Cartagena: Bocagrande

We enjoyed our first included breakfast in a while (buffet of cereals, juice, fruit, fried things, bread) and then headed off to Cartagena's beach: Bocagrande.

On the way we had a quick stop at the entrance to the historic town which is beautiful, full of colourful, colonial buildings we are looking forward to exploring.

The beach stretches for miles but it's not quite what you'd expect from a Caribbean beach - the sand is a dark colour and almost black in places and the sea is a bit murky. We were a bit disappointed with it and the continuous pestering by hawkers (one piggy masseuse lady wanted to steal my lemon crisps!). However a dip in the warm water and a lie down on the beach soon cheered us up.

I left Anna to go for a wander through the high-rise hotels and Americanised fast food joints and shops. I'm glad we're staying in the La Matuna area with the locals as Bocagrande felt a bit bland. I'm not really sure who it's target market is as there are far nicer beaches and it's a fair walk to the historic area of town.

We walked part of the way back but Anna's ankle was hurting and it's a fair trek (not the 5 min walk bookings.com claims, more like half an hour!) though she managed without her sticks today. We got a taxi the rest of the way for 7,000P however he didn't drop us back at the hotel for some reason and had to walk us through a shopping mall to get there.

It was overcast so we managed okay with the heat but it was fairly muggy so we were both glad of the cold shower when we got back (apparently hot water is a rarity here). Our room had been cleaned and rather bizarrely our mattress had been changed from a rock hard one to a super soft one.

We went for dinner at I Balconi, an Italian restaurant in Getsemani, set on the second floor of a mansion-esque building (50,000P). We were sat on one of the individual balconies overlooking the street which was lovely. LP recommends the pizza as the best in Cartagena if not Columbia...well I'd hate to taste the worst!! Undercooked and tasteless with a soggy bottom. On the positive side it had lots of veggies on it. (Not sure why it looks green in the photo...it wasn't that bad). We shared it plus some ravioli, which was really good though a stingy portion. We also had some slush puppy type lemon drinks which were amazing.Read more