old city walls. We imagined Sir Francis Drake blowing through them. We are in disagreement as to whether he's a national hero or a pirate. Between the wall and the sea now stands a ringroad. We can only imagine that land was reclaimed to allow this to be built. It does at least keep some traffic out if the old town, good since it's generally gridlocked, especially when it's raining. We experienced some rain on our way in and the taxi driver said that it hadn't rained since early December. On top of this, the Trans Caribe is currently being built (same as the Trans Milenio in Bogota and the Metrobus in Mexico City) which has also impacted on the traffic.
Tuesday 15th February 2011
The fort. |
The main plan for the day was to visit the Castillo San Filipe de Barajas, a 17th century fort that was built to protect the city. This was an interesting array of battlements and tunnels. The tunnels were originally living quarters and offices. The soldiers were obviously short as James was 3-4 inches too tall to stand up straight.
Yum! |
In the evening we took another recommendation from our scouts and headed to 'El Santisimo' for dinner. We had amazing food accompanied by as much beer, wine and whisky as we could drink. It was exceptional value that you'd struggle to find in the UK.
Wednesday 16th February 2011
Sun worshipping. |
Whilst booking our Thursday excursion, we got a tip that in a rather rough park just outside the city walls, there lives some interesting wildlife. We saw loads more iguanas basking in the sunshine and a couple of red squirrels. We were not, however, able to spot the monkeys or sloths.
Not the old part. |
Cartagena is made up of several different areas and to contrast the old with the new, we set off for the hour's walk to Bocagrande. Taking in the naval base on the way, we soon decided that we were glad not to be staying here. Whilst the old city has tons of character and identity, this new part could be any costal resort.
Not quick enough to get the cherry on top. |
It did allow us time for an ice cream though (only the second of the trip) and in the tropical sun this was a welcome relief. This area is being developed very quickly and one imagines it will look very different in a few years' time.
Cracking pizza. |
For dinner we went to pizza in the park. This is a great establishment that uses the walls and benches of the park to seat its customers. It not only serves great pizzas in a lovely atmosphere, it's also a good 30% cheaper than other pizza places. This is handy as everything here is more expensive than we've experienced so far. Given the number of tourists though, this is not a surprise.
After dinner we popped into a little bar for one last beverage. What we got was the low down on what drugs were available to us. We only stayed for the one drink. It's fair to say we've not heard anything drug related until we reached here.
Thursday 17th February 2011
Our island. |
Having largely avoided the sun and sea, this was our day to enjoy both. There's a group of 27 islands about 46km from Cartagena called 'Las Islas del Rosario', a national coral park. After the customary waiting around, we boarded our speedboat and took the hour trip to our island for the day, 'La Isla del Pirata'. We headed out to meet the Caribbean Sea, on the way passing through Bocachica (small mouth) where two forts offered an ingenious first line of defence. The crux of it was a chain that could be lifted between the two blocking the path. The high fort would then take aim of the masts, while the low fort attacked the hull. One fort is also famous for the movie 'Romancing the Stone'.
Clear waters and very sunny. |
On arrival at our island we quickly decided to take the snorkelling tour. We had an hour looking round the beautiful coral reefs and seeing loads of tropical fish. This is something we definitely want to do again. Our favourite fish was a small black one with luminous blue spots. Sadly the camera wouldn't have survived any photos.
The speedboat back was a real bone-rattling experience. With the seas choppier, we were constantly flung about and no doubt will have bruises to show for it.
A nice relaxing dip in our hotel pool topped off the afternoon.
What a lovely couple. |
Beautiful street. |
Hi Emma and James
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful adventure great being able to read an up to date diary. Can't work googlemail I am an imbecile in IT I have decided! Thought I had sent a message but now unsure! Just wanted to let you know have booked Barnaby's christening for 8th May so I can get organising for then. Hope you get this, still unsure if have managed to communicate!!! Love Em xxxx