Getsemaní

We arrived in Cartagena in Colombia! After a short flight of 1h20 we queued for a bit more than 2 hours to pass passport control, that was not fun! We can't complain about the passport control too much however, as it was really easy to get an official taxi to the city center and for this: bravo!

Cartagena is hot and we felt it as soon as we arrived, luckily the beer is cheap so it is very easy to find a little bar or cafe to get a refreshing drink. We managed to find a nice little hotel away from the hustle and bustle of the town but close enough to walk everywhere! We loved it especially when we saw the endless traffic in the tiny streets of the historic center.

Cartagena is a town that was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia who won over the town from the indigenous people of Calamarí. It quickly became a strategic position in the New world to bring back silver to the old continent and steal all their gold. From this point everyone wanted to conquer this city, starting with the French that just stole everything and abandoned the town because, apparently, it was too hot and there were too many mosquitos! Cartagena then built some defenses to help defend the city. It was a bit harder for Sir Francis Drake, an English pirate to invade, he decided instead to blockade and extort some gold and a bell. The city built even more defenses and in 1741 managed to defeat an English fleet of 23 000 soldiers with just 13 000 soldiers!! The mosquitos apparently helped as well. We learnt all this history with a enthusiastic guide in the naval museum that got us doing some interesting videos.

Nowadays the result of all this epic history is a bustling tourist town with very colourful colonial architecture and good food and crazy nightlife.Meer informatie