Venturer's Log: Cartagena

Cartagena de las Indias

Whenever I thought of Colombia before we actually arrived, I thought of the brightly coloured streets of Cartagena. Maybe I've seen enough Instagram photographs of it that I could conjure it up in my mind, and I've certainly seen enough photographs and posts on travel blogs about the "shining beacon of the Colombian Caribbean coast."

The thing is... They're not even untrue. Sometimes I feel Instagram is a bit of a facade but for Cartagena, it's pretty accurate. 

The streets of the Old Town are colourful, busy, and full of tourists. It's humid as anything. But it's not off-putting. In fact, during the free walking tour we did, our guide said that January is considered one of the coldest months because there's such a breeze - the Costoños (people from the coast of Colombia) wrap up a bit more because it's supposedly so chilly. In our opinion, the breeze was the only thing that was keeping us sane because it was HOT. I cannot imagine months where there is no breeze and with higher humidity - that sounds awful. 

But the old city was beautiful. We woke up earlier on the day Yvonne flew out and left our Airbnb when she did so that we could go out before the majority of the tourists woke up, and meant we had softer lighting for the photos as well as emptier streets. It was lovely. 

Gestemani

I had a hankering to visit Gestemani after reading about it in some other travel blogs. It's not inside the Old City but it's right on the outskirts and is more local. Still touristy, but supposedly is a neighbourhood where people still actually live. I convinced Nick to take a walk around there with me as it's a district that is full of street art which I thought would be cool to see. I was right. 

It did feel a little less safe than the Old City, mostly because the streets were narrower and the walls were higher. I guess it's a bit like Hackney or Dalston in London, while it was beginning to be gentrified. Gestemani has loads of tiki bars and hole-in-the-wall restaurants which looked great, and I would've liked more time to have explored them more fully, but we wanted to get back to the Old City to watch the sunset from the murallas (walls). 

Eating

• Breakfast at the Airbnb (something that we're hoping to continue throughout our travel in an effort to cut costs)
• Lunch: Restaurante Espiritu Santo which was absolutely delicious. Packed with locals, quick service, fantastic food. Only open for lunch so we were glad to get a spot while we were there!
• Dinner: Quero Arepa - I don't want to say that this was a fast food joint but it was quick. We actually ate here twice during our time in Cartagena, once with Yvonne and then again the following evening as we knew how good the food was.