Day 14 – Leaving Santa Marta for Cartagena
On the road again for a few hours. We started at nine today from Santa Marta and arrived in Cartagena about four hours later. It’s quite the change from Santa Marta to Cartagena. Santa Marta was warm and nice, and Cartagena was hot and humid.
We are living in the old part of town inside the fortress walls so our bus was not able to get us all the way to the hostel. We got off just outside the walls and had only a few hundred meters to walk to our hostel. We stayed at the Be Lounge Hostel. Nice clean rooms with working air condition 🙂
Still no shower heads though. Like the rest of the coastal area there are signs all over the hostel telling you to conserve water. However the idea of a shower head to make it possible to get clean on less water doesn’t seem to be possible.
After getting settles on our room some of us went to get some food. And since it had been a while since breakfast we stopped at the first one. Sitting outside on Plaza Santo Domingo we got some nice food and quickly.
The rest of the afternoon I spent at the hostel fixing the web pages for Sofienberg Musikkorps. Someone managed to get access to our site during the Christmas week and plant some not so nice files there.
While I was working the rain started pouring down, and I was glad I was inside.
I went back to the same area that I had lunch later and had a nice late dinner in the warm night. 26 degrees C at midnight isn’t bad.
Tomorrow we’ll do a trip to Isla de Tierra Bomba. We are having a day on a resort there for some sun and fun.
Day 15 – Relaxing in the “sun”
Today I woke at five and was freezing cold. The air conditioning has been on full blast the whole night and now it was freezing in the room. I went out to get some warmth in me, and someone went for the remote. With the air condition of I got some more sleep before it was time to get ready.
We had breakfast at the hostel, horrible weak coffee, and two pieces of ham and cheese. Not much to fill you up.Then we were of to the harbour to be picked up by boat to go to the island.
The boat ride was pleasant enough, even if we had a few hard hits in the choppy water.
We spent the day at the Blue Apple Beach House. Relaxing by the pool, in the pool and in the warm Caribbean water. We had a beach volleyball match and a wonderful three course lunch. At four we got back on the boat and circled the island and back to Cartagena.
The rest of the day was spent walking around town and just relaxing in the heat.
We went to Cafe Del Mar for a sunset drink. Some of us ended the evening at the Mona Lisa bar right next to our hostel. A small place with a great atmosphere and nice drinks. Even managed to put up my pink caravan sticker, part of our little contest for tomorrow.
Tonight we managed to get the air conditioning dialled in so sleeping should be possible.
Day 16 – Last day in Cartagena
This will be out last day in Cartagena and we wanted to explore the oldest fortress in the city, however when we came there the queue was so long that we didn’t bother. We went back into the old town and had some great crepe and ice cream for lunch instead.
Later we had our official end of trip dinner, and pink party. We still have almost two days in Bogota before we go home, but we are leaving Ida here who will continue her travel alone. And Sofia thought it would be nice to have the party somewhere warm. Bogota will probably be a lot colder.
We had out dinner at a nice place outside the main part of town. Great food and a bit cheaper than in the centre of Cartagena. Cartagena is the most expensive part of this trip when it comes to food and drinks.
Then we went back to the hostel where we had some more beer and a taste of Aguardiente. We also got to see and vote for the best pink caravan sticker placement. Lot of creativity here, and I wonder how many will be there for more than a few hours.
I’m hoping mine at the Mona Lisa pub will last for a while. Perhaps the group going next year can find it.
Tomorrow we are starting on the trip back home. First stop back in Bogota tomorrow.
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