What was supposed to be the 4 hour bus ride to Cartagane, from Taganga seemed to take forever, and it did, 6.5 hours. We stopped numerous times along the highway to pick up as many passengers as possible, (This is a very common practice in S. America, bus drivers pack the buses with people, hence more money for them. It makes for quite an uncomfortable ride).
I finally arrived in Cartagena, an old colonial port town on the Northern coast oc Colombia. The town was steaming hot, no air conditioned rooms were available, only rooms with fans. I ended up checking into a hostel, Holiday. In my dorm room there 7 beds, and not one of them had a top sheet, only the bottom fitted sheet, why,because the heat was SO intolerable! I could hardly sleep that night, one for the stuffy heat, and two because Ezequiel, my boyfriend of 2 years, was arriving the next day for a one week visit. It had been 4 months since we had last seen each other, quite some time.
The next day I woke up with a huge smile on my face. I ran some errands, wax job, groceries, and moving to a new hostel with Windows and a good fan. I went to pick up Ezequiel, I was driven the the airport on the back of a Motorcycle, fun!, and could hardly wait to get my arms around him and give him a big kiss!
Well, like most flights now a days are late, his was too! 2.5hrs! It was the longest in my life! At the airport I got to know all the families who were awaiting loved ones as well. Some families had gone for 2/3 years without seeing their relatives.
needless to say, as Ezequiel finally walked though the exit gates we both had mile long smiles!
That night we spent the night roaming the romantic streets of Cartagena. Stopping to see the old wall that surrounded the town, ancient fortresses, and old churches, we couldn't stop looking at each other!
The next day we made our way to the 'tourist dock' and got on a boat that headed for Playa Blanca. We made the journey to the desolate island with a couple from Australia, the same one I did the Lost City trek with. The boat ride was great, a pack of dolphins followed our boat for some time. We arrived to the island, had a typical lunch, fish , coconut rice, salad, and fried plantains, and looked for somewhere to spend the night, we had the choice of hammocks or a tent, this island was evtrymely desolate.
We spent the day lounging on the beach, getting a massages on the shore with coconut oil, and walking along the beach to watch the sunset. We shared a 'box' of wine with the Australians and then ended up spending the night in a small red tent. It was hard to sleep, all of a sudden we heard weird noises. There were huge crabs crawling onto our tent, weird! The next morning we woke up after a rough night of sleep to find crab tracks all around our tent. More lounging around the island, and then It was time to catch the boat back to Cartagena.
We cooked spaghetti at the hostel, took a well deserved shower, there was no running water on the island, and went out for a night on the town. A Cuban bar across thre street seemed appealing, and it was, we spent the night dancing to salsa, ballenata, and cumbia music. Ezequiel says I still need to work on shaking my hips, typical northern American!
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