The Caribbean Coast

Cartagena - the jewel on the Caribbean.

Too hot for the locals too.

Gate entrance to Cuidad Vieja.

So I was leaving Bogota and heading North and meeting up with two buddies that I met was back in Chile just before the Torres del Paine. Yes, 4 months later and we were still in contact and still meeting up. I met Laruel and Ellen the day before leaving for my 5 day hike in Patagonia, we chatted about the hike and other trips we'd done in the past, Nepal come up and we were friends and future travel buddies! I had also met up with Laurel in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador - it seemed she was stalking me, but she says it's the other way round. The three of us had decided to hang out in Colombia for a while - we explored Medellin together and now it was time for the barmy city of Cartagena. My flight was a bit of a crappy one - not to mention the stress of nearly missing my flight due to traffic (and me being slack about leaving with plenty of time...), and one I don't want to repeat. It started off with the traffic, and sitting in the traffic the taxi driver's phone kept going off with messages with the most annoying sound, he also talked on his phone as well as listening to Reggaeton up loud. My headache kicked in before the airport, then the queues and people of the airport and when I eventually got on the plane, 2 children started bawling and didn't stop till the plan landed.

Show store on the street.

Who love ya baby?

Siesta time on the city walls.

The heat in this city is crazy. Hot and humid, you sweat from every part of your body (I didn't know elbows sweated until now!) and it doesn't stop. The city has an average high of 31c all year round and daily mean of now lower than 27. Luckily the hostel had air-con, and although it was only supposed to be running from 7pm to 9am in the morning, sometimes the staff would just leave it on as we lounged in our beds, not wanting to face the sun. Our digs were well located too, a short (but sweaty) 10-15 minute walk to the Old Town of Cartagena. Our day went - breakfast, which was freshly cooked in the morning, shower and lather on the deodorant (which didn't really help), head out and see the city for a while, grab an ice-cream then head back to the hostel and stop sweating, before heading out at night when it was moderately cooler. 

Bike parking but with a touch of art - we are in South America after all!

Art store in Cartagena.

Street art in Cartagena.

The Old Town, or La Cuidad Vieja, is beautiful - Colonial architecture, bright colours and cobbled streets filled with street food, clothes for sale and music and dancing too. It was a pleasure was wandering around, only slightly hassled for tours, and we decided to see the city visa the walls. Stretching around the entire Old Town, the walls are part of the mid 16th Century fortification project to protect the city after a French nobleman sacked the city and a pirate attack later on. A very important trading city, the Spanish poured money into the city to protect it from the French, English and even the Yanks in the mid 18th Century, who all wanted a piece of the pie. The city declared it's independance in 1811, was captured by the Spanish and then re-taken in 1821. Today the city is still prosperous, tourists in droves come here to see the sights, and this can be seen best from the walls. There was also a nice breeze from the Caribbean - and this was also the very first time I'd seen this sea. Tick! Still withing the walls of the larger city, there are the newer houses and streets, most of which are filled with intricate street art and people just going out their daily lives, seemingly unaware at the colour behind them.

Paint flaking off becomes Art.

Old Town of Cartagena.

Get your hair cut on the street.

The food here was quite different from the rest of Colombia and there was a lot of street food too. Of a night we usually ended up at Plaza Trinidad, 5 minutes from out hostel, and a happening place for the locals. Music, food and drink was on the menu here every night, weekday or weekend, and we ate drank and listening to the music and watched people dance. The empanadas here were great - 1,000 pesos (50c) each with your selection of sauce, garlic, spicy or something else I wasn't sure of (but it was tasty), and so we drank the cheap beer (quickly before it got warm) and scoffed down the sweet pastries. The life! During the day it was hot for even the locals, most men walked around with their 'personal air-con' turned on - shorts rolled up over beer guts. The women just wore lose, but always colourful dresses and sun hats - far more stylish. We took a local bus to the beach, just outside of the city, to cool off but found the water, and my first time in the Caribbean Sea, just as warm as the weather and not refreshing at all! We chilled out in the sun, drank some beer, ate from local catch but didn't stop sweating! One thing that was sold all around town and really helped with the heat were the fresh juices - orange, lime and all sorts of other fruits, freshly crushed and juices, added with ice and served in a plastic cup for only 2,000 pesos ($1).

Some of the colourful and amazing street art in Cartagena.

Not much to do in Taganga...

Taganga bay.

The next stop was Taganga, a town also on the coast and about 4 hours away from Cartagena. We'd heard it was nice from a few other backpackers, and sometimes these turn out ok and sometimes they are disappointing. This was was the later. Firstly the bus' aircon wasn't working, so we were all sweating buckets,when we arrived, we were dropped off in a tiny town with no paved roads, it was hot as hell, our hostel wasn't answering their doorbell or our yelling and the town was also quite dirty. We found a hostel and explored the town, but we didn't like it very much at all - the 'beach' was dirty (we even saw people urinating in it), the bars along the main street were always pumping our regaton at full volume (11 even), and there wasn't much to see to be honest. The next day we walked around a bit, didn't swim, but saw the sunset from the lookout point. For some reason this palace was a 'hippie hangout,' where they sat around with their dreads, no shoes, dogs, made bracelets and played the drums. We decided to head to Santa Marta in the hope of something nicer. Santa Marta is about 20 minutes from Taganga and although much prettier, there isn't much here to do or see either. We walked along the beach (which was much cleaner), ate ice cream and visited a museum too. Santa Marta was probably put on the map as it is where Simon Bolivar died. I don't know the circumstances, whether he was sick or not, but I decided that he died of boredom.

Sunset in Santa Marta.

Sunset at Taganga

Sunset in Tayrona.

A place worth mentioning though is the beautiful Parque Tayrona. It is a National Park about 2 hours drive from Santa Marta and very popular. It's not cheap to get in, probably due to it's popularity (42,000 pesos - $18). The park was established in 1964 and today gets nearly 300,000 visitors a year - the main reason people come up here apart from the 5 day Lost City trek from Santa Marta (which I didn't do). We had to get there early as a boat lands at midday and if you are unlucky all the tents and hammocks get booked at the popular beaches. We got the taxi to the park, paid our money and set off on the 2 hour hike to our beach. It was hot and sweaty going, but we made it before the boat and were first in line to book our place for tonight at El Cabo beach. There are two options - 10,000 a night for a hammock and 30,000 for a 2-person tent - we opted for the tent to keep insects out and to be a little warmer at night as we'd heard it gets really cold. The beaches are that postcard beautiful blue and white sands, but it is the strange rocks that really set this part apart. The jungle sits just 100m from the beach and there isn't much to do but lay on the beach, swim and relax in the sun. We did a 5km hike into the jungle to see an old village, but apart from that just swam and soaked up the sun - the water here was so cool and refreshing too. 2 days of this is enough though, I get bored at the beach - I much prefer hiking and mountains - and there were far too many people for my liking as well.

Relax, swim, sunbathe... repeat.

The rocks and sea of Tayrona.

Watching the sunset in Tayrona.

So far it had been 5 weeks in Colombia - time just flies! My time here was coming to an end, but the next destination was even more exciting! I visited Bogota briefly before flying out for Havana, and it gave me a chance to show Laurel around the city a bit and also make sure everything was ready for 2 weeks on no internet! I told my friends and family that I would be out of touch for the next 14 days while in Cuba - there is internet I discovered, but it was very limited, only available in certain plazas in big cities. I decided that I could go without being on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp for a while, but needed to tell people or they might think I was dead - a few people got worried while I was in Torres for 5 days with no contact too. The ride to the airport went without a hitch, we got on the plane (got out last bit of WiFi at the boarding gate) and took off - 2 hours to Havana! We were two of only about 20 people on the plane - this flight goes only every Saturday and it was Cuban Airlines - there are other airlines that fly more frequently but are more expensive. The staff were friendly and the service good - I was super excited about Cuba for the next 2 weeks, something I had been dreaming of for more than 10 years! I was getting tired, really tired, after 6 months on the road, but my energy levels had picked up and I was rearing to go - VAMOS CUBA!

Tired but ready for Cuba!

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MyUncleTravellingMatt. May 2016.