After a wild New Years Eve we got up and made our way back to the Old City. It was quiet out, which is good when you party as hard as we did but I guess the locals all take a little longer to get going. We had an Aussie brunch and just went for a wonder. M mentioned already but Cartagena is pretty, lovely coloured houses and a lot going on, they really made an effort for Christmas and New Year too.
There is apparently an excellent free walking tour in Cartagena that people have mentioned and luckily I noticed a sign which stated the starting point… cool, no further research required. Turns out the sign said where the starting point was but wasn’t the starting point, so we rushed over to the actual starting point but were bit late. We did eventually find a tour we hoped to tag along with but it seemed to be in spanish… you win some you lose some…
We had some beers by the coast in 100mph winds, went for an Italian, and just hung out for the evening. If you sit still for long enough (30 seconds or so) someone will walk past to sell you whatever you need, so we spent the evening drinking beers and eating ice cream. Perfect.
Next stop Santa Marta
The bus journey to Santa Marta was pretty long and cramped, Colombian buses aren’t really designed for the taller gent but we were treated to the greatest hits of The Cure and Erika Badu, so that was nice.
Santa Marta is nice, it’s smaller and not as pretty as Cartagena but has some very nice spots and was buzzing in the evening. We had a wonder around the museum, it was quite read-y but I learned a few new things about South American colonial history (that M told me) and saw some old shit made by the native indigenous people.
It’s a port town so the sea front is not pretty or particularly nice in any way but we hadn’t been in the sea yet so we waded through the seaweed, tried to ignore the smell and had a surprisingly pleasant dip.
I tried the traditional dish Cayeye for dinner which is a bowl of white goo made from bananas and cheese with a bit of chicken thrown in. 7/10 – Decent eats!
I really liked the evening in Santa Marta, we saw all kinds of street performers and the best break dancers I’ve ever seen.
We hear that the locals go back to work on the 7th so we’re expecting everywhere to be a bit quieter during the weekdays from now on. No matter though, off to the jungle for five days…