| Cartagena |
Tuesday
28 SEP 2004
We awoke at the crack of dawn, more precisely 4:30 AM & checked out of the hotel at
5:15. We didn't want to drag all of our suitcases to Cartagena & San Andres so we checked the largest one into the hotel's
storage until we return, most convenient. It sure is cold early in the morning in
Bogotá, now I know why it is called "la nevera"! The taxi ride to the airport was a nice one, the driver was an older gentleman from
Pasto. Wow what a difference from our taxi ride from the airport, this driver drove like a snail, luckily we had plenty of time. He was friendly and chatted about his life as an academic and about his children away in college.
Check in at El Dorado went smoothly and we proceeded to
Wimpy for a bit of breakfast, it seems odd seeing a Wimpy in
Colombia, it turns out they have been in
Colombia since 1976; the first being the
one in Unicentro in Bogotá. After a couple of cups of coffee we felt the urge to visit our respective toilets, as usual the toilet seats were missing, the hand dryers didn't work & there was no toilet paper. This spoils an otherwise nice airport. Our flight was delayed 1 hour because
Aeropuerto
El Dorado was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog.
The flight to Cartagena is very nice, lots to see out of the window, the scenery gets wetter as you approach Cartagena. The views of Cartagena itself resembles Miami Beach, at least Bocagrande which is what you see on the left as you approach Rafael
Nuñez airport. At Rafael Nuñez you have to walk down the steps and across the tarmac to the terminal, the warm air made it feel as though we were back in Florida. The airport itself is quite attractive, it is small and
picking up our luggage and exiting the airport was as easy as it gets.
Outside the airport the taxis of all vintages are lined up, I timed my exit just right and managed to get a 1973 Dodge Dart taxi, complete with a 1920s vintage driver with a bad case of the shakes. The ride to the hotel was pleasant, the sea breezes wafting through the open windows, the springs creaking,
ball joints popping, it made me imagine I was driving along the seafront in Havana. The traffic in Cartagena is much less hectic than
Bogotá, similar to how people drive in costal areas in Florida, very laid back.
The Hotel da Pietro is charming, it is run by an Italian fellow. We check in and are shown to our room, it is very spacious and welcoming with tile floors throughout and a large comfortable bed, it has ice cold AC with a remote as well as a TV and minibar. It is actually better than I was expecting. The only complaint I have are minor ones, the windows do not shut completely and might let a few bugs in, and the hot water takes about 1 hour to start flowing, at least in room 218. Hey this is Cartagena, it is hot and sticky, so
not having hot water is not a big deal.
The hotel has an Italian restaurant so we decided to give it a try, the restaurant is very nicely decorated and was quite full, so we had high hopes. We were not disappointed, the lasagna was very good, not too much tomato sauce, perfect. Back to the room for a short nap.
We decided to go for a walk in the afternoon and headed out, one block away from the hotel and we were
besieged by vendors and beggars. The vendors selling fake Mont Blancs, fake Rolexes, fake designer sunglasses are everywhere and very persistent. I know they are just trying to earn a living, but it gets tiresome fast. Perhaps I am just tired and irritable. The neighbourhood appears to be very safe, perhaps safer than any place in Colombia. Tourism is important to
Cartagena and it does seem to do a good job of making the tourist feel welcome & safe.
We wander a few blocks to see Hotel
Caribe, the grand queen of
Bocagrande's hotels, it reminds me of
the Vinoy
in St. Petersburg, Florida, where we
spent a lovely week soon after we were
first married. Close to the hotel is a Mimo's, so we stopped for an
ice-cream, I had a mora
paleta and Maria had a guanábana
one but a crema.
Soon it began raining, a lovely cooling tropical downpour. So there we sat under the overhang, people-watching; we watched the locals catching the buses. The buses are different to those in
Bogotá, firstly they actually wait for you, even if you walk slowly as the locals seem to do, they even have an assistant that will hang out of the bus announcing loudly the destination of the bus, this same assistant might also lend a helping hand as you climb on the bus, fold your umbrella. Totally different from
Bogotá. After the ice-cream we stopped at a little stand run by a paisa for some really nice
empanadas and a chorizo.
First impressions of Cartagena are favourable, very relaxing other than the street vendors.
Tomorrow
we will see the old part of Cartagena.
All content copyright © 2004 Jim Thompson
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