As we were sailing through the San Blas islands and I was thinking
that things couldn’t possibly get any better, we landed in Cartagena, Colombia.
Cartagena is a place of beautifully restored colonial building, where the color
to wear is white and the weather is hot and sultry. Pizza and pasta restaurants
are everywhere you look and the dance floors at the night clubs heat up to
salsa music. The Old Town area of the city is completed enclosed by a wall that
was built to protect it from enemies and it is also this area that has
undergone most of the restoration. Brett and I stayed just outside this area in
the Getsemani neighborhood. Although it’s a bit shabbier and more rundown, it
also has an appeal of its own.
Brett and I decided to take a tour
bus around to the sites of the city. This is probably the most touristy thing
we have done on the entire trip, but we had a good time and we definitely saw a
lot the city. The city is built up along the water and as you follow the water
away from Old Town you come to a newer area of town called Boca Grande. This is
where we met up in the heat of the day and loaded up into a colorful, open air
bus with about 20 other tourists. Just as we hopped on board, the cerveza sales
lady walked by and we bought a couple of drinks for the ride.
One of our first stops was the
fortress, which is built up on one of the hills in the city. When we walked to
the top, we got to enjoy the music of a trumpet player while enjoying
incredible views of the city. At every stop along the way, we were bombarded
with souvenir salesmen. You could honestly turn and make a full circle and see
people surrounding you from every direction. Kind of intense, but I guess they’ve
got to make a living and I give these people credit for being incredible
hustlers. Later that night, we met up with our friends Lina & Martin from
the sail trip. We all headed to Old Town for dinner in one of the beautiful
plazas where street dancing and vendors are abundant. Later that night, we went
to one of the popular salsa spots in the area where we danced off our dinners.
From Cartagena we headed to Bogota.
This is a portion of the trip that we had been really looking forward to,
because we had been planning to celebrate Brett’s birthday by spending a few
nights at the JW Marriott. Before we could enjoy the luxury awaiting us, we had
to make the “20 hour” bus ride to get there. 20 hours quickly turned into 27 as
the road was congested with traffic and construction that we literally drove at
5 miles per hour for some portions of the trip. We were going so slow that we
were able to get out of the car, find food, buy it and then walk down the road
to get back on the bus.
Bogota sits at an altitude of 2400m
so we went from the humid, heat of Cartagena to the crisp, winter-like chill of
the capital. It was a really pleasant change. At the bus station here they have
people wait in line for a cab. A new concept as we are used to being approached
by 15 taxistas the minute we step foot from the bus. Lol. We arrived to the
hotel and from the very first minute, it was another world that we haven’t been
a part of for a while. Because of Brett’s platinum status at Marriott, we were
given a room on the concierge floor with full access to the lounge. This means
two free alcoholic beverages a day for each person, a full breakfast and dinner
snacks and desserts in the evening. We spent our first evening on the terrace
with a drink and Colombian cigar (for Brett’s birthday celebration).
We got to Bogota just in time for
Halloween and until we got there we weren’t sure if they’d celebrate like we do
it the States. Posters lined the streets with advertisements for all the
parties. Brett was a pirate and I was a pirate’s girlfriend. He threw on his
patch and I put on my green wig and we headed out to Zona Rosa for the celebration.
Zona Rosa is an area of the city packed with bars, restaurants and discotecas. Tons
of people were dressed up and every place was packed. We started the night with
sangria and nachos at one of the restaurants and ended it with microbrews and
shots of tequila at another bar. While we were searching around for a dance
club, I ran into one of the restaurants to go to the restroom and while I was
gone somebody attacked Brett with their fake chain saw. Apparently the guy came
up and got him in the back. Brett thinks he was attacked because he’d given the
guy a dirty look for doing the same thing to other people. Lol.
There’s nothing like a little Latin
American soccer to put you in a good mood. We went to go see an evening game at
the El Campin stadium. I can’t express in words how much fun it was to watch
Colombians watch soccer. These people enjoy the sport with so much passion that
high fences have been built up around the field to protect the soccer players
from angry fans who try to climb over and attack. Even with the fences, we saw
fans attempting to make the climb. “Hijo de puta” was the most common criticism
yelled by fans, everyone was dressed in red to support the team and it often
looked like the stadium would collapse from all the jumping fans. Armored
police held up shields to protect the players making corners kicks so that they
weren’t hit by one of the many objects sent down to the field by friendly fans.
From what we saw, I think it’s safe to say that choosing not to sell booze at
these events is probably a good thing.
Some video footage of the soccer game.On our last day in the city, we had
the entire day to hang out before catching our 12 hour, overnight bus to Cali.
First we snuck in one last workout at the hotel gym, packed up our things and
said goodbye to the hotel. It was a sad departure, but it was time to get on
the road. Before leaving we wanted to visit Monserrate, which is a point at the
top of the Andes Mountains that surround Bogota. There is a train called the
Funicular that takes you to the top. Unfortunately, our camera died and we
weren’t able to get any pictures of the views from the top, but they were incredible!
All in all, Bogota is a really great city with a lot to offer. We liked it so
much that we are thinking about it as a possible place to settle down in and
find jobs.
That is all for now! Thanks for
reading. It makes it a lot more fun to write when you know that there are
people out there reading and enjoying our adventures. Until next time… Lots of love... Sophia
