This SA post is the story of our departure from Panama, and our first days amazing days in Colombia.
I think the team (Kuba, Jonathan, Tanya, Ewa, and I – Simon, brother of Jonathan) was quite a bit disappointed that record breaking rains had scuttled both our plans to sail or to take a ferry to Colombia; but the promise of good weather through fast travel (by plane) warmed us up enough to have hug lessons and technique demonstrations in the Colombian immigration line in Bogota – yes, it’s that kind of trip.
[Wait… Bogota? The flight via BOG to CTG from PTY 45$ cheaper, and we got a preview of the terrain we would be driving – also, it was on this flight that we lost the SPOT live satellite tracking beacon, very very sad. [Flash forward: people in Colombia are decently honest and it was waiting for us at the Avaianca (airline) office when we got back to Bogota! That means you can see where SA is right now (sorry had to remove this link after the trip!) Anyways, with the car on a straight line below us, we bounced into Cartagena. Travel lines on a google map
Cartagena
The old city of Cartagena was an important port for Spanish invaders stealing from natives, and made the last stop on the colonial transport route from Quito – Bogota – Cartagena. As a result this well-guarded harbour has some great architecture and pretty substantial cannon riddled stone embankments. We played on these.
Our first night was in a hostel. Not just any hostel – a hostile hostel with Hosteling International affiliation (which, BTW means it’s probably run by jerks with painfully rigid rules and no sense of reason, humour, or fun – don’t do it, find your own cool place) Our first tour of the old town: fried cheese, too salty mango slices, more fried cheese, horse carts, wandering in traffic, French shops with $350 board shorts, pretty three story colonial buildings with amazing doors, mediocre Chinese food, fishy beer, lots of security, empty streets, back to the hostile.
Our main mission in Cartagena is to get the cars back. Team Swiss arrived late on the same day and stayed with us to make that mission easier. Would it be quick and easy to get the cars back on the road? Of course not, are you silly? Did it seem like it would and we might get them at just the next attempt? Yes.
Our immediate challenge was accommodation. We tried many places in the old town – pick one: full, awesome but too expensive, or shockingly lousy. We actually got to the point of expecting to leave Cartagena as fast as possible until Kuba and launched an internet + skype mission, called 20 places and found a winner: a run down resort in the new town area of Boca Grande – space for all 7 of us, two pools, right on the beach, meals included, all sorts of other bonuses (sort of like a land cruise ship) for only $30/night/person. Gold. So we all hopped in a taxi and drove over to verify the story before signing up.
Fact: sometimes it pays to listen to the street hustlers selling you on stuff
Well the resort place was as expected, and we were ready to sign on the dotted line. Meanwhile, while buying sunglasses that perfectly matched bathing suits, the outside team was getting hustled into looking at an ‘apartment’ for our accommodation needs. It sounded too small for the 7 of us, but we checked it out anyways. That’s when our Cartagena experience changed forever.
The apartment was amazing! 30th floor right on the (private) beach, huge pool (with waterfall) really nice staff, three rooms, two showers, full kitchen, laundry… all a dream – each of us danced a little dance when we saw it for the first time.
The rest of Cartagena was a Champagne, blended coffee beverage, and tetra-pak boxed rum blur of awesome home cooked food, car recovery, ocean playing, shopping, partying and suburban exploration. But I`ll try to dissect it for you.
Food: Lots of random street food like samosa wrapped around a hard boiled egg, home cooked meals of sausage, beans, whole fish, fresh pastries. Eating out we abandoned a restaurant because it wasn’t sketchy enough (we want REAL), but went back the next night after we saw the cops busting it and arresting people. I had the grilled whole snapper, again.
Party: Oh boy. One night we went out and none of us remember going home. We’re pretty sure I paid a bill of $299,999, but I can barely remember that. It’s all about bottles in this country, and that rum sure goes down easy. Other nights we had our own little tetra-pak rum blended drink house parties while arguing about the trajectory and ultimate impact point of hard boiled eggs (hypothetically) thrown from our balcony in gale force winds.
Play: Ah the beach! Our playtime was certainly beach time, pool time, and wander time. Our pool had three in-water levels and a fountain. We played marco polo and some lame swiss game that Ewa probably made up that involved staying frozen in position and underwater leg obstacle courses.
Car Recovery
We actually were able to see the ship come into port from our place, pretty cool.
After days spent and much back and forth the car returned. For me that experience meant entertaining/distracting shopping hungry, drama laden girls while Jono, Kuba, Fabian and Ornella jumped through paperwork hoops complicated enough to require a flowchart.
Important quotes, facts, and slap bets:
“show me a colour, I’ll tell you what it’s name is”
“existence is just a hobby”
“I’ve got the reflexes of a drunk cat”
Fact: Serious people aren’t ticklish
Fact: Switzerland is zombie safe
Fact: Boys don’t bleed as much as girls
Fact: Fish tickling is illegal in Canada
SLAP BET: Is the term for the size of ship that can travel through the new larger tertiary locks at the panama cananal NEW PANAMAX or POST PANAMAX. This bet is outstanding. But I won and Kuba lost [PDF]. He should be slapped.
Remember that bad weather? It moves from west to east and caught up with us. And 30 floors up its really windy. Sort of like opening the window on a small airplane in flight. So, after a couple days of that, we knew it was time to move on. We planned to take a few days to get to Medellin. The traffic getting out of Cartagena was brutal, and a laughing but frustrated Jono pushed it just a bit to hard. Hit a bus. But took it like a man and pulled over to face the music. What’s 20,000 between friends?