Caribbean vibe in Cartagena
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2011
1
9
11
Trip End
Sep 25, 2011
Cartagena, Colombia
Saturday, September 17, 2011
The bus was small but it was new and had all the luxury we could wish for – a clean toilet, air-conditioning and “inflight” entertainment in Spanish. Buses tend to be the fastest animal on the roads here and bus drivers seem like they have a past in Formula One. They are much more careful than taxi drivers here though, but still it can be interesting. At one point the driver was going too fast over a bump resulting in we got thrown 20 cm up in the air (literally!). Luckily it wasn't 30cm, because then we would have hit the roof.
We arrived in Cartagena a bit after eight o’clock, too late to take a bus. So we had to try to find a willing taxi driver – easy you should think - but no. Knowing that the official price should be 12,100 COP we were confronted with drivers wanting 20,000 COP and certainly not being friendly (not very Colombian in our mind). But finally we got a taxi at 15,000 COP a bit too much but better than what we had been offered otherwise.
The driver had to work for his money, traffic in Cartagena is not what can be described as flowing. The roads are quite run down and there are big holes that should to be avoided. On top of the roads are the really funny thing called traffic. The traffic here in Cartagena seems mad, especially in the outskirts. Cars, buses and an uncountable number of motorcycles all doing what serves them the best without any obvious traffic rules. After arriving at the old part of town the difficult part was to find the hotel. The driver ended up asking locals to the neighbourhood and walking us the last bit. Thank you Lonely Planet for listing this hostel. It was a bit of a gamble, but we needed an address to give to the driver. We think it has the best location in El Centro: next to Plaza Santo Domingo. We were welcomed by beautiful dancers in colourful outfits and many enthusiastic people in the square. Saturday night is the most lively we have heard. After having settled in we went back to the square and had a delicious pizza.
Cartagena is an old colonial town and the old part (El Centro) is incredible romantic and beautiful. The only backside of the town’s beauty is the many tourists and street vendors. The weather is a hard to explain but warm and humid is a good start. The people are somewhat more aggressive in their expressions than we have been used too in the rest of Colombia. But still people are very friendly and helpful.
Our first full day in the city was spent walking around, ending up with us heading towards the only McDonalds in town - a 4 km walk there and back. But sometimes the slightly insane is the sanest thing to do. The fries and Sundays were delicious. The side effect of the heat and humidity is that our appetite during the day is minimal but our thirst is a constant fact. We strolled the streets during sunset, which is the best time, and we finished our day at our pizza place on our square.
Today we have been somewhat more efficient, visiting Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, the greatest fortress the Spaniards ever built in South America. It was supposedly designed by a Dutch guy, which explains the map in Dutch on one of the walls, which we then found quite surprising. We also managed to book a trip to the mud volcano for tomorrow. Our idea was to find our own way, however, after our last experience we decided to play safe.
