06/05/2019 – Exploring Cartegena, Colombia

We got up just in the nick of time to get our hostel breakfast (still in my pijamas!) black coffee, melon, scrambled eggs and toast. We sat out in the shade in the courtyard and it was already bloomin’ hot, we were dripping by the end! Trying to avoid sweating into my pijamas too much, we ate up and then went back to the air conditioned bedroom/dungeon to get ready for the day. I mean, I don’t thiiiiink I am being diva by calling it a dungeon… we have to go outside the main building and then down some steps underneath get to our windowless room. It has three separate double mattresses on wooden pallets, and we both chose to sleep in our silk liners last night, which may give you an idea about the blankets. I genuinely thought to myself today, would it be a bit high maintenance to complain that there are multiple rodent/pigeon poo’s on the tiled floor? And then decided, ah its not too bad, at least there is air conditioning! And the mattress is comfy! And the breakfast is good! (And it is quite cheap!) Anyway it can’t be that bad because we have asked to stay an extra night than originally booked. Mainly so as to pontentially be able to go drinking and then have a hangover day! Dungeon room may be a good cold, dark hangover place, silver linings and that! It was most definitely a day for suncream. We had bought Josh some factor 50, so he smothered himself in the thick white cream (he still got some colour today!) I facetimed with Alice in the communal courtyard whilst I waited for Josh to finish getting ready (take away my makeup application and add in his camera fiddling and it is role reversal, I am actually ready first now most of the time!) Alice has a new rag doll kitten called Snoops and he is sooooo cute, really fluffy with big blue eyes! Josh joined me and spoke to Alice too, until the connection became pretty poor, so we said our goodbyes and left the building, ready to explore Cartegena. The main gates of our hostel are padlocked and chained so whenever we want to leave/enter we have to ask Julio, the (kind of) bouncer, to open it for us. There is definitely a language barrier but he seems very friendly! We walked through the midday sun from our area (Manga) to the main walled old-town (Getsemeni). It was bloomin’ hot but it was quite nice to get our bearings. We saw a blue heron gobble up a little fish as we crossed the bridge too, which was sweet. We stopped in Centennial park for some shade and to look at the map before finding the main clocktower/gateway into the old town and by this point were so hot we dived into the first café we came across to get some coffee and air conditioning! Josh rubbed his face so much that his suncream went into his eyes and he had to go and give himself an eyebath, and we were hit by the strong coffee so we were buzzing afterwards. We walked past souvenir shops and street vendors, and Caribbean ladies balancing fruit bowls on their head (they wear bright traditional clothes and charge tourists who take photos of them.) Cartagena old town is so beautiful. It is colonial and colourful with cobbled streets and beautiful flowers and trees growing up and around all the verandas and balconies.

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Josh is annoyed as apparently he brought the wrong lens for his camera today (I think another reason to extend our stay here, he wants to retrace our steps with a different lens I believe, gotta get that shot!) It is very, very touristy, it feels like there has been money invested into it, and has a sort of Italian/South of France feel to it kind of, with a hint of Trinidad, Cuba. We walked to the leafy square of Bolivar park and then around to the Santa Domingo Square and Temple where we got some lunch. (Josh; coconut rice and chicken, Jen; chickpea soup and a sort of falafel thing) then wandered some more to vaults square and looked West over the wall of the old town across the ocean.

Finally, the wall!

Jen at the wall.

Throughout Colombia so far we have noticed most people begging are Venezuelan families, they try and sell lollipops or hard boiled sweets. Today we were asked by a few young 5 or 6 year old children for some money, begging on behalf of their families sitting nearby. As always, it is really sad, and tough to know what is the best thing to do.

By this point we needed another cold place to sit down. I think it’s the hottest day for us so far on our trip, we were dripping with sweat all day. We found a nice coffee shop (Epoca café I think) another one that does the whole coffee show thing, Josh had a syphon filter coffee and I went for an iced latte, it was so refreshing, I want to go back for another already!

Laaavly coffee.

Then we wandered back through the main clock tower gate past some young people dancing to a live band, and hopped in a taxi back to our hostel. Whilst trying to avoid being to generic or cheesy, I literally can’t believe this is our life at the moment, we are so lucky! Just getting up and being like, what do you fancy doing today?! Exploring new places, seeing the local art, history (ok maybe we have done less of the history), experiencing different cultures, meeting so many people, learning a new language (slow and steady!) eating so much nice food/coffee, I think I have had a pinch me moment every single day since we left England. Also aside from that it is so nice to not do nightshifts! Having a body clock is great!

We got let in by Julio and relaxed for a little while before heading to the local supermarket for some provisions. We cooked in the hostel kitchen (chicken, mayo, sweetcorn, with rice pasta) before showering and getting into the cool dungeon room for the rest of the evening. (Book, nail varnish, diary, etc!)