Sick days

We both felt a bit rough for our last 2 days in Cartagena. The first day I was snuffly and Anna had a sore throat so we spent the morning resting. In the afternoon we went for the good ice cream in the historic centre then we took a cab to Bocagrande beach, rented some shade, had coconuts and popped in the sea frequently to cool off. We watched the sunset then walked the 40 mins back to the hotel room. Anna was very excited about dinner - our first Indian of the trip at the Maharaja in Getsemani. We didn't have too high hopes but it was actually very good and spicy - onion bhajis to share, tarka dal and naan for me and tikka masala, rice and naan for Anna (42,000).

The next day Anna had an upset tummy but refused to blame it on the Indian food! We stayed in the room; I went to the supermarket for nibbles and water and bumped into Kolya (from Galapagos cruise). The power was out for most of the day - luckily our room stayed cool but as we are on the 9th floor it was a bit of a workout going to breakfast and out to the shops with the lift out of action.

Anna managed to get up and out (lift working again) for our 7pm meeting for our boat trip tomorrow with the captain Goeran, first mate Rose and the rest of us motley crew! Anna - being typically British - has been monitoring the weather forecast which says we are due storms. Goeran said it looked calm and flat with not much wind and thus not much sailing :(

He also said his passengers are usually given free visas for Panama (rather than $105 for tourist visa charged to those arriving by sea, or 72 hour transit visa) - possibly due to the bottles of rum he gives them! Hopefully this will hold true as it'll save us a fair bit / not have to rush through to the next country.

We didn't bother with dinner and crawled back to the cool room. Goeran said it had been unusually warm the last few days so it's not just us being wimpy westerners.Read more