Cartagena to Barranquilla

Our checkin at the hostel in Barranquilla was after 2 pm so we were not in a particular hurry to get there. We woke up late and had a nice breakfast nearby. After that, we took a taxi to the Berlinas bus terminal and took the 12 pm bus. The ticket was 20000 COP per person.
Like in Cartagena, the bus terminal in Barranquilla was outside of the town. We got off the air-conditioned bus and immediately felt the heat. We checked on Maps.me and found that our hostel was 5 kms from the bus terminal. We took a taxi from outside the terminal and reached the hostel around 2:30 pm.
Here, once again we had problems with our booking at Casa Tropicalia. I had booked 3 beds in a 4 bed mixed dormitory. There, they wanted Hristo and me to stay in one of the 4 bed dormitory for men and Maria in another 4 bed dormitory for women. We wanted to stay in one room only but were told that all the beds, everything was fully booked. We were not happy with this since I had booked the beds some 8 months in advance so we would get a good price in the area we wanted. But, we had realized by now this was mainly due to a mismatch in how booking.com manages the dormitory beds and how the hostels manage their available beds. We reconciled with the fact that we couldn't do much, but Hristo and Maria wanted to stay together so we decided that I would continue with the stay at Casa Tropicalia while they would find something reasonable nearby. The booking at Casa Tropicalia was for 355000 COP per person for 8 nights. Finding anything reasonable at the last minute just one day before the carnival was next to impossible. After checking in booking.com for a while, they found a room for 2 for 8 nights for 1462000 COP (731000 COP per person for 8 nights). Despite it being double the cost per person, the actual price was quite reasonable when converted to Euros and the cost of the room in Europe. The Hotel Ballesteros was about 2 blocks away, so we decided to walk over and directly try and negotiate a lower price before canceling the booking at Casa Tropicalia. At the hotel, the price they quoted was much higher than what we had seen on booking.com. We decided to have our lunch and in the meantime try and book it via booking.com.
The vegetarian part of the meal was a fantastic mix of red beans with rice and eggs. While having our food, Hristo was able to book the room at the earlier price, so as soon as we had finished the meal, we went back to the hotel and they got the room for the price on booking.com. 😁Read more