On to Minca

Another early morning as we took a collective taxi to Santa Marta. The hotel told use all sorts of departure times, so it was very confusing. But eventually we made it on the road. The highway was in very good condition, better than some places of the U.S. even! It was a sunny day with good views of the ocean and some major rivers.  The taxi was a tourist van with seven passengers. I sat in the front.  At Baranquilla (where Sofia Vargas is from) we stopped some passengers and four of us switched into a car.  That was more cramped. The other two were from New York. We've run into a handful of Americans along the way.

Once we got to Santa Marta, we had to switch to another local taxi to head up into the mountains and Minca.  We're in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.  When we got to Minca we had to hike up a very steep path with our very heavy bags in order to get to our hostel.  This hostel feels like one. It's far off the beaten path and it appears that a lot of random people have stumbled here. The place is definitely the most rustic and simplest place we've stated at. Hopefully, the bugs won't be too bad.

Cartagena, Day 2

This was our full day in Cartagena, and we packed things in.  The whole area we were staying in was going to have electricity shutoff from 7 to 7. I guess it was a Sunday.  So we got up early for a hot shower... and still had to settle for a touch above cold.  We never had a warm shower at that hotel, Hotel San Martin.  (Granted that it was almost always above 85 so it wasn't terrible, but still...) We had a lot of other issues with the hotel, so it is highly not recommended.

We walked up to El Centro, the historical area of Cartagena. The buildings are of the colonial style and very well preserved. We did a walking tour of the area, seeing all of the places from the outside. It was so hot that we weren't too inspired to go into many places.  You could actually walk on the old walls and get some nice views. Many buildings appeared to be reclaimed by universities, hotels, bff museums. We had a nice, luxurious and long lunch at the Hotel Sofitel, a former monastery. The rooms here were $600/night!  We had lunch right in front if the pool, watching the upper crust of Colombia gallivant about.

We were so dead when we finally made it back to the hotel. A long siesta and then dinner at a local Spanish restaurant.

Cartagena

This entry won't post for a few days as we've entered a Wi-Fi free zone at Minca. More about that in a future post. Suffice to say, I'm sitting in a hammock in a hostel while writing this.

We had a whole day sucked up by travel in getting from the coffee region to Cartagena. We had a 6am departure from the Finca. It was too early for breakfast so we were given a bag full of mandarin oranges and mangos.  There was no traffic at that hour and we had plenty of time for our flight. My bag got tagged and I had to be called back for it to be opened up. I think it was the L lens with high quality glass.  Anyway, we flew on a Fokker 50 to Bogota. A few hours there and then we continued on to Cartagena.

After checking in we walked around Bocagrande. This area is kinda like Miami with high-rise apartment buildings fronting the beach.  We had a whole fish as well as a mixed grill, right by the beach.  Dessert was at a crepe place that had been recommended to us.

The day was purely a burn day for after a few hours of rest we went to a steakhouse down the street. It was actually pretty good. Their theme was to ask everyone where they were from and to bring over flags from that country. Since the U.S. was too easy, we challenged them with India and Taiwan... and they succeeded! 

More Cartagena in the next post...