Well the heading says it all.
It means Cartegena ( located in Colombia, as there is one more in Spain) is very beautiful.
To begin with its like a typical tourist spot with tall skyscrapers facing the sea, plush emerald water and crystal white sand beaches, lots of friendly people always willing to help, lots of history and lots and lots to see.
I feel one should stay in Cartegena for altleast 3 days.
First day for local sight seeing
Second day for a trip via Boat to Isla de Rosario ( around 3 hour trip by sea) to a less crowded and very very beautiful island.
Third Day again for local sight seeing, but this time in the evening to see the lights of various monuments.
So heres what i did in Cartegena:-
1) Day one arrived on 17th Aug 07 Friday evening at around 7PM local time from Barranquilla to Cartegena. The Rain Gods poured over Cartegena. It flooded the narrow streets and there was watter logging upto 4 feet at several parts of the city. The view was Bad and Sad atleast for the tourists who expected to see bright sunshine.
Nonetheless the locals welcomed the rain,as it was very hot for past few days.
The traveled in a mini bus (20 seater, fully air-conditioned at full blast) for around 18,000 pesos. The Bus Operator was Carribeana. There are several others,however my Comcel Colleagues told me to pick this one.
So at the Hotel El Dorado, I checked in, the Lobby Receptionist "Shirly" doesn't speak fluent English, but enough to have a fruitful conversation. So I was assigned room No 1027 on 10th Floor. The view from the room wasn't breathtaking. I could see the sea completely, but I did see it. The view for me didn't matter much honestly as i had a very tight sightseeing itinerary anyways!! The rent per night is 140,000 Pesos and is inclusive of all three meals ( breakfast, Lunch, dinner) and Taxes. What more the rent also includes free National Liquors and Soft Drinks. You can drink as much as you want. There are evening shows with some local band playing their local music. Nice place to relax after a tough day over dinner.
Over dinner, I had a tough time talking to the waiters. However I did let them know that I am looking for 100% vegetarian food, excluding eggs and other non-veg.
SO they guided me to the buffet where I could choose from salads, plain rice, and juices. So I did. Not only that, the waiter got me some hot cooked vegetables in salt. So that was nice. I ate those with some tomato ketchup. Over the dinner I met a guy named Freddie. He is from Santadander, a local place not very far from Cartegena. he works for Nursing and Hospitality Business ans was here for a days work. We ate dinner in hotel together and then listened to the live band play over some drinks.
He was so helpful to me at all times. He didn't speak fluent English. But enough to strike and maintain interesting conversation. He taught me some Spanish words and I taught him some English words. What was so informative to know from Freddy was that he knew a lot of local music, So whilst the band was playing variety of local musica, like reggaeton, colombian salsa, panama slasa, chile salsa and jazz, he would help me make the distincition and also for certain songs explain the lyrics. WE had enough for the night, time to head for bed. it was 10 PM when we called it a day.
Day 2: 18th August 2007:
I arranged with the local Tourist Operator "Mary Tours" for a visit to Isla de Rosario. They charged me 60000 Pesos for a pickup from Hotel to the Harbour. The fee also included lunch at the beach and boat ride. What it didnt include was the Harbour Entry Fee. I had to pay 9000 Pesos for the same. The Boat was a two tiered mini which can accommodate around 100 people. The top deck was for the suntan enthusiastic ones with Open Top and the lower deck was lot cooler. The boat departed at 9AM and reached Isla De Rosario at about 12PM. I was clubbed with a huge group of tourists who had from various parts of the country and also from abroad. They were mostly older people roughly in their forties. There were around 10 odd people who were young around in their twenties. So it was cool to hang out with them. Over the trip they realised that I was a Alien and had no knowledge of Spanish. Yet it seems to be the nature of Colombian people not to embarrass you. They didn't speak fluent English, but were nice enough to help me get my way. The waters were a sight to behold. Absolutely clean emerald waters. The Coral beneath made the water look blue and green, like the types that we see in movies. It was amazing. En route, we also dropped off to another island which hosted a Aquarium, but this one is different from ones that I have seen in India. This one had huge > 3mts Fishes in LIVE sea waters. They had no glasses. The fish were encompassed in a large netted cage so that they cant run away and at the same time have live sea current waters to keep the water fresh. It was like an extension of the sea itself, only lot restricted for the fishes. The local Guide at the aquarium explained us about ( in Spanish ONLY) about various breeds of the fish. The entry fee to the Aquarium is 12,000 Pesos. There also was a Dolphin Show where they illustrated dolphin to perform acrobats in Air to touch a Ball hosted some 20 feet in air. Overall it was a nice show.
Now time back to head to Isla de Rosario, everyone was low on energy as it was close to lunch hour. I wasn't particularly hungry as I kept munching on the fruits and packaged Milk Shakes that I carried from Home. so for about 30 more minutes we finally reached isla de rosario, we were escorted off the boat into cool and serene island. Everybody jumped into the buffet and devoured a lot of food. I too luckily had enough of vegetarian food to keep me happy. I was pleasantly surprised. They had a local fish, salads, masala rice with coconut, Fried banana chips and Some other Fired Vegetable in lunch. Overall it was a very satisfying lunch. Enjoyed it.
Now it was time for the people to hit the beach. They quickly changed into bikinis and swimming suits and jumped into the sea. I didn't go bathing as I didn't want to. But people had funs. I watched from the shades beautiful ladies bathe in beautiful waters.
It was 3 PM and time to head back to home. Everybody was tired after their excursions on and off the sea. The boat took the shorter route this time and reached us the Cartegena Harbor at around 5:45PM. I and many others dozed off for a quick nap in the boat. IN this trip itself I had made my self friends with the entire groups. I requested them to offer help for a City Tour. Much to my amazement, they said that there were two city tours organized in a day, one at 9Am and other at 2PM.
I said I wanted to go for the 9AM one tomorrow.I asked them where and how I could fix the same. But again the helpful nature of Colombians showed, not only they offered me a FREE (repeat FREE-no strings attached)City Tour with them but also made me extremely comfortable. Just Like I was family. So I took directions to reach the pickup point from Virginia (their lead person) and agreed to meet them in their hotel ( Hotel Corsa de Sal) which is about 30mins walk along the beach or 5 minutes in Cab.
In the evening, I had dinner at the hotel along with a elderly couple in their 70ties who were with me in the Boat Tour. They helped me pick vegetarian food. I was again happy with the menu, it had enough to fill my stomach. Cant say it was delicious. But then i was ready for the worst.
So I had some time to kill, dinner was over at 7.30PM, what to do after that till 10PM ? I had some ideas from my client about splendid night life in Colombia downtown. So I asked Hotel Reception what i could do in the this time. They offered me excellent advice. They said I should try the horse carriage which takes around 1 hour tour of the city. It cost me 45000 Pesos but was worth it. They city is 100 times more beautiful in the night. Thank GOD the rains didn't fall the entire day.
Whilst I arranged for the horse carriage ride, I asked the old couple if they wanted to accompany me. I was going to pay in any case for the ride and there was space in the carriage. They were so overwhelmed by the offer. They thanked me profusely and hopped in. We had a good time. I have never been in a horse carriage for such a long journey. It was marvelous to see various monuments in the night. I mean beauty was over flowing from all places. The old Spanish Colonial Constructions lit by very low intensity lights make you feel you have transformed into a different era.
It was around 9:15PM and we sat over the drinks to listen to the live band play at the hotel. At about 10PM it was enough for us for the day, so we hit the bed. Overall it was a very fun filled day with a lots to write and talk about.
Third Day: 19th August 07:
Local City Tour
I got up at 6AM,had shower and packed up all the bags to reach the reception at around 8AM. I was horrified to see the crowds. I mean it felt like there were hundreds of people swarming all around with total chaos. I must be due to the fact that Monday 20th August is a public holiday in Colombia. Hence the Hotel Reception was way too overwhelmed checking in people, and obviously didn't pay attention to check-outs. Whilst the bell boy was retrieving my luggage and the Reception was finalizing my bill the Power Failed. The bell boy and around ten more people were stuck in the elevator. Poor them and even poorer me... My checkout was delayed, which meant I probably wouldn't make it on time at 9AM to Virginia's Hotel. Panic struck me, amidst all this heavy rain fall started. But luckily at around 8:45 AM power restored and I told the reception to keep my Bag and laptop in safe custody until I finish the City Tour and return at around 1PM. So they did. I ran to the exit and took a CAB to Virginia's Hotel with heart beating fast, cos it was precisely 9AM and I was thinking I might miss the bus. However when I entered the reception I met all the people that I was with yesterday in the boat tour. MY nerves calmed down and I sat with them waiting for around 15mins for the Tour Bus to arrive.
The Bus was a large fully air-conditioined 40 Seater Luxury bus. With a Tour Guide.
The Tour Guide's name was Incarnation. He greeted me and asked me if I understood Spanish if he spoke very slowly. I denied and he JUST for me explained the entire site seeing in ENGLISH as well as in SPANISH for rest of the crowd. It was more then happiness that I could take. First the City Tour was free for me and then the guide to explain it to me in English. All that made it the day so so special.
The tour took us at three places and was for about 3-4 hours
1) Fort......
2) Cartagena View from the Top of a Local Mountain
3) Old Colombia Walled City with 100s of old Colonial Houses to see.
The tour was very very full filling, the history at the fort and other two locations is frankly way too much to gorge in few hours. But nonetheless very educating to understand what Spanish people did 400 years ago. There is way too much on History of Cartegena to write about. So I leave that as an exercise for the interested.
Time to hit the hotels, We arrived back to our hotels at about 1:15 PM. I already had checkout so I had a quick bit on lunch, luckily again I caught up with the old couple. Their City Tour was with the same operator but at 2PM instead. So in our Broken English-Spanish conversation I explained them how exhilarating it was and tipped them about carrying adequate water, food for the road.
I reached the lobby and collected my bags and headed for the taxi. I took the taxi for 14,000 Pesos and reached the airport in about 15 minutes.
Took my boarding pass and checked in.
The airport is a marvel in its own. It very very small one, but yet so well architected that it makes you feel you have landed in some African Jungle. It has glasses in all fours sides from which you look into the beautiful Palm trees. The seats in the waiting lounge are also not the conventional ones, they are wooden with Chrome YELLOW Lacquer, The entire feel of the Airport is of a retro one. It feels that you are in some past. Also like Medellin and Bogota, it has free Internet.
Trust me, I didn't have internet for two long days in the Hotel, and have same at the airport.
Enough of blogging now, I am sure you must be bored reading. I sure am bored writing.
The announcement to board the flight has been made, its 16:03PM now and I am taking the Copa Airlines Plane for 16:40 to Bogotá.
So until my next blog,
ciao..................
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