Cartagena

One word to summarise Cartagena - sweaty. The humidity levels must have been through the roof. The first morning, stepping out into the street, sun beating down, in search of some breakfast we were sweat central in no time. Water, please.

Cartagena is stunningly beautiful within the city walls, colonial balconied building with columns and arches create a maze of streets. It was too easy to get lost, I was never not disorientated wandering round. It's expensive and possibly not that backpacker friendly but would be the PERFECT place to go on a romantic getaway if you stayed in one of the boutique hotels.

On our first night we got a taxi from the bus to one of the hostel's in my guidebook. It was full so we found somewhere across the road which the hanger-on HATED. It was definitely not the best but for me it was FAR from the worst place I've spent a night. After interminable hours spent on the bus I didn't want to search around so we agreed to find somewhere else the next day. The main priority being, as ever for me, to unload backpacks, take a good shower and then search for a cheap but good meal. We wandered around a little to see what sort of food we might be able to get that evening. We were immediately attacked by some guy called Marco who spoke good English with an American accent. He wanted to sell us coke. We said we weren't interested in buying any coke and he  then offered us weed. We didn't want that either. He wouldn't let us go even after we declined his offer, he talked and told us about his need for money for his girlfriend and daughter at home. A desperate drug dealer, not cool. We eventually got rid of him and found a grotty looking place to eat because they apparently did curry. We also couldn't find anywhere else. It wasn't the best 'curry' but not the worst either.

I was keen to stretch my legs but grumpy hanger-on was in a mood and just wanted to go back to the hostel, he thought Cartagena was a shit hole, we weren't in the nicest of places but I had high hopes for a day-light excursion. He hated the hostel and was going to let it ruin the evening when we could have been positive and wound down after the long bus journey. He is a hostel nightmare. I have stayed in a mixture of all sorts of different places - all singing, all dancing backpacker hostels with bars and tour companies, cheap nasty places and average hostels where you get more of a mixed crowd or possibly friendly family owners. The cheap nasty places are a great way to save and appreciate the nicer backpacker places. I also like to feel like I'm not always just hanging  out with hoards of other travelers in bars, there are bars at home with those kinds of people in.

Grumpy hanger-on was so miserable that Cartagena consisted of lone walks around the city and not much else. I made a  pilgrimage out to the marina, only to discover they wouldn't let me in, I was hoping I could somehow get a boat into the islands and find my way by water over to Martinique. Cast out like a fraud or a mischievous tramp, I couldn't get to the notice board to see if anyone was looking for crew to sail anywhere in the Caribbean, this was most frustrating. I thought ANYONE could get into certain parts of any marina and have a look at notice boards, boats, the water etc. Boat hitchhiking is fairly common place - what's with the exclusivity Cartagaena?

My series of walks allowed me to soak up as much as I could of Cartagena, we opted out of getting the boat across to Playa Blanca. This was a mistake, it does look stunning but also seems slightly backpacker infested. The best thing about Cartagena was the architecture. The city wall, balconied colonial centre and the fort just outside the city walls. Walking around the bougainvilleas and climbing plants that were blooming, stretching out across the sides of the city buildings catching the sunlight. Got some photos, will post once I've resolved my laptop issues.

For some reason while in Cartagena I was desperate to find a touristy t-shirt with parrots illustrated on the front. I failed, I saw such t-shirts in Leticia and SHOULD have got one there. I NEED a Parrot t-shirt. In Bogota I saw some bag with a cool illustration on the front referencing the fact that parrots mate for life.

We were skint in Cartagena but I managed to find a great veggie place that was also a kind of commune offering yoga classes. The food was amazing and just what I needed to counter-act my diet of empanadas. Lentils, salads and soups. With fresh juice for 8000 pesos. A steal. I love eating food that is guilt-free, cheap and delicious.