South American Adventure

Our lunch stop was at Mister Parilla, a barbecue restaurant less than a minute's drive from the Salt Cathedral.  It was very cool with lots of American paraphernalia and live music.  Most importantly, the food was very good!  We shared a meat platter as the portions looked enormous!!  We chose to have beef, pork, and chiguiro.  The latter translates as capybara, the largest living rodent and a close relative of the guinea pig.  Well, when in Rome and all that!  It was absolutely delicious!!

After lunch, we drove back to Bogota.  Steven said that usually, the journey takes between two and four hours because of the traffic.  Today, however, the schools were closed, so it only took us an hour and a half.

Back at the hostel, we packed and organised a taxi ready for our early morning journey to the airport tomorrow.Leia mais

It is just over 1000 kilometres by road from Bogota to Cartagena, but it takes over 24 hours to drive because of the state of the roads.  A flight takes 90 minutes and costs about £30.  A no-brainer!

We were picked up from the hostel at 6.30am and arrived at the airport just before 7am.  We had already checked in online, but they were very strict at bag drop and ended up having to lose 1kg from a case we hadn't opened since leaving home!  We didn't think Mark's carry-on was going to pass the size test, but, with a bit of brute force, he managed to get it in the container and we were allowed through 😂.

Having got rid of our cases, we had plenty of time to have a delicious breakfast of omelettes and strong black coffee.  Our flight was called very early and we assumed we would be leaving ahead of time.  Not so!  It took well over an hour to board everyone.  For some reason known only to the airline, on a full flight, nobody was sitting with the people they were travelling with.  It didn't bother us on such a short journey, but others did mind - especially parents who were separated from their children, for example!  Eventually, everyone was sorted out and we took off on time.  It's school holidays here in Colombia, so there was great excitement amongst all the children on board who were all heading for the beach!

I imagine that the views leaving Bogota and coming in to land in Cartagena were lovely.  Unfortunately, we didn't see anything as we were both allocated aisle seats.  It's not a problem, and it's overland all the way from now on - no more flights until next May at the earliest!

At Cartagena, we were straight through in record time and met our pre-booked driver for the 20-minute drive to our accommodation in La Boquilla, the less-touristy part of the city.  It was a very pleasant 30 degrees - lovely!

We soon found ourselves driving along the beach - there are no surfaced roads in this area!  It wasn't long before we arrived at Makena Beach Hostel, our home for the next ten nights.  We were greeted by Leandra, the lovely Colombian owner who speaks perfect English.  She explained everything to us and encouraged us to use the house as our own for the duration of our stay.

Our room is very spacious and comfortable, and there are lovely communal areas including a very well-equipped kitchen, a balcony next to our room, and a huge roof terrace where I imagine I'll be doing a lot of my work.  The plan is to relax, get some work done, and not go very far while we're here.  We have 3 days in old Cartagena after this, and before our tour starts, so we can explore the city then.Leia mais