Back from La Heroica

I had been putting off writing this post for a couple of days. Not because my trip sucked and I have nothing to report. My trip was awesome. The thing is that there are so many things to tell, I don’t even know where to begin. I experienced the same when I was uploading the shots from my trip on Flickr this morning. There so many of them-400 to be exact- that I just didn’t know which ones to choose.  Finally, I decided that I was going to take my time to choose the nice, artistic ones to upload on Flickr. The ones where it’s just people I put on Facebook, because the only kind of photo people want to see on FB are the ones that they can gossip about and also because Alexa (a friend whose house I stayed at in Cartagena)  asked me to please upload them and tag her. Ah, teenagers. I have to say I kind of hate uploading pics on Facebook for many reasons. One is that my Inbox in flooded with notification emails which is something that I find extremely annoying.  And also because you get hateful messages from your friends in which they assume things they shouldn’t assume. In other words, you’re giving permission to the whole world to comment and talk about your private life. Maybe I should write a whole new post about this topic alone. I learned my lesson about social networks and privacy, though.

Back to my trip. I stayed in a very nice building called Conjunto El Pastelillo which was the subject of many jokes, made only by me and which no one found amusing. I kept calling it El Pastelito (de pollo) LOL. It had a great view to the bay of Cartagena and all the boats on the dock. My hostess was super nice and fed me as if I were a queen. She even let me use her own bed. Sleeping in the AC was one of the best parts of the trip too. I visited many places. But there was one place I kept coming back to: The walled city. I went there all THREE days I was in Cartagena. I love that place so much, I just want to live there.

So, let’s start with Friday. We got there, ate breakfast, napped and then we went to the Walled City. We spent a couple of hours there and all we did was take pictures. A lot of pictures. Then we got back home, ate lunch, napped again and showered. That night, I went to a couple of shopping malls and then we went to watch a movie. You don’t really experience a city if you don’t visit their shopping malls, right?  I watched G.I. Joe, which turned out to be a fun movie. That was totally unexpected.

The next day we hit the beach early and bought stuff from all the people who walked by our little hut. I got some really nice bracelets. After lunch, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to take more pics. But our little walk was interrupted by a  light drizzle that soon became a full-fledged storm. We had to walk in the rain a couple of blocks until we found a free cab. As we got in the cab, we realized we really didn’t have any idea where to go, so we went to the Walled City, again. I took more pics this time. And we went to a cafe and I had the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever had in my whole life. We walked more and then headed back home when everyone was too tired to keep on walking. That night we went for dinner at an italian place called La Bruschetta. The pasta was exquisite and there was a music show. They even sang a song for us. After dinner, we went to a bar and had cocktails until we were all sleepy and drunk.

Sunday was the least exciting day. I wanted to go to the San Felipe Fort, but no one was up for going all the way there and walking up the little hill. It was too late for the beach since we were leaving that afternoon at 2:00 PM. So we went, guess where? Yes, to the Walled City, again! I just can’t get enough of that place. I took more pictures of course until I pissed my friend off and he begged me to put the camera away. I was worse than any foreign tourist with the camera,  I know. We walked until we were too hot and annoyed and we had to sit down. We had an iced coffee at the Plaza De Santo Domingo and then we walked some more and visited the Gold Museum. At lunch time we went to a small reataurant and enjoyed some wine and seafood. Then I was too full, tired and hot to do anything else but go home, pack and wait for the minivan to pick us up. I loved Cartagena, but I have to say I don’t know if I’d live there because it is too freaking hot. Hotter than Barranquilla, and you know Barranquilla can be hot like hell during the rainy season.

I really enjoyed my time there. I think it was partly because I am in totally love with Cartagena and partly because I simply enjoy getting out of the city. Traveling is definitely one of my passions. I just wish I had more time/money to do it more often. I confess that on the way back home, I was already planning in my head my next road trip.