Cartagena and our big night out in Colombia

After the adventures of the desert and the jungle we felt it was time to relax and go to a town that vaguely resembled a tourist resort - so we took an extremely lonnnnnnng bus ride to Cartagena.

Once again, the bus ride was A LOT longer than billed, there was no air con, we arrived pretty frickin' hungry circa 10pm given that we had been up since 5am.

Found a hostel that had room for us and then found a place for a late night dinner of vegetable curry. The addition of vegetables into our diet was VERY welcome, given we'd not seen one for around 8 days.

It was also Dan's last night. We fully intended to go out partying but all of us were so spent that we went to bed at midnight.....

Next morning there was an emotional farewell to Doctor Dan. Who would tend to any medical emergencies now!?!?!!!?

Luckily Sarah had found a Gabriel García Márquez tour for us to do. He'd come to Cartagena with nothing and slept on a bench before using the city as inspiration for his many novels. We stopped off at the hotel where he had stayed (very fancy - not somewhere that we were staying...), a balcony and some squares. 

Here's a sneaky peek - Cartagena is VERY pretty: 

Here you see some lovely coconut treats - flavoured with different things - excessively sweet, Vic and I managed to eat half a one each.

Then we saw some street art stuff. Do I even need to write the words "look" and "strong" now....

Then we went for some ceviche - raw fish cooked for a few hours in lime juice with some chilli. It's lovely and you should try it immediately if you have not already. 






After that we went back to meet Noam and Christen for dinner and then, you guessed it, a fairly early night. We did have a few drinks in the square but we had plans, we wanted to go to the beach early doors. 

And go to the beach we did. After a VERY stressful time in the port going to one boat then another then another for an hour. 

The boat ride was pretty fun too if you like boats that are akin to a rollercoaster. 

We then indulged in something we had been yearning for all holiday - PINA COLADA SERVED IN A COCONUT: 

That dude with us is Graham the Canadian. We lost him after lunch and not sure if he made the boat back. 

Then, finally we met again with our American chums for their last night and managed to go out and party!!!! In a club called Havana. With a live Latin band. And bottles of rum. Several bottles of rum. Vic and I managed to stay out til an early hour and have some dirty street food on the short walk back to the hostel. Kristen and Noam also did an arm wrestle. We all did some dancing:

And that, in a nutshell was Cartagena. The next morning it became just the three of us again. We did a bit of shopping, a bit of mooching and waited for our first Colombian night bus experience. Next stop would be Medellin.