Cartagena and the Rosario Islands - Days 5-11

Hey everyone! Ben here to detail the next portion of our travels, in and around the Cartagena area! We left our hostel in Bogota early on Wednesday morning by catching an uber around 7:30 for our flight at 10 because we had heard that the traffic on weekdays can be pretty outrageous. It wasn’t, and we got to the airport around 8. Oh well. The airport was lacking in restaurants, and not wanting soup for breakfast, we ended up grabbing some McD’s. Wasn’t actually too bad though, something about airports makes eating shitty fast food appealing. Anywho... we had no issues at the airport or with the flight, until we got off the plane at least…

Our issue once we got off the plane was a very basic one – survival – specifically how not to burn to death walking across the tarmac from the plane to the gate. It was pretty freaking hot, like 95° and 1,300% humidity, give or take. We crawled to the taxi stand and got a ride into Cartagena to our Airbnb, which was in a residential neighborhood near the tourist district. Cartagena’s a pretty big city with a large downtown area featuring a bunch of white high-rises on the beach. It looks a lot like Miami. Nearby is the old city, a colonial-era port surrounded by a wall and guarded by a fort from the 1600s that reached it’s height during the age of piracy. Next to the old city is getsemani, a hipster/bohemian neighborhood with a lot of hostels and a mix of locals and tourists, and past that – our neighborhood – manga. Our taxi dropped us off at our airbnb, a rented room in a local girl’ apartment, which was quite nice. Our room had AC which was the best news in a while. We unloaded our packs and set off on foot toward the old city.

On the walk we got some arepas (a fried cornmeal patty little guy), the local street food of choice, as well as some fruit from one of the million pesky vendors, and we wandered the streets of the old city. After walking for a good 90 seconds, we were dripping sweat and stopped in a little corner restaurant called For Beer Lovers. They had excellent AC so we cooled off, played a couple games of crib, then we decided to head to Cafe del Mar – a really cool bar/restaurant situated on top of the wall with an excelled view for sunset – for some drinks. We had a couple decent mojitos – a bit pricey but we were paying for the view. We played some cribbage of course, and per usual, I won the day 2-1.

As the sun was setting we had a couple next to us take a photo of us, and got to talking with them – our first travel friends! Nikhil and Aruna were a couple (they probably still too) but they were from Washington DC traveling for a couple weeks. We had a few more drinks with them on the wall and talked about traveling for a while. Aruna gave us some suggestions for SE Asia, and Nikhil told us about the greatness of Tokyo (Mik/Sam – he ate at Sukiyabashi Jiro via a reservation from his hotel’s reception!). Half the sky was blue and half was very dark as we just caught the edge of a massive thunderstorm – there was a ton of lightening for us to watch and we missed the rain! We got a little tipsy with Nikhil and Aruna while playing a random card game they brought with them then started walking back. Nikhil suggested some street food they saw the other night, so we traversed back across town to getsemani and got a platter of awesomeness from a random hamburgesa stand.

The stand was in a crowded square with a band playing on the steps of a church, and a nice mix of locals and gringos drinking beer from brown paper bags.

We grabbed some beer, ate our food and enjoyed the ambiance – it was a great time! Then we hoofed it back to our Airbnb. The walk was a bit sketchy at night but not terrible; we cranked the AC and went to bed. End of D5 cribbage score: Ben 10 (1 skunk) – Meg 6 (2 skunks).

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The next day we decided to avoid the worst of heat and get the (this) blog going. We went to the grocery store a block away in the morning and got some stuff for breakfast and some future cheap meals as well. Back as Isabel’s place I made eggs and toast while Meg made pasta salad.

We ate downstairs and chatted with Isabel and one of her other guests, a Swiss dude who’d been traveling for about 5 months. After a bit we retreated back upstairs to our room (no AC downstairs), and Meg started typing up the Bogota journey, while I looked into where we wanted to go next. I reserved our hostels for the next couple weeks – the plan was to travel up the coast.

Around 6 we headed out towards the old city again and went to eat at restaurant 1533 which I’d read about on another traveler’s blog. It was pretty solid, I had fish with a seafood sauce, and Meg had garlic prawns. It was in the old city but not overly pricey like most places there. We wandered some of the little shops looking for a sundress for Meg; the cotton one she brought was heavy and didn’t dry easily. We eventually found one, and we stopped in a little shop for some gelato and AC while playing cribbage before heading back. On the way back, in the main square of the city, there was some boxing going on – never seen that outside before. We stuck around and watched for a bit, it was literally like 90 seconds and the match we were watching ended in a KO. Walking through getsemani on our way back to Isabel’s we went through the same square as last night and it was crazy busy again, this time with break dancers and a dance crew. We saw the hostel we are booked at for the next two nights was right on the square, a much better location than our Airbnb. We headed back kind of early and tried to debug the blog a bit, and watched some netflix before bed. End of D6 cribbage score: Ben 11 (1 skunk) – Meg 8 (2 skunks).

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On our third day in Cartagena we had some plans – check out the fort near the old city, relocate from our Airbnb to our hostel, and meet Nikhil and Aruca at night. After spending the scorching hours inside yesterday, I had forgotten that the sun murders you, so on our walk to the fort, 15 minutes (at 9 AM!) we were already getting torched. Good times. We grabbed some arepas y huevos on walk – a fried pastry treat like a empanada filled with eggs and meat. The fort itself was sadly a big ol’ big ol’ disappointment.

It’s a big concrete structure that is a little pricey by Colombian standards to enter but we did anyways. We walked up a few ramps to the top of it and saw a few rooms of the fort, but there we no signs or descriptions of anything. Like a sign indicating that a room was the barracks or prison would have been nice, but we had use our imagination mostly. The top of the fort had a decent view, and we found some tunnels under the fort that we explored. Those were fairly neat – a maze of tunnels descending deeper under the fort (and getting smaller so even Meg had to crouch).

We had no idea if they came out anywhere as we went deeper – they did not. Eventually we found a tunnel that was slightly flooded and decided that we should probably turn around. We found our way out of the tunnels and left the fort pretty quickly; we maybe spend an hour there. Wouldn’t recommend.

We got back to the airbnb, packed our bags, and played some cribbage before our noon checkout. We each won a game, then decided to grab an uber to our hostel instead of hoofing it with our packs on in the 95° shitstorm. Hostel papaya getsemani was a neat little place with a small courtyard right near the popular square in the next district. After dropping our bags off at the hostel, we headed out and walk around until we could check in at 2. We walked over towards the old city through a neighborhood which was clearly more local. While exploring this new area, we saw a couple small restaurants that were very packed with locals (well, people who didn’t dress like tourists and more tan than us. I technically assumed they were locals) and made a note to stop back.

We walked by a fantastic smelling bakery in the neighborhood with a ton of pastries and breads on display and stopped for a tasty, surprisingly fruit filled goody. As we wandered a bit longer, we tried some more street food, the highlight being a fried breadstick filled with gooey cheese. Once we could check in, we headed back in the direction of our hostel and on the way, stopped at one of the aforementioned busy restaurants for lunch and had the most phenomenal chicken and potatoes I could have imagined.

It was out of this world, we had some tasty blackberry juice also, all for like $3 – the perks of eating like a local I suppose. After getting back to the hostel, we checked into our 4 bed dorm. They did have AC, but it ran only at night. Better than the worst, worse that the best AC scenario. I napped a bit and woke in a pool of my own sweat in the common area while Meg read.

We took a cold shower, played a game of cribbage in the hostel courtyard, then made our way back towards the old city to meet Nikhil and Aruna. We snagged a few beers on the way over to their airbnb which was very nice, they had the entire place and they had jacked their AC way up so it was almost cold inside! After some drinks there, we left to find a concert that we thought was going on, but as it turns out it was a private party in a public square for some rich ass people, and we weren’t allowed past the security. Oh well, after scarfing down a couple street meat kebabs, we went over to a different square where we had a drink in a bar that was decorated, quite elaborately, as a soviet submarine. It was pretty cool inside actually, but we only stayed for one drink, then got a table in the square by some local musicians and listened to them for quite a while. It was a great night to spend outside because as the city really cools down when the sun sets. We were very content staying there the entire night. All good things end though, and our travel friends had to fly home the next day, so we said goodbye and headed back to the hostel. We may have got some more street snacks on our way back to getsemani – a burger and a hot dog loaded with all sorts of unidentifiable tasties. As promised, the AC in the dorm was kicking, so it was easy to fall asleep. End of D7 cribbage score: Ben 13 (2 skunk) – Meg 10 (3 skunks).

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We were bummed that our travel buddies had to go home, but still had a whole day in Cartagena to enjoy. Guess what though – it was really fucking hot out. Our hostel included breakfast, which was okay – some arepa/pancake hybrid and fruit. Can’t beat free though. After eating, we were on a mission to find a neat coffee shop called Abaco.

On the way we found a particularly pretty and shaded spot to stop in a random square for some juice, but we did eventually make it to the coffee shop. It was a cute lil’ coffee shop/bookstore hybrid with only a few tables, but they had some delicious cold brew coffee, so we set up shop.

We took a few hours and did some planning, booking some places to stay in Minca and Palomino while we and soaked up dat AC.

We also overheard the couple next to us talking about where to go from Cartagena. We got to talking and met new friends Minos and Sarah from Chicago! We talked a bit about home and Colombia, and they told us about an Argentinian soccer bar a few blocks away that they were likely going to watch the Champions League final in a couple hours. We planned on meeting them there, and we grabbed some pretty good Greek food for lunch. Meg lucked out in that game of cribbage, and then we headed over to the bar. We had a few beers while watching the unfortunate match then the four of us went to the free walking tour Meghann had read about. Most large cities abroad have a free (tip based) walking tour, in English, given by a volunteer each day. I’ve usually found these tours to be a great ways to explore a city’s layout, learn some history about the city, get a recommendation for where to go out or eat, and even meet some other travelers. This one in particular wasn’t great (she didn’t even mention the city’s history of pirate raids, but talked about the animal shaped door-knockers ad nauseum!), but we did meet a couple other travelers! After the tour – about a half hour before sunset – the now 6 of us all grabbed some beers from the corner store and walked the city wall where we sat and drank and watched the sunset over the ocean.

Our new new friends Geoff and Ashley were also staying in Getsemani, so the whole crew walked back that way for the rest of the evening. We met for dinner at a neat pizza restaurant right on the main square in our district which had a neat little patio in the back with those hanging lights that Megatron loves.

We wanted to stay out late with the new friends but had to be at the scuba shop at 8 AM, across town, so we went with them to one more bar then went back to Hostel Papaya. End of D8 cribbage score: Ben 13 (2 skunk) – Meg 11 (3 skunks).

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The next morning came earlier than I wanted, but we stuffed all our clothes into our bags and hailed an uber. We dropped off our bags at the dive shop, stopped quick at a market to stock up on snacks and snag a couple pastries for breakfast, then jumped on a bus for the docks. At the docks we boarded our ferry – a speedboat seating ~30, and we were away to the Rosario Islands! The boat ride to the islands was a little under one hour, and pretty enjoyable as the water was calm. We unloaded at a hotel on Isla Grande, the main island in the archipelago, got sized for our diving gear, picked our weight belts, etc. and then re-boarded onto a smaller dive boat.

Our first dive was only 10 minutes away, a big relief as I was worried about another boat ride like in Zanzibar (very long, very vomit). I went with some other divers for the first dive while Meg went with the PADI instructor to do some exercises. It had been a while since I dived last, but it came back quickly; the first dive was just swimming out and back along a wall, nothing crazy. The water was very warm and all our diving was sans wetsuit, a.k.a. skin diving. The islands are in a marine sanctuary, but my dive partner said the area exhibited some signs of over-fishing. It did have a bunch of cool fish, but not in huge schools, like I remembered seeing diving in Africa.

After dive one we had a brief surface interval, and the boat took us around the island to the second site. Meg had done most of her open water exercises, so we were able to dive together on this one! This dive was a bit cooler than the first, with some huge coral formations and a bigger variety of fish. After another 45 minute dive and we were transported back to the hotel for lunch – a mediocre-at-best sandwich and fries. Then, as everyone else boarded the large speedboat, we took a 15 minute ride on a tiny little boat and to our hostel on the other side of Isla Grande.

We hopped off the boat into the shallows with our packs and waded ashore, excited for island life. The beach was smaller than imagined, and hostel check in told us we were booked in dorms for the first night, then a room for two more nights. With no wifi on the island I fortunately had my Colombian SIM card working, so I pulled up our reservation confirming just two nights of booking. The girl at reception came off on the bitchy side of the bitch spectrum, and I was getting feisty. I found out that I did book a dorm for the first night though. Oops. We were showed the rooms, they explained things like what times the electricity worked and to watch out for coconuts falling on your heads. We couldn’t actually unload our bags though – the check in lady didn’t know what beds we had, and the person who did was evidently not around. Cue eye roll. He eventually did show and was super nice, he offered us a private instead of the dorms for both nights, which was very appreciated since there wasn’t anywhere safe to leave our camera and tablet in the dorms.

We lounged around until 6 when the dive boat was supposed to back to pick up me (Ben) for a night dive! The island, unsurprisingly, was very hot, and the fans weren’t working because it wasn’t electicity’o’clock yet. And there was no breeze. Not ideal island life, but island life. The boat finally came for me and as we were getting to the dive site I realized that night diving seemed spooky and crazy. But I suited up on the boat, fell back into the water with a flashlight and the 4 other divers (2 divers, 2 guides) and away we went. We dove at the same site as the first dive that morning, but it was unrecognizable at night. It was much more colorful because all the coral was awake and feeding. We saw a bunch of lobster and crab – crustaceans like the night life I guess – and even saw an octopus! Our divemaster shined him with a light and he swam away a bit and tried to camouflage which was super cool! After the dive, they dropped me back at the hostel where we had some leftover pasta salad for dinner, then went to bed. Our bedroom had two fans which we blasted, and we fell asleep in our mosquito net enclosed beds pretty quickly thanks to the exhaustion from diving. End of D9 cribbage score: Ben 13 (2 skunk) – Meg 11 (3 skunks)

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The light woke us up early in the morning to another sunny day. We “enjoyed” some hard boiled eggs and granola bars that we brought to avoid buying hostel meals that were relatively pricey. We then grabbed out masks and snorkels and headed to the beach to wait for our boat. The first dive was just a few of us, as it was early in the morning before the transport boat from Cartagena had arrived. They took us on a longer (only 15 minutes though) ride out to a shipwreck spot! This dive had a bit of current as well, so it was going to be interesting. We descended along the buoy rope to avoid drifting too much, then followed the dive leaders.

After a few minutes we could make out a large, looming shadow in front of us – the hull of a sunken ship. The ship was an inconsequential one they told us, it was no Titanic, but it was still pretty big. We circled it 3 times, each time rising a bit, then explored the deck (we couldn’t go into the cargo hold. Also, we probably wouldn’t have wanted to. Scary.) We then explored the vicinity of the wreck while fighting the gentle current before heading back up. I went with one guide and Meghann with the other so she could do another drill. The other diver I was with actually ran out of air (or was critically low) during our safety stop (a 3 minute interval spend at 5 meters depth to help avoid getting the bends), and he had to start using our guide’s secondary regulator. The other diver Meghann was with had to do the same thing! This seemed pretty crazy to us as they had both done over 200 dives. My air was pretty low after the safety stop (300 psi – you start the dive with a full tank of 3000), and it should never really get below 500. Meg’s was 1100 once we surfaced, to the amazement of everyone! Meg said that this was her favorite dive.

We went back to the hotel to swap tanks after the first dive, and we hung out there while waiting for the boat from Cartagena to bring the other divers and snorkelers. We had some tasty juices on some of their seaside couch things until they finally arrived and we were off to the last dive. For the final dive, Meg just had one last exercise, a compass exercise, which she did right on the surface as we entered the water, and she was a certified open water diver! I decided to bring the GoPro for this dive too. This dive had a pretty moderate current, and it was going to be a drift dive! We dropped to 18 meters, and saw loads of pretty fish here. Bigger schools than the other sites for sure.

The current was strong and the water warm so we just floated along, observing everything while I was taking pictures on the GoPro (thanks Mike!). After 45 minutes or so we inflated a buoy and the boat came and picked us up from wherever we had drifted to. Cool dive, my favorite of the 5. After being dropped off at the hostel, we played some cribbage in the shade, with Ben winning both games. We spend the afternoon reading and drinking Aguila light, made some tuna sandwiches for dinner, and watched an episode of Sherlock we’d saved for offline viewing under a mosquito net. So romantic. End of D10 cribbage score: Ben 15 (2 skunk) – Meg 11 (3 skunks)

The following day we still had some time to kill until our boat ride back to Cartagena, so we had a relaxing island morning by doing very little. We read the books we brought, finished the remainder of our food – read: trail mix for breakfast – and, end of list. Around lunch time we did a bit of hiking to a restaurant some Irish dudes had recommended. It was basically a family’s house right on the ocean about a kilometer from our hostel. I dominated Meg 3-1 in cribbage games while we had our seafood plates with smashed plantains, and we walked back to our hostel. We were picked up in a little boat, taken to the larger boat, and shuttled back to Cartagena. On the way to our hostel we stopped by a really cool place called Beer and Laundry. Guess what we did there?? (Mik – they did our laundry and we drank beer) We also had some pizza while we were there and Meg made up her cribbage deficit for the day, winning 3 games to 1.

The owner of the place was a really cool guy who we talked to about Cartagena and his hometown of Medellin. After finally having some clean clothes we got to our hostel, cranked the AC, and hit the hay. End of D11 cribbage score: Ben 19 (3 skunk) – Meg 15 (4 skunks)