¡Bienvenidos a Colombia! Cartagena and around

On Thursday last week, for the second day in a row, our alarm went off at 3am (not a habit I'm willing to get into) and we grumpily put our backpacks on and hopped in a cab to the airport to try and make the 6.30 am flight to Bogotá (in the hope to connect to Cartagena from there). By 5.30 am, it was clear that we wouldn't get on, but we were encouraged to come back for the 11.30 am flight. We went back to the Mariscal area in Quito and sat in a cafe for about 3 hours, freezing our backsides off and trying to stay awake.

Thankfully our second attempt to make our flight was successful, and when we arrived in Bogotá we connected to Cartagena without any issues and reached it by 5 pm. The temperature turned out to be a slight shock (having come from the mountains, at 3 000 metres altitude, and ending up on the Caribbean coast in Colombia. The jeans, fleece and hiking shoes we had on at the time weren't exactly appropriate).

For some reason, as soon as we touched the ground I started to feel really sick, and although I initially blamed it on the heat, thinking it would get better as soon as I had a shower and put on lighter clothing, I ended up spending the next 24 hours either with my head resting on the toilet or lying on the bed sounding like an agonizing animal. But it soon passed, and once I was in a state to stand up, eat and wander about, we set off to discover beautiful Cartagena.

It is indeed magnificent - a very, very old colonial city (one of the first in South America) created in 1533, on 1 June exactly (it left me wondering how that happened... some guy turned up, looked at some beach and said "Right, this is now a city"). It was the first port from which ships sailed off to Spain to bring the treasures that had been stolen from the natives and the gold and other resources found on Latin American soil.

Walking around, you can tell the place has a rich history and is over 500 years old. The streets are lined up with colourful little houses built in Spanish colonial style (warm reds, yellows, blues and pure whites which catch the light beautifully). The Old Town consists in one "Plaza" after the other, generally with some imposing church towering over it and shaded with plenty of leafy trees - these generally make for a pleasant spot to sit and recover from the heat.

We stayed in a hostel south of the Old Town, right along the old wall which was built hundreds of years ago to protect the city. The locals living in the neighbouring area were living up to the reputation of the Colombian people (who are said to love a party): on Sunday, during the whole day, they were playing baseball right on the road (which they seemed to have decided themselves should be blocked from traffic).

Everyone in the neighbourhood was watching, music was playing, they all seemed to be having a really good time. At dusk, they turned the gathering into a plain, old fashioned street party.

Several times when we were wandering around in the evening, we came across typical dancing dating back to the time of slavery I guess (since both the dance moves and accompanying drums seemed very African). We saw several groups performing it and it looked (and sounded) amazing. You have got to check out the video I've posted after this update ("Cartagena dancing") - it's worth a look.

We left Cartagena yesterday, taking a bus out to Santa Marta (a seaside town on the East of Cartagena). The journey was hot, sticky and crammed and included changing coaches because ours broke down not too far from our final destination. But we made it eventually, and continued on to Taganga, a small fishing village about 5 kms North of Santa Marta. It is surrounded by big hills; you can tell it used to be a really poor place but has developed tremendously over the past couple of years: now building in ruins are interlaced with dive shops, hostels and places to eat (mostly Gringo-style).

(View of sunset from our hostel in Taganga)

So we will be here for a couple of days, snorkelling/diving tomorrow. We're hoping to reach another beach further East, which is located in the middle of Tayrone national park - a little bit more seaside chilling, might as well enjoy it now as the next few months will mostly consist in hiking along mountainsides.

C.