Upon arrival at el Muelle Turístico we were at once set upon by vendors, this time we did splurge and buy a couple of bottles of drinking water, overpriced of course. It is curious to see that in the supermarkets in Colombia, water and milk are often sold in bags instead of bottles. Street vendors often sell small bags of water here in Cartagena and because of the heat and humidity it is a worthwhile purchase and you will be helping someone earn an honest living.

The marina (Muelle Turístico) where you wait for your boat is modern and well laid out, it is plain to see that Cartagena is well equipped to handle tourists as well as boaters. There seem to be two types of boats heading to Islas del Rosario, a double-decked large boat and a smaller high speed job (rápido), we are in the latter type run by Excursiones Roberto Lemaitre. Our boat "La Gaviota" makes the 55 km trip in about 50 minutes thanks to twin Johnson V-6 outboards. The journey and the use of facilities and lunch costs 90,000 pesos for two and leaves at 9:00 AM returning to Cartagena at 4:30 PM.

Cartagena is blessed with a large natural harbour and just as you are about to exit the harbour and head into open ocean the boat slows. Closing in fast on our stern is a conoe with three young black boys, their well muscled bodies stroking in unison, it is fascinating to watch them. What happens next is even more fascinating... if you flip a coin into the sea the canoe will empty of its occupants and they dive right down to retrieve this pittance. Wow, what a lot to go through for a few pesos.  

Once out into the ocean the boat picks up even more speed, I thought we were already maxed out, but no there was plenty more speed on tap! We hug the coastline for about 30 minutes and soon a small group of islands appear, complete with thatched roof cabins, but not much beach. We were under the mistaken impression that the islands had beautiful white sand beaches. 

We headed out to claim our bit of the island, unfortunately it was already claimed by a group of tourists from Spain, so we did our best to ignore them and they did the same. Unfortunately the guys selling necklaces and bracelets ignored neither of us. I had brought my mask and snorkel so after spitting in my mask and swirling it around in the sea water I donned it and set out to see the sea life. Only one small problem, I didn't bring my fins so it was not easy to swim against the current. Nonetheless I had a nice relaxing time watching the small fish that hid in the coral. Surprisingly there were no vendors selling souvenirs under the sea!

Lunch is very good, coconut rice, patacones, fruit, coffee and some sort whole fried fish. Maria who is squeamish, a girl who sees a lizard and runs screaming, promptly dug her finger into the fish and plucked an eyeball out and ate it! I sat there with my mouth agape, after a minute she asked me if I was going to eat my eyeballs, I am such a gentleman that I gave them to her without a second thought. (the fish's eyeballs not mine)

The island is tiny, not much to explore, it soon became boring, I know how Gilligan must have felt. I was quite glad when the boat came to pick us up. The ride back was in super high speed mode, the boat was flying, literally. Back at the Muelle Turístico we were met with vendors and guys trying to get us to go in their taxi, Maria asked the price which was too much, so we walked across the street and hailed a passing cab. The taxista didn't want us sitting on his seats so he put his floor mats on the seat for us to sit on, I threw them back on the floor when he wasn't looking.

Back at the hotel the receptionist got a good chuckle out of seeing the Brit who had turned the colour of a lobster. At least they didn't start calling me Señor Langosta.

We met an English couple checking in, Tony is from Northampton, his wife is teaching English in Baranquilla and they are accompanied by their young son. What a great learning experience for the lad, much better than reading about exotic places in books. What tales he will be able to tell his friends, I am sure they will  wish they too could have visited Colombia.

 All content copyright © 2004 Jim Thompson

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