WEEK 13

Cartagena, Colombia

- the taxis drop us off at the hostel that Fabian has recommended, only it's full!

- a few of us head out and start looking for another place to stay ... fortunately, it seems like every other building is a hostel ... unfortunately, most of them seem to be crap!

- we settle on one called the Marlin ... just around the corner from where we were dropped off, it seemed to have a nice look and feel ... all six of checked in (3 private rooms), and then met downstairs in the lobby/internet area

- here we split up a bit ... Heather, Willie and Laura went back to the Marina to pick up our passports from Fabian; Joe pulled out his new mini-laptop and got it connected to the internet; Isaac went for a nap; and I headed out to see a bit of the city and find an ATM

- turns out Cartagena isn't just hot, it's CRAZY HOT ... reminds me of the "don't move" days of Leon, except I SHOULD be much more acclimated by now ... daily highs were 36 degrees, and it didn't get much cooler at night (but cooler enough that it was possible to go out and enjoy ourselves) ... however, we soon discovered our hostel room wasn't that great, because it was nearly impossible to get cool, and the beds sucked ... so sleeping was always a sweaty, miserable experience

- it also turns out that ATMs in Colombia only let you take out a maximum of approximately $150 USD ($200 if you're super lucky) ... this royally sucked for me, since I have to pay a flat withdrawal fee every time I use the ATM (which was far too often in Colombia)

- the city itself (the old town, where most people stay) is extremely pretty ... many nice Colonial buildings ... the area with all the hostels (Getsemani) is a bit more rundown and sketch (and where you get the frequent offers for cocaine and the like) ... but just a few minutes away is a much nice area of shops and restaurants and park squares ... cleaner, safer, better

- I head back to the hostel, and Joe is worried, because Laura and the others aren't back yet ... turns out they've had a huge delay getting our passports because ... Isaac's passport is missing!!! ... apparently, the guy who took the passports to the airport also took another set of passports, and somehow swapped Isaac's with some girl from Israel!??

- long story short, the gang finally returned to the hostel, but only with 5 passports ... we'd have to get a hold of Fabian later for the sixth

- we then all headed out to find some place to eat dinner ... walking through the nicer area of town, we ran into a couple of free street shows, with pretty impressive dancing

- eventually, Joe and Laura went off on their own, and the remaining four wound up at a restaurant that served pasta and crepes ... we sat outside and enjoyed a pretty nice dinner (we were also able to see some of the dancing from the neighbouring park, as well as hear the live drumming that accompanied it)

- after dinner, we headed back towards the hostel, but wound up going into Cafe Havana

(highly recommened by Fabian)

- Cuban themed, the scene there was pretty fantastic ... live music, everyone dancing and having a blast ... the only negative was that drinks were SUPER expensive (I wound up nursing a single glass of wine for about 4 hours!)

- apparently, the club keeps going until the wee morning hours ... but after the band had finished it's first set, I called it a night (about 1am)

- next day, we find out that some British guy fell off the second floor balcony of his hostel in the middle of the night (he was likely drunk and/or high at the time), and the hostel kicked him out, so now he was staying at our hostel! ... for the next couple of days, anytime any of us were in the lobby area, we'd notice this disturbing pattern ... every 15 minutes or so, this guy would come out of his room, smoke a cigarette, swear a lot (sometimes talking about feeling like crap, sometimes talking about having to go to work the next day, sometimes talking about something/someone being in his room) ... then he'd disappear back into his room for another 15 minutes ... after he'd falled, he had refused any medical attention, and obviously something was pretty wrong with him ... flash forward a few days, and this guy flat out disappears!! ... the cops come looking for him and his bags are in his room, but no one knows where he's gone ... that's the last we heard of him until later on when Joe and Laura informed us that they had contacted the British consulate in Cartagena and voiced their concern for this guy ... it was their email that had prompted the cops to come looking for him that night ... and a couple days later, the consulate emailed Joe back to inform him that they had found this other guy, and he had been sent back home to the UK (although it was vague enough that we can only assume that he was alive when they found him)!! ... crazy stuff, but Joe and Laura may have saved someone's life!

- the next few days, we all mostly split up during the day (the fact that it was too hot to do anything playing a big part in that), and then we'd typically all get together to do something in the evening

- pretty much everyday, Isaac and I would go to our favourite little restaurant for brunch ... we'd get a bowl of soup and a plate of rice, beans, salad, plantains and whichever meat dish we ordered, all for about $2.50!!!! The food was delicious too ... but even better with the juice drinks (jugos natureles) ... for $1.00, we'd get huge glasses of papaya, blackberry, pineapple, orange, etc. ... single fruit or mixed fruit, with milk or without ... always super tasty

- we also found a place that made amazing fried chicken, so that was dinner a couple of nights ... and then Cartagena is just full of street vendors ... skewers, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizzas ... we tried a bit of everything ... some things were good, some things were horrible ... nothing was fantastic (well, this one hot dog we had late one night was close to qualifying ... it was loaded with toppings and sauces ... the only problem was that the weiner itself wasn't all that great)

- during the days, we avoided the heat as much as possible ... typically, this meant spending time in a somewhat air conditioned internet cafe

- we visited Fabian once, to get Isaac's passport (and we got to meet Fabian's son)

- we also hit the big mall in another part of town a few times ... it was big and well air conditioned, and it had a big grocery store (snacks and Isaac was able to get new flip flops after he broke his old pair), a cinema (we saw Righteous Kill, Wolverine (all 6 of us went, I didn't mind watching it a second time), and Terminator 4), as well as a restaurant called the Beer Station (they had their own handcrafted microbrew, that was quite a pleasant treat after all the similar tasting pilsners throughout Central and South America)

- Joe also found a decent bar (other than the fact that it was littered with extremely pretty hookers most nights) in the nicer part of old town that had all the local beers for pretty cheap ... so we went there a few times, and to this day I don't know the real name of the place, I only know it as "Joe's Bar"
- flash forward a few days, and Joe, Laura, Willie and Heather all take off for Bogota ... big goodbyes, especially to Willie and Heather (as we are hoping to run into Joe and Laura again in Medellin)
- just the two of us, Isaac and I quickly discover that there is a perfectly decent beach in Bocogrande - about a half hour walk from our hostel!!
- we wound up hitting that beach almost everyday (after we'd finally discovered it)
- we also moved to a different hostel about a block away from the Marlin ... San Roque is a newer, lesser known place ... run by a very nice family, and the rooms are SO much better ... changing to this hostel and finding the beach were probably our two best moves in Cartagena
- Isaac's friend Kate fly in to Cartagena a couple days after team UK left ... she came to Colombia to hang out with us for just over a week ... operation "party as hard as humanly possible" had officially commenced!!
- we stayed a couple more days in Cartagena, showing Kate around a bit, and hitting the beach (obviously) ... we also watched a World Cup qualifier at a bar with locals ... it was Colombia vs Argentina ... Colombia played much better, but wound up losing ... kind of sucked, but got us in the mood to watch a game live in Medellin (Colombia was going to play Peru there a few days later)
- time quickly became a factor in our plans ... Kate and Isaac wanted as much beach as possible (understandably), but someone needed to get to Medellin in time to secure tickets to the game
- so, Kate and Isaac headed to Playa Blanca (a nearby island known for good beach life) for a couple of day ... they apparently had a blast there ... in the meantime, I decided to head to the bus station ... next stop Medellin!!

- EoW