Cartagena

Cartagena, Colombia

 

Wow, what a great city!

 

 

We arrived in Cartagena yesterday afternoon, after a 4 hour bus ride from Santa Marta. We all went out for supper, then had an evening walking tour through some of the old walled city. The initial impression was one of an extremely vibrant and energetic night life. The streets were alive with sidewalk cafes spreading out into every inch of the various plazas. Lots of choices for food and drink, but a little on the expensive side compared to what we have seen in Colombia up till now.

 

 

Today, in the light of day, the old city is pretty subdued. Lots of people, locals and tourists, walking through the narrow streets, shopping, relaxing over coffee or cocktails, or just sitting around soaking up the laid-back atmosphere. There are a couple of cruise ships in the harbour right now, which were probably responsible for the surprising number of tourists meandering around.

 

Our hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susanne and I took a short hike outside of the walled city, to the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, a Spanish fortress built to protect the original city against the nasty British and French pirates, sometimes more successfully than others. This was a truly impressive structure. We were able to take a tour at our own pace, using the convenient portable audio devices - very cool!

 

 

 

 

Great views of the city from the top of the castle. It is too bad we really only have one day here - this city needs a lot more time to get a handle on it. Sadly, we don't even have enough time to check out the marinas and other facilities for us yachties - maybe next time...

 

 

The high rent district

 

This evening, 9 of our fellow travellers will be leaving us, and 8 new people are scheduled to join us for the final week. A joint group supper is planned for this evening. Tomorrow we should be off on a flight to the city of Medellin.

 

{GMST}10|25.392|N|75|32.658|W|Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Beach time

Santa Marta, Colombia

 

Friday was a long travel day. Starting early in the morning, we travelled by bus about 3 hours to get to the nearest airport. Along the way, we were perched along the rim of Chicamocha Canyon - some of the most spectacular views of Colombia we have seen so far.

 

 

 

A short flight to Bogota, followed by another short flight, took us to Santa Marta, a lovely resort town on the Caribbean coast. Suddenly we find ourselves in the heat and humidity of sea level once more. The town is really lively, with tons of restaurants and live music everywhere.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, we enjoyed a day trip to nearby Tayona National Park. There we did a challenging 3 hour hike to the coast, finishing at a picture perfect beach for a swim and lunch at a local restaurant. The hike back took about 2 hours - we kept up a better pace and had less stops to gawk at the flora and fauna along the way. By the time we got back to Santa Marta, it was dark and we were hungry. Sue and I found a pretty good pizza place not too far from the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we tried to take a look at the marina just a block away, but the security was too tight for us. We did note that there looked to be slips available, should we ever get this far in the boat. Around noon today, we are scheduled to leave for a ride to Cartagena, further up the coast.

 

 

 

{GMST}11|14.54|N|74|12.88|W|Santa Marta, Colombia|Santa Marta, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Colombia Adventureland

San Gil, Colombia

 

A quick update - the internet is not great here.

 

We travelled by bus from Villa de Leyva to San Gil. It took a little longer than planned, this time due to a big tree down across our preferred road. When we finally got to San Gil, we ended up having supper at the food fair at the local mall - there were not a lot of good dining options in this town.

 

People don't come to San Gil for the food, but rather for the variety of adventure activities available, from Bungee Jumping and Paragliding to Hiking and a White-water Rafting and much more. We had a full day here in which to choose what we wanted to do.

 

Susanne and I, along with several other members of our tour group, chose to take a local bus to the nearby town of Barichara, a charming place which is also the start of the "Camino Real", an ancient walkway of cobblestones that connects several communities in this area of Colombia. We elected to hike for approximately 2 hours to the next town of Guane. It was a fantastic hike, mostly downhill, with magnificent views along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

We took a bus back to Barichara, where we found a great little restaurant, then finished the day with a bus ride back to our hotel in San Gil, just in time for the rains to start in. Great timing!

 

{GMST}6|33.3384|N|73|8.1474|W|San Gil, Colombia|San Gil, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Mudville

Villa de Leyva, Colombia

 

Yesterday, we left our hotel in Cali fairly early in the morning, for the drive to the Cali airport (a fair distance outside the city, especially during morning rush hour). We had a short flight to Bogota, where we were to be met by a small bus that was to take us to the town of Villa de Leyva. Apparently, due to hitting a couple of rocks on the way to Bogota, it was delayed and we were eventually loaded onto a temporary replacement. That bus took us to the outskirts of Bogota, where we had lunch and transferred ourselves and all our luggage into our now-repaired, originally scheduled vehicle.

 

Once we were safely on our way again, we made good time on a smooth highway until the skies opened and the torrential rains began. The bus did not have a working defogger for the front window and the driver struggled to keep it clear with a towel - we were not making good time any more!

 

Eventually we left the main road and made our way towards our destinalton via a smaller, twisty but nicely paved road, until we were stopped by a mud-slide. There was no way we could continue on that route but fortunately our bus was small enough to get turned around, unlike the big rigs that were stopped in front of us.

 

We successfully completed our journey by taking a detour through some nameless small town, then via a couple of more circuitous roads, arriving around 7:00PM. The rain did not let up until we started our evening orientation walk around the town, which was really very considerate of the rain gods.

 

This is a very nice colonial town, with a huge number of restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream shops and adventure travel outlets. This is where a lot of citizens of Bogota come on the weekends but fortunately for us, this is not a weekend and the town is quite a peaceful break after the big city of Cali. We are assured that this is a very dry area that rarely sees any rain at all - the locals are ecstatic!

 

 

 

 

This morning, while some of our group chose to take a challenging hike up a scenic canyon nearby, Sue and I decided to spend the day taking a more relaxed view of the town. We did a short, very pleasant hike to the very touristy Casa Terracota (probably the biggest piece of pottery in the world) and took in one artistic museum. Just after noon, the rains returned and after braving the elements for a while, hustling from shop to shop, we took refuge back at the hotel - thus this lengthy post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we will be off again, to who knows what adventure.

 

 

{GMST}5|37.941|N|73|31.353|W|Villa de Leyva, Colombia|Villa de Leyva, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Cali

Cali, Colombia

 

After a short drive on much nicer highways, we found ourselves in the big city of Cali, the "Salsa Music" capital of the world.

 

 

 

For the most part, this is an unattractive city, but it does have a pleasant park area downtown. A trip to the "Cat Park" and the "Christo Rey" statue high above the city were the highlights for us. The weather is a little warmer here, closer to the Pacific coast, but still a bit rainy.

 

 

 

 

 

We had only the single afternoon for exploration, then an early morning start for a long travel day.

 

{GMST}3|27.1|N|76|32.0682|W|Cali, Colombia|Cali, Colombia{GEND}

 

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