Cartagena

On Friday we flew into Medellin, Colombia, which probably had the most happenin´night-life of anywhere we´ve been so far. Everybody at our hostel was super friendly and Friday night in the ¨Zona Rosa¨ (think Granville Street in Vancouver, but way cooler) had a great vibe with people doing capoeira in the park and chilling out on the grass all over the place. For the first time, I felt really safe being out at night and wanted to join the party. Logic prevailed, however, and I resisted since our 13 hour bus ride to Cartagena started at 5am. The rumba was still going when we left!

The 13 hour bus ride on a winding road through the mountains was less than fun - sometimes nauseating, sometimes terrifying! It was like driving Maui´s Hanna Highway, but on a big bus that doesn´t slow down for corners. We made it just fine though and managed to find a hostel pretty easily and safely, even after dark.

Cartagena has been super hot and super windy so far! Back in the day, the city had to fend off a lot of pirate attacks so the entire old town is surrounded by this huge wall that apparently took two centuries to build. The old part of town has been fixed up and is really beautiful. Amazingly bright flowers hanging off huge balconies line every street, while street vendors harrass the tourists on the sidewalks below.

Today we took a boat tour to Playa Blanca and Isla del Rosario which was pretty good, but we missed out on the history lesson as it was all in Spanish. Playa Blanca was really gorgeous and the waters were a beautiful bright blue. We were totally confused about what was going on because people kept getting off the boat at different places, so we ended up staying on the boat with the Colombian guys who were running the tour and never did see the Isla del Rosario. . . we laughed at them in English, they laughed at us in Spanish. We bonded, it was great.

It was a particularly windy day so the waves on the ocean were insane for our little boat! It felt like a roller coaster ride, but with shrieking middle-aged tourists who hadn´t realised they´d signed up for an amusement park ride. That was probably the best part of the tour and made that $25 totally worthwhile!