Friday, October 1, 2010

Day 186 - 188 (September 19 - 21) Santa Marta - Cartagena

Day 186 - 188 (September 19 - 21) Santa Marta - Cartagena
The group all or mostly all had a big night out. I was too wrecked to really go out for long. I guess I spent too many nights staying up late and hanging out and then watching the sun rise. That and I was sooo tired from the trek. I spent the next day getting laundry done, trying to clean and dry my shoes (they took another 2 days to dry completely) and buying new sandals (they turned out to be crap).

On Monday I took the shuttle door to door over to Cartagena
with one of the guys. Most of the others had gone ahead on
Sunday but I wasn't up for it. I said goodbye to the friends I had made and got the bus. It was about 5 or 6 hours to Cartagena. We got there and found the last hostel I would stay in in Colombia, Media Luna. We walked around a bit and tried to get the feel for the place. Cartagena is a gorgeous old city. There are plenty of great examples of Spanish colonial architecture, Spanish forts and cool random things to see. Then you have Boca Grande over to the west, which is all modern, high rise apartment buildings. Unfortunately I don't have a camera anymore so any photos I have are borrowed from others.

I planned on spending about the next 10 days in and around Cartagena, not
doing too much, probably spending a lot of time in the hostel pool and walking
around the city. Yup. Hard life.

So we walked around a bit, found decent places for food and took in the sites the best we could. There
are some great buildings in the old city, of course some churches and you can even walk along the old fort walls. Cartagena is the destination / departure for ton of back packers taking the boats up to / from Panama. Boats trip run about 5 days and anywhere from $285-$450. I of course had a flight back to Panama.

A bunch of us went out to check out the Cartagena nightlife. It was interesting, the music was similar to everything else, drinks were more expensive and there where definitely more hookers in the bars and clubs in Cartagena, at least that I noticed compared to other cities. In the end we all ended up on the rooftop of the hostel for a few more drinks and time just to hang out.

Well after a day or two checking out the town, Tuesday a guy from the trek and I arranged to go out to Playa Blanca Wednesday. We added another from the hostel and took off early, very early Wednesday morning.

No comments: