Cartagena

Again, we woke up early for our bus ride to Cartagena. It’s supposed to take about 4 hours, but it took around 5 and was supposed to be door to door. However, I do think it is better than the alternative of schlepping to a bus station outside of Santa Marta, only to be dropped off at a bus station outside of Cartagena.

We booked with Juana Ballena agency which ultimately uses Marisol Transport. With various checkpoints and picking up passengers and hitchhikers, we survived the ride. Even at one point, we dropped off folks at the Cartagena airport - then one of them found us in the city 10 minutes later as he had trailed us via taxi because he left his bag in the overhead - and here I was like, “a hitchhiker in the city?!” The best part of the ride was that it rained, so it didn’t rain when we were outside at the hotel pool later on. But the worst part was that there was a leak on Amanda. A view of the road to Cartagena:



We passed our hotel too which was within the walled city, so the driver stopped on what seemed like a highway and we walked to our incredible hotel, the Sofitel Legende Santa Clara. The hotel is a converted convent and absolutely gorgeous. The service so far has been impeccable where they have delivered macarons and bonbons to our room and have been very attentive.

Our room wasn’t ready until 3, so we decided to enjoy our welcome drinks and eat some snacks in the bar. Here’s a collage of our bites, and most notably, wonderful mojito with lulo and margarita:

When we were done, our room was ready! We were upgraded to a room with a pool and ocean view and a nice balcony. Here’s the view:



The music around the pool was delightful jazz and instrumental pop music for a wedding. We were also invited to a reception with the general manager of the hotel that’s held weekly on Thursdays for VIPs. I kept telling them I’m only silver status, but they said that was “muy importante.” The reception was held in the Presidential Botero suite - Botero is the Colombian artist and we had previously taken photos with his statues in Medellín. We enjoyed chatting with Sergio, the Food and Beverage manager on duty. Here are some photos:





We then walked a bit around town - even in the dark, you could see the colorful buildings. We finally settled on La Cevicheria which was across the street and enjoyed ceviche and some paella along with or drinks.



Here’s Amanda in the hotel courtyard on our way back to our room!



I’ve wanted to visit Cartagena for many years, so I’m very excited to finally be here! As we learned at the hotel reception for VIPs, Cartagena is the walled city that protected the continent - heroica!