Cartagena, Colombia

September 19th - 22nd

After a long 22-plus hour bus ride, we got to Cartagena and took yet another bus into the center city. We walked for a good 20 minutes and finally found a hostel listed in our guidebook. More than tired, we threw our stuff into the room, went out to get food, and returned to relax. In my half-motived effort to check for chinches, I saw two or three crawling around the edge of the mattress' corner - I cannot be 100% certain they were in fact bedbugs, but I was 100% certain I didn't want to stay and find out in the morning! So as we went down to tell the man running the hostel that night why we were leaving, he became INSTANTLY defensive, dropped his pen, and said "You show me!" and STORMED up the stairs. Well, as we unfortunately have discovered, bedbugs don't really come when called. So, literally after about 5-7 seconds of us looking with out headlamps, he said (unless otherwise indicated, everything is in Spanish) "See, there are no bedbugs, THERE ARE NO BUGS!" He then RIPPED the sheets off the beds, and FLIPPED the mattresses over and half onto the floor while still screaming that there could never be bedbugs in his establishment. After about 5 more minutes of us trying to look for bedbugs while he would dive in and flip things around again, we walked down the stairs and waited for him to return our money. He did, but with a "you are very bad people to make up such lies and you better not tell ANYONE!" Well, if we didn't feel welcome before, we certainly feel comfortable to stay now!?! Holy gosh, what a way to end an already horrific 24 hours. Luckily, we chose a much nicer place and woke up the next morning, without bites or chinches - SCORE!



The next day was spent exploring, where among many other things, we found a huge, styrofoam container of freshly cut fruit for only C$2000 - the cheapest real food to be found in all of Colombia. We walked along a beach-like section of the city, took mandatory jumping pictures, and then headed to their Naval/Armed Forces monument, where Hannah tripped so high enough I could have taken another "jumping" picture. There was one lady near the beach who I thought was going to rob us, but really she just told us we would be robbed and to keep our bags close! Haha, thanks lady! Hannah and I meandered along the old fort walls of the city overlooking the ocean until the sun became hot enough to warrant a 10-minute "perusing" break in an air-conditioned bookstore. Again, no way in HECK we would ever spend $50 on a book! The colorful storefronts and cobblestoned streets provided us picturesque views for the remainder of the daylight. There was a rumba band playing on the fort walls during the night, giving us the perfect soundtrack for people-watching.







On Wednesday, we walked to the fantastic "Old Shoes" monument which I know my sister would have loved! Quite literally, a bronze sculpture of two huge, old shoes. There was another fort in that general direction of the city as well! Again, for our AC break, we headed into a little mall that had "escalators" - aka moving walkways at a tilted angle! We had SO much fun running up and down those guys - it's the little things! After completely cooling off in the refridgerated section of the mall's supermarket, we explored Las Bolvedas, a series of 20+ former dungeons-now-turned artisan shops. At one point, I look up and find Hannah being surrounded by some kids and giving me the wide-eyed "hey, come here" signal. When I joined them, I realized they were 5-6 students learning English privately with the gentleman that approached Hannah and asked her to speak to the students - this was their "get out and use it" day of English class. The ages ranged from 8-18...they were all quite shy, but the 18-year-old who spoke quite well did the majority of the talking. We asked the 15-year-old girl if she wanted to travel to another country and she said, "No, I do not want to travel because I love Colombia and I want to work in occupational health for Colombia!" I was quite impressed by the pride she had in her country and her patriotism, though I cannot quite empathize with her lack of interest to travel. The teacher's friend who owned one of the shops came out to chat with us as well. He spoke 5 languages and I capitalized on the opportunity of having a real English-speaker - I asked "What's up with all of the men calling and hissing at women like we are dogs?" After pulling the whole "it's our culture" thing, he said "It's just another way of being flirtaceous, like 'hey, you have beautiful eyes' or 'I like the way you walk!" HAHAHA! Apparently, they use that here! Best pickup line ever!






The evening consisted of running around and taking the typical "touristy" pictures after realizing our parents and family might want to see them! We headed back to the hostel to recharge, repack, and prepare for another long, cold bus ride. During the ride on the transporter bus, Hannah and I stood/sat on separate ends of the PACKED bus. When we finally exited together at the bus terminal, I asked Hannah, "soooo, what'd you think about?" She then told me about a whole alert/alarm system she created for us in the incident when one of us would be robbed and the other wasn't in the direct vicinity! Speechless, thinking "wow, that was a productive bus ride," Hannah then asked what I thought of during the ride. I responded, "things that open...you know, like doors, gates, hands, eyes, bags of chips...and metaphorically speaking, minds, hears, and ears." "Ohh, that's...fun." At least one us thinks of things that benefit us as a traveling duo! Thanks Hannah!