Top Takeaways - #4

We are heading to Peru tonight and then leaving on our Machu Picchu trek on Monday. Before we go, here are some reflections from our time in Colombia.

Café Del Mar, Cartagena (or as Sarah described it, "The Frying Pan of Colombia").

1. Convenience is what we miss most about the US. Knowing where to grab an iced coffee or being able to buy an item immediately was definitely something we took for granted; not having everything right at our fingertips has definitely pushed us a little outside our comfort zones.

2. Weather is very different from place to place and day to day. This might seem obvious but we found Bogota weather to be very unpredictable. It was cold, rainy, sunny and hot depending on the time of day. Bring layers!

3. Of the three countries we've been to so far (Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia), we encountered the least English in Colombia. To be fair, it does have a less developed tourism industry than Costa Rica and Panama, but we really had to stretch our basic Spanish skills here.

4. Access to modern "luxuries" every few weeks or so is great. Staying at a hotel with a blow dryer in Bogota was a welcome change after nearly 4 weeks of wet hair; a US-sized bathroom (with really hot water) and a gym at the Cartagena Hampton Inn really helped us recharge too.

5. South Americans really like coffee and desserts. We have seen many pastry shops on our trip so far (not that I'm complaining!) and each coffee shop we pass by is filled with locals hanging out or enjoying a treat. Sometimes the coffee shops are more crowded than the bars at night!

6. We've refined our definitions of "up and coming" and "working class" when it comes to urban neighborhoods. Our hostel in Cartagena had everything we needed and was about a 10 minute walk to the Walled City but it was located in a not-so-safe-feeling spot (Alex described it as "a bit dodgy" - he is clearly reading a book by a British author!). Getsemani was praised as a trendy new neighborhood for young people to stay in - which was true - but our roof deck overlooked what was essentially a shantytown.

7. Colombia is a safe place to visit; many guide books will tell you that it has improved substantially over the last few years as the country tries to increase tourism. However, we didn't realize that this increased safety had been achieved by placing armed guards with muzzled dogs on every other corner. Don't get me wrong, we felt completely safe during every part of our stay in Bogota and most of our stay in Cartagena, we were just a little surprised by the amount of police presence.

8. We'd heard the altitude in Bogota might be tough for some people to adjust to (it's 8,300 feet above sea level). Neither of us had a problem at all - in fact, the crisp mountain air was a welcome change to the humidity of Costa Rica. Fingers crossed we have the same experience in Cusco (11,150 feet)...

9. Ask how much your laundry will be before you drop it off. Our hotel in Bogota dry cleaned everything so what we thought would be a $10 expense turned into a $50 expense.

10. Even when spending most of the day in the shade, make sure to put on plenty of sunscreen. The sun is much more powerful at these latitudes!

Peak: Taking in the views of Bogota from the top of Monserrate

Pit: Temperatures in the hundreds. It's impossible to feel comfortable walking around outside when it is that hot

Next Stop: Cusco, Peru and Machu Picchu

Gym, Tan, Laundry

The Situation did it at the Shore; we're doing it in Cartagena.

Today we relocated to Bocagrande. We wanted to see this newer part of the city before we left and Sarah was able to get a free room at the Hampton Inn using her Hilton Honors points (thanks Blackstone!). On top of that, this Hampton Inn has a rooftop pool with great views of the city - was a pretty easy choice to say goodbye to Patio de Getsemani one day early.

The first thing we did when we got to the Hampton Inn? Go to the gym. We hadn't stayed at a hotel with a gym on our trip so far, so we took advantage of it and had a long work out.

Running inside is much more pleasant than walking outside in Cartagena's mid-day heat.

After getting cleaned up, we walked around Bocagrande for a while and eventually got lunch at Gokela, a salad place similar to Chop't in New York. Sarah was over the moon - we haven't had something like this since we left. Unlike Chop't though, Gokela also had the added benefit of an extensive smoothie menu.

Sarah's salad and smoothie (and shades).

After lunch, it was time to get our tan on. We headed up to the rooftop pool to cool off and read for a while. It was practically deserted, which made it even more enjoyable. We stayed for a few hours and got some pictures of this part of the city before a thunderstorm rolled through, forcing us inside.

Much different than the Walled City.

Another view of Bocagrande - anyone else see a resemblance to Miami?

Our view looking back at the Walled City.

One interesting observation about Bocagrande is the amount of new construction going on here. The area seems pretty over-saturated with hotels, but there are several being built right next to the existing ones. It's unclear (at least to us) whether these new construction projects are genuinely underway or partially-completed projects that have been abandoned. I'm no engineer, but I would've expected the best way to build one of these things is floor-by-floor (as is done in New York). These new buildings look like skeletons - the builders put up the frame for the whole building first. Regardless of the state of these projects, it's an odd juxtaposition against the other nicely constructed resorts around here.

One of these "skeleton" buildings that will eventually overlook the bay.

Another one is right next to our hotel - at least it hasn't been "filled in" yet and isn't totally blocking our view of the beach!

Before we headed to dinner, it was time to figure out the laundry situation. Fortunately, the Hampton Inn will do all our laundry for us; unfortunately, they charge exorbitant prices for this service. We'll just have to wait until we get to Cusco on Saturday to round-out the L of GTL.

For dinner, we figured we'd try something different so we went to Arabe, a Middle Eastern restaurant. We had some great falafel, salad and beef dishes - it was a little pricey for Cartagena, but hey, the hotel was free!

Tomorrow we will kill time most of the day before embarking on the most intense travel marathon of this leg of our trip: Cartagena -> Bogota -> Lima -> Cusco. Our first flight leaves Cartagena at 11:35pm on Friday and our last flight lands in Cusco at 12:35pm on Saturday. Good thing we have a few days to recover before leaving for Machu Picchu!

Colorful Cartagena

Without exaggerating I can safely say that today was one of the hottest days of my life. The “real feel” temperature was 114 degrees so we had to split our time between sightseeing and seeking out air conditioned refuges. Walking around the walled city of Cartagena has been one of our favorite activities in Colombia, but today we could only handle the sun in small doses. I’ve never seen Alex so excited to hop into a souvenir store!

The brightly colored buildings, balconies and bougainvillea (not to mention the heat!) all remind me of the beautiful streets in New Orleans.

One of my favorite buildings in the old city.

So many beautiful streets.

Finally got my Botero pose down!

Around 2pm we decided we really couldn’t bear the heat any longer so we headed to Caffé Lunatico for a cold drink. We were so dehydrated we weren’t even hungry but we did try the eggplant fries with melao (a Colombian sugar cane syrup), which were amazing. We spent nearly two hours just hanging out, enjoying the cooler air and waiting for the sun to go down. With thoughts of a cold shower and a colder room, we made the short trek back to our hotel.

A pretty blue hotel building.

So much color.

Feeling refreshed and energized, we walked to Café Del Mar, a popular place on top of the wall where people gather to watch the sunset. It felt at least 20 degrees cooler outside, which made the scenery much more enjoyable.

View of the city from Café Del Mar.

Sunset over the Caribbean.

View of Bocagrande.

Crazy view of the sky.

Once the sun had set we realized we were starving and left to find dinner. As expected, we both wanted to head back to Grecia for $6 gyros and tzatziki. Even though we swore we would wait long enough to take a picture before diving in, we both forgot as soon as the sandwiches arrived. You’ll have to take our word for it if you find yourself in Cartagena - the Greek food is amazing!

After dinner we enjoyed a leisurely (and breezy) walk back to the hotel before turning in for the night. Tomorrow we head to Bocagrande and plan to spend the day in the shade and swimming pool!

A Day at the Beach

Despite Cartagena's location right on the coast, the most popular beaches are a boat ride away at either Playa Blanca or Islas del Rosario. We decided to spend the day at Playa Blanca. Islas del Rosario is further away and all the boat tours that go there also make a stop at Playa Blanca, which means that you don't get much beach time at either. Plus, it's described as a white sand beach paradise, so how could we go wrong?

Getting to the beaches is an interesting experience. We were prepared for the throngs of shady "vendors" that we encountered on the way to the ticket booths. These guys were pretty annoying - they don't actually sell you anything, just talk to you all the way to the ticket window as if they work for the boat company, then demand a tip for their "services" once you buy a ticket from the actual boat company. We just walked right up to the ticket window and had no problems, but more susceptible tourists fell victim to the scam. Once again, research, preparation and following our gut instincts / basic common sense have been very helpful tools for international travel.

The boat ride to Playa Blanca was about 45 minutes and was pretty enjoyable - the breeze was a welcome relief in the heat and the views were fantastic. We were one of the first boats to arrive for the day so we had our pick of seating on the beach! 

Pulling up to the beach.

We both realized we hadn't been to a proper Caribbean beach in a while - just amazing.

It got a little more crowded later in the day, but for the morning we pretty much had the beach to ourselves.

There are a bunch of restaurants along the beach, but we didn't realize they were all only selling hot plates of food, mostly fresh whole fish. While it looked good, neither of us was in the mood for that kind of lunch on a hot day like today. We decided we'd hold out for an early dinner and get by with a tropical cocktail for lunch.

Drinks in coconuts make Sarah very happy. She bought this Coco Loco from a guy carting around a wheel barrel of booze and whole coconuts.

Modeling our new bathing suits (Success! Sarah's search is over). This is probably the tannest we've both ever been, by the way.

Our boat picked us up at 3pm to head back to Cartagena. The wind had picked up a little by this point and it seemed like a storm might roll through, but we never got any rain. Well, it might as well have been storming for the entire boat ride home because we got totally soaked by all the waves. Not a terrible way to end the day, just not what we were expecting (should've left our clothes in our backpacks!).

Sarah tried to duck out of the way, but it didn't do any good - we had a waves like this splashing us most of the way home.

Life jackets definitely required.

After changing out of our soaked clothes, we headed to dinner at Grecia, a Greek restaurant in the Walled City. We weren't sure what to expect - it was well-reviewed online, but how good can Greek food be in Cartagena? Well the answer is awesome, Greek food in Cartagena is awesome. It's a small store with only a few tables, but the owner knows exactly what he's doing. Despite the plethora of Greek food available in New York (and our trip to Greece last summer!), this was one of the best Greek meals we've ever had. We were too hungry to pause for a picture before digging in, but Sarah has decided we will go back tomorrow...not that I'm complaining!

Tuckered out from the sun we are heading to bed early tonight. Tomorrow is our last day in the historic part of Cartagena - on Thursday we move a mile down the road to explore Bocagrande, the newer part of the city.

Outside Temperature 90; Real Feel 104

We landed in Cartagena yesterday around mid-day and that was the actual weather alert my phone sent me. Bogota's cool weather had been a nice change, but we are definitely back in summer heat mode. The Cartagena airport is small and the ride to downtown only took a few minutes; that said, our cab driver was unable to drop us off at our hotel because a pick-up baseball game had shut down the street temporarily. We strapped on our packs and walked around the block - not a big deal, but we were drenched by the time we reached Patio de Getsemani.

After we checked in, we headed to the Walled City to eat lunch and explore (we are staying just outside the wall). We spent most of the afternoon wandering around the streets - every turn seemed more beautiful than the last (so I'll let the pictures tell the story).

Clock Tower Gate.

Iglesia de San Pedro Claver.

Strolling down a deserted street.

The view of the sea from on top of the Wall.

Plaza de la Aduana.

Thoroughly sweaty and a little tired, we headed back to our hotel to clean up before dinner. We had a bit of a tough time finding a restaurant that was open (apparently many of the restaurants here are closed on Sundays); however, we eventually stumbled upon Di Silvio Trattoria, a small Italian restaurant. We weren't expecting to have Italian when we left our hotel, but we were very glad we found it - we shared a delicious antipasto plate and pizza.

Ultra-thin crust pizza - always a great end to a long day.

We woke up today well rested (our hotel has AC, which is a must in this heat!) and ready to see more of the city. We headed over to Castillo De San Felipe De Barajas (a.k.a. "the castle") for a self-guided, two-hour tour - it was interesting to see the castle, but I think the tunnels and cannons were trumped by the amazing city views.

Walking up the long ramp to the top (same temperature today as yesterday, by the way).

Spaniards must have been shorter than me in the 1500s.

The breeze that made the flag wave picturesquely in the background also kept us from melting up there!

Highest point in the castle.

By noon we were ready to get out of the sun so we headed to the shady streets of the Walled City to eat lunch and explore some more. Fortunately Sarah was able to find a bathing suit in one of the stores we stopped in - I'm probably most excited by this because now we won't need to spend any more time looking for one (and she'll stop giving me a hard time about getting one in Bogota)!

More to come as the week unfolds here in Cartagena!