Happy New Year from Cartagena

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Wed 1 Jan 2014 16:00
Happy New Year to you all! We hope you all had a great time celebrating that start of the new year. Our plan all along had been to spend either Xmas or New Year's Eve in Cartagena, and thankfully, despite some weather issues along the way we were able to do this.
The taxi from Santa Marta was booked to arrive at 7.30am, for what we had been led to believe was a three hour ride to Cartagena. This turned into a slightly longer journey, and with a brief coffee and elevenses stop we arrived at the hotel at 12.30. Check in was not until 3pm, but after a short wait we had our rooms. Due to the fact that it was new year and we had been unable to book as early as we might have wanted, we had a hotel outside of the main city, in the beach area of Bocagrande. The hotel details boasted an indoor and outdoor pool and we had both booked junior suites, all that were available, for the trip. The pool was half indoors and half out, in fact the whole hotel was half indoors and half out as it was only half finished in places despite the decor showing a good deal of use! The 'suites' although decent sized rooms were nothing like as grand as the descriptions suggested, but still very good value for money considering the time of year. In spite of this, the location was good and the taxi ride to the walled city was 5,000 pesos (£1.60).
The area around the hotel was 'beachy' and 'resorty' with lots of big hotels, swimwear shops and fast food chains. The beaches were, like Santa Marta, unfortunately disappointing, narrow and grassy, and the sand looked almost muddy. A few brave sorts were sitting out under beach shelters, but it was so windy while we were there, that a hour at the beach would have included a full body exfoliation from the sand! But we weren't there to enjoy the beach, we had sightseeing to do, and a whole walled city to explore.

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The view of the city as we walked through the gate.

After a short taxi ride, we were in the historical centre of Cartagena. Lunch was a quick stop in a creperie, and then we set off walking to get out bearings and a feel for the city. The buildings and squares were lovely, again as in Santa Marta, it was noticeable that there were few bars and cafés in them. We wandered, popping into the shops and checking out restaurant menus as we passed through the streets. Dinner that night was in a small italian, reported on Trip Advisor to serve the best carbonara outside of Italy, David had it and agreed it was certainly good, but that good? The night ended in a local coffee and rum bar sitting outside on the street watching the world pass by.

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Another of the city gates.

As is usual in many of the towns and cities we have visited, day two was the day of the hop-on, hop-off bus tour. The route took us on a loop round the city walls and out to the beach areas and the residential areas surrounding the lagoon. Cartagena almost feels like an island, as everywhere you look, there is water. One thing that is immediately obvious is the total lack of 'sea defences'. All along the lagoon edges the roads were flooded with salt water over flowing onto the roads, I would definitely not buy a ground floor flat here, a bit of global warming to raise the water levels a couple of centimetres and your house is flooded!

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Flooded streets - the seawater just washes over the bank.

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A more modern view of the city.

We got off the bus at the Castillo San Felipe, one of the most important and most visited attractions in the city. It was clearly 'cruise ship' day when we were there, crowds of confused looking, badly dressed folk with name labels and wristbands! Instead of all following the audio tour, which can be a bit of a pain at times and very long winded, we nominated John as our tour guide, it was his job to listen and tell us the interesting bits.

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The castle.

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Our tour guide for the trip.

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Lunch was in a very local, non English speaking restaurant. The menu was a little confusing, but we eventually managed to order a prawn and a 'fish' ceviche, and grilled red snapper to follow. Ceviche is a local speciality and usually delicious, there was no way we could decipher exactly what fish was in the ceviche, but it was very tasty. The snapper came whole and while it looked over cooked at first glance, was actually very well done, the skin was crispy and the fish inside yummy!
To gear ourselves up to stay out until midnight for New Years Eve, we headed back for an afternoon siesta. We had made no plans for the evening, preferring to see how things worked out first. All the restaurants were selling special New Years Eve menu ranging from 150,000 to 300,000 pesos per head (£50-£100). Eventually we settled on a small hotel, styled round a courtyard, where we had ceviche and lobster to eat, and we saw the New Year in on the roof top watching fireworks explode round the city. The whole city was in party mode, the were tables and chairs set up on every street, either by restaurants or just for people to come and use and bring their own food and drink. The atmosphere was very much a party, there was music on every corner and bands playing in the squares. It was probably the best New Years Eve we have had in ages.

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New Year celebrations would not be the same without a silly hat - no sure what happened to John's though..

New Years Day started with a lie-in. When we did wake up we realised that this was the first true bank holiday we had experienced here - everything was closed! We had missed breakfast in the hotel, so needed food and eventually found a coffee shop open. Xmas Day in Santa Marta had been like any other, so we were quite surprised to see all the shops and restaurants closed. Places did open up later in the afternoon though. We did the usual New Years Day walk, this time round the walls of the old city, and through some of the areas we hadn't yet visited. There was a brisk breeze to take the edge off the heat which made walking comfortable.
That evening, the town was absolutely heaving when we went for dinner! The only night of the three when it was easy to get a taxi was ironically New Years Eve, the other two we waited ages, both going in and coming out of town.
Now time to go home. We had a bit of time on the last day for a spot of shopping on the morning before getting the cab back home. The journey back took ages, we left at 12.45 and arrived home at about 18.45!! A long day. We did have a great lunch stop though. We had passed through various fishing villages on the way to Cartagena, and the driver took us to a small local seaside restaurant in the village. There were houses on stilts out the back of the restaurant, and you see all the fishing boats heading out to sea for the evening, (it was about 4pm). The food was again, fresh and delicious. It was also a great chance to see a bit of local life. When we had been driving, we had gone through all kinds of areas, from wealthy looking areas full of high rise, modern apartments to basic favelas, (slums), full of rubbish and dirt. One of the main issues is the amount of plastic rubbish. The is nothing they can do with the plastic here, it can't be recycled so in these places it is just left on the floor. Litter is a huge problem with the inevitable consequences of dirt, infestations and diseases that follows.

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One of the houses in the fishing village.

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Fishing the hard way,

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You can see the sails of the homemade fishing boats behind the houses

I think we have seen a small part of what Colombia has to offer, from historic Cartagena, the local resort of Santa Marta and the villages between. Is Cartagena the most beautiful city in the world - no we didn't think so, lots of people have said it is, as do lots of guidebooks, but I am not sure. We have had a fabulous time exploring and given the chance would come back to Colombia to see some more of the attractions such as the three day hike into the hills to the 'Lost City' etc. it is definitely worth a visit and it is a shame we have so little time here, but we need to concentrate on moving on again. We are currently waiting for a 40 hour weather window to take us out to the San Blas islands off Panama. The seas out there are huge right now with 15 foot waves, (Friday), but due to moderate over the next day or so, so instead of setting off tomorrow, we will hang out here another day and go on Sunday.


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