Meet Me In Cartagena

The bus brought us into Cartagena from the East at dusk, driving along a large street teeming with people using every form of transportation under the sun: dirt bikes, funky buses, bicycle rickshaws, horse-drawn buggies, and taxis lit up with random flashing lights and ridiculous wings on their trunk lids. From the bus terminal, we took a metro bus into the city center, where we got our first look at the incredible fortress walls that surround the old section. Twenty feet tall and ten feet thick, the yellowish-gray rock walls topped by massive iron canons must have seemed invincible to the residents and would-be attackers when they were built 500 years ago.

We got a taxi to the Getsimani neighborhood, just a short walk up the street from the entrance of the old city. Ninety percent of the hostels and cheap hotels in Cartagena are on one of of the four streets that run through the run down neighborhood, which in turn draws quite a bit of riff-raff to the corners, selling drugs or prostitutes. It was a little disconcerting at first, but otherwise the neighborhood was pretty cool, with really old buildings and lots of restaurants and internet cafes.

We checked into Art Hostel, a new place that occupies a massive building and is an amazing place to stay. The center courtyard has a small pool with a fountain feeding into it, surrounded by palm trees and deck chairs.



The rooms are simplistic and trendy, with all white painted concrete forming the bunk beds, showers, and bathrooms. The sink faucets are funky, giant oversized yard faucets.



The roof is the best part of the place, with outdoor lounge furniture and potted palms surrounded by panorama views of Cartagena's colonial architecture and a huge castle, all lit up with yellow lights, with a Colombian flag that is the size of an RV waving in the breeze over the city.

Walking around in the old part of town feels like Disneyland. Colorfully painted doorways and window shutters adorn every shop and restaurant, with balconies hanging overhead filled with plants. Every few blocks, huge plazas spread out in front of impeccable cathedrals and government palaces, each one with a unique twist like huge trees or a fountain or statue, sometimes all three.



Encompassing the entire city are the walls, with staircases periodically placed to allow people to walk along the top and explore the canons and arrow loops.



Just beyond the walls, the Caribbean sea meets the newer sections of the city, including Bocagrande, a stretch of oversized resort hotels that are lit up like they belong on the Vegas strip, as well as Cartagena's only McDonalds, where we ate at a lot since we are so tired of Colombian food.

We had a blast in Cartagena, spending our days exploring the old city. We visited the historical museum that showed how the city developed into one of the premier ports in the Caribbean, along the way fought off pirates and foreign navies, and harbored ships packed with slaves from Africa.. The museum also had a collection of messed up torture devices that gave us shivers.



At night we hung out on the roof of our hostel with people from all over the world, went down the the Havana Club, a Cuban bar with an awesome live band, and checked out some of the clubs around town, all super touristy, overpriced, and boring.

On Saturday morning, I got on a tour bus with about 60 other backpacker types in swimsuits and went to the nearby mud volcano for a truly bizarre experience. We drove about 35 minutes into the countryside and arrived at the lakeside pile of dried mud about fifty feet high with a wooden staircase built into the side up to a platform at the top. The entire bus emptied out and climbed up the stairs, and directed by Colombian guys who were in charge, got into a line and jumped into the large hot tub-sized mud pit at the top. The mud really smooth like chocolate pudding and extremely buoyant, making it impossible to sink or even put your head under the surface. Everyone was covered with mud, so you couldn't recognize anyone. It was so much fun, with everyone laughing hysterically and splashing around. After about fifteen minutes, the organizers had everyone get out, climb back down the stairs, and walk down to the lake, where these old women waited, standing waist deep in the water. A few at a time, we waded into the lake, and the women washed us off with bowls of lake water, sticking their fingers in our ears and noses to clean out all the mud. Weirdness.

After that we all got back on the bus and drove a few minutes away to an outdoor restaurant on the ocean. Everyone on the bus swam around in the ocean for a bit before heading over to the tables to get lunch, which was included in the tour price of $15. Then they drove us back and dropped us right at the door of our hostel.

On Tuesday, we took a side trip to the epic beach, Playa Blanca (see the next blog post).

A week of the sweltering heat and humidity at the Art Hostel was enough for us, so we decided to spend the remainder of our time in Cartagena in a nice air conditioned hotel room. The first night we stayed at a place called The Marlin hotel. It was dirty, the air conditioning barely worked, and the bathrooms were foul, so the next day we relocated to La Casona, where for the same price, $10 per night per person, had awesome air conditioning and was super clean and comfortable.

We stayed for several more days, exploring more of the old city, including going inside a section of the walls that served as a fortress and barracks for the troops. On Sunday we went up to the castle that towers over the city on a big hill. Tunnels weave around deep inside the stone walls, some with small side rooms that we assume were the sleeping quarters for the soldiers. Creepy and super cool.





Cartagena rocks.