Cartagena and Playa Blanca

Friday, August 27th, 2010

I met some friends from Bogota last night, and had dinner with them. One of the girls were norwegian, so she was the first one I`ve met from Scandinavia! I got up really early and decided after looking at the cloudy weather, to catch a bus to Cartagena. One of the americans were going too, and I met a french guy I know, right outside my hostal. I got to know my ecuadorian roomies, who saved me a lot of money, because I didn´t have to pay gringo prices for a boat trip to Islas Rosarios. They are really nice guys, and I got to know two australian girls through them, who are also coming. One of them has a birthday today, so were celebrating. I`m also meeting irish Declan tonight. We`re checking out the big hostal called la media luna, that has a rooftop bar.

I`m surprised how nice Cartagena is!
I`m really glad I went. Now I´m chilling out with Seinfeld before we´re gonna cook some pasta for dinner.


We all went out to dance, but were a bit disappointed of the clubs we found. Not much people out that friday. Don´t understand why that is in Cartagena, of all places! But it was cool. Declan and the norwegian girl and her friend, Frank, who we also met at Playa Blanca, came. We tanned on the 4 hour long boat ride there(insanely slow), found some hammocks when we got there, and relaxed. It was cheaper than we had expected: 5000cop for a hammock, 10000 for dinner. Crystal clear water. I´m pretty red today, but tomorrow I shall be tan. I switched hostal from Casa Vienna to the bigger la media luna, which has the amazing rooftop view. Here, I met some cool people and also people from the lost city trek. La Casa Vienna lost my laundry, so I have to go back tomorrow morning, and we got Terrible dinner service at a nice restaurant, so things have been going a bit wrong. Tomorrow should be better.

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Last day in Cartagena:

I changed my mind about the mudvolcano, after waking up several times because of my sunburn.

People took their time this morning! We didn't go anywhere before 1-2ish. Just hung out in the pool, etc. This is such a sociable hostal, and I´ve kept running into people I´ve met before as well. I eventually left for a quick lunch and to check out the big fortress(15000cop entrance). We walked in tunnels, looked around at the great view, had some great conversations and a cool trumpet guy played the national anthem of Canada for my canadian roomies. After that, we went back to the hostal and I met the norwegian girl and her friend again, who are taking a bus today, to Medellin. I´m apparently doing the same thing, and hopefully at the same time, because my payment didn´t really go through. Which means I´ll have one day less there, but save twice as much. You also never know about flight delays, which are very common in South America.

We walked around in the old town at dawn. Really nice, lots of people, dancers and horsewagons. Returned to the hostal, cooked and met some cool new people. I ended up having a very long talk to a medstudent, travelling by motorcycle and working in clinics, that opened my eyes to the possibility of travelling after just one year of medschool. I´ve been finding it very tempting to travel more, since I meet people that have been to 40 countries or more. It truly shows you that there are so many alternative ways to live your life. What´s the rush anyways?

After realizing how late it was, we got more sociable and played nationality guessing games with the people at the hostal. I slept for 4hours, thinking I needed to catch a flight, buut I can just chill out today, I guess. Too bad I only get one day in Medellin, then it´s hasta la vista, Colombia!