Colombia - Part 2 - Cartagena

So after 5 months wait, who should walk thru the scanner into the airport........ Charlene!!!

It was fantastic to see her, there was so much to say didn't know where to start so everything just poured out. Her adventures are amazing and she has soo many stories. After 5 minutes I was extremely jealous.

Monday 27th Aug
Now that we had our third musketeer we were ready to board our next flight from Bogota to Cartagena. We arrived at our apartment about 8pmish and it was fantastic. It was just like the pictures and we ran around checking it all out. We each had our own room & bathroom, this for Charlene was a luxury after travelling for so long with others on tours. And we also had a cleaner, Lena who would come in every day for us. It was an early night for us and a decision made to hit the local beach.

Tuesday 28th Aug
Morning arives and the sun is rising as fast as the temperature. I couldn't wait to finally hit the beach. After brekkie, check out the passionfruit it was AMAZING, we went to the local beach in Bocagrande, which is located in the tourist section. Our place was in the walled city and very much in the old town. This beach was nice but the sand was dark brown/grey colour. Not very pretty but the water was cold and that was what we wanted. We ended up spending all day lazing on the beach, reading, eating & swimming. We had hired an umbrella so had a bit of shade as well and ofcourse I forget to put suntan lotion on the tops of my feet! Typical, so they got a bit burnt, oh well.

Dinner was at home and we just chilled out and relaxed. Charlene & I are big nappers, Tom had to try and get in the groove of napping in the arvo! I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the peace and quiet whilst we were asleep.

Wednesday 29th Aug
We headed off early in the morning to get a local tour out to Rosario Island. There were so many people down at the pier I was wondering how everyone was going to fit in the boats. Luckily we were going on the speed boat, unfortunately our tour guide gave the tour in Spanish - whoops! I'm sure we went past the building used in Romancing the Stone where Michael Douglas dives off into the water after the crocodile. See below right.

After about an hour speeding around the ocean we arrived at our first destination, the Oceanarium.  It was surprising good with turtles, massive fish, dolphins, nurse sharks and various other sealife. The guy giving the tour (in Spanish again) fed the nurse sharks from the pontoon he was on. It was crazy feeding frenzy all the sharks pushed themselves up the pontoon trying to grab as many fish as possible. It was pretty funny to watch. After that show it was the dolphins turn. They were obviously well trained and did a variety of tricks, jumping out of the water, talking, moving around the pen. It was great fun, very hot and luckily we found a icypole shop and snagged some tasty green ice lollies. Guys were also selling fresh seafood from the ocean!
 

After the oceanarium we headed to Playa Blanca beach for lunch. The beach had beautiful crystal clear waters and it was nice to relax in the cool shade. My feet were still a bit tender so I decided to keep them in the shade. After a full day we headed back to Cartagena dock about 5pmish. Dinner was eaten out at a nearby restaurant called Oh La La, thought it might have been French but no. It was fine, then we decided to try and hit Cafe Havana, unfortunately it's not open on Wednesday! Typical, oh well we ended up at Cafe Del Mar on top of the old wall looking out onto the ocean. A couple of drinks there and I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Think my age was catching up with me.

Thursday 30th Aug
We were up early again and out the door to join the Big Red Bus Tour around Cartagena. It was really good as the tour was in english (finally) and it took us around the whole city. We saw old buildings, historical sites, monuments, anything & everything that Cartagena has to offer. They even have 3 or 4 casino's in the tourist area, quite surprising. It got pretty hot sitting upstairs so we headed down to the semi airconditioned comfort of the bus. It was a good 1hr & 30mins spent. We headed to the tourist information after looking to book our scuba experience. They were super friendly and really friendly. After we got all our info we head back for.......a siesta! Charlene did a bit of checking and we decided on one scuba place, so we went down in the arvo to book for tomorrow. Their office was located in a posh hotel and they nearly didn't let us in the front door but we managed to walk our way thru, find the office and book our scuba trip for Friday. No drinking due to the diving so it was a night spent inside watching Underworld on one of the few english speaking channels we had.

Friday 31st Aug

So it's my first time scuba diving so Tom & I had to do a practice session in the hotel pool before we were able to hit the high seas. A very early start of 7.30am, I was soooo tired but excited. After about an hour in the pool with our instructor, Ceasar, we were ready to go. Charlene has her scuba licence so is able to go it alone and free dive. Another guy was coming on the tour with us but it was just the 4 of us with 2 guides. It was great, as we thought Charlene might have to go on another boat.

Our first dive was on a reef and we saw some really cool fish and coral life. After getting used to the breathing it was such an amazing feeling of weightlessness. In next to no time we had to go up as we had been done there about 30-40mins. Time flys by. Our second dive was on an old ship wreck. I keep humming the theme tune to Titanic as we were gliding around the vessel. It was so cool and Ceasar took us thru 2 rooms on the top, Charlene got to go into the hull of the ship as she is more experienced. It was so amazing, it's defo something I want to do more of. We returned to shore about 4pmish and elated but a bit tired. We also made plans with one of the guys from the scuba place to take us to a non-touristy beach tomorrow. John was going to take us to Beauty Beach. Also when we were walking thru the grounds of the hotel, Ceasar saw a sloth in the garden and picked it up. It was soooo slow it looked fake. It was pretty awesome to see.

Saturday 1st September
A nice relaxing day on Beauty Beach. John organised for a boat to pick us up for a local dock and took us there himself. It's his home island and it was very beautiful. Another day spent reading, swimming and relaxing. We headed back to the mainland about 2pm for a nap before hitting the town to celebrate my birthday. Ceasar came along and we had a few drinks in different bars before we headed to the street where all the bars/nightclubs were and we wandered down checking them out. They all had heaps of people hanging around and the music was blaring out of each club. In the end we settled on an open air bar on top of the wall, similar to Cafe Del Mar and just sat back listening to music relaxing. Midnight came and it was my birthday! WHOOO HOOOO the big 36. On the way home we even found the best sign ever.......... Romance in the Stone! Close enough.