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The Craze for Travelling
The Craze for Travelling

The Craze for Travelling

Travelling is a passion, and I've been on it since my childhood (courtesy my dad). My passion has led me all around the globe from high altitude deserts, to rain forests, to back waters, to snow covered peaks. You name it!! Les mer🇸🇪Stockholm
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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    2

    Carnival mood in the streets

    8. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    The streets of Barranquilla were all gearing up for the carnival and we could see the carnival decorations everywhere.
    The main characters of Carnaval are la Negrita Puloy (black women wearing red short skirt and top with white polka dots), la Marimonda (masked character with a long nose and big ears appears like a monkey mixed with an elephant dressed in bright, mismatched colors), el Monocuco (costume consist of a large colored robe with a hood to cover the face, this robe are all different and their unique style. It also consist of a mask that cover the rest of the face with a piece of cloth), el Toro (the bull), el Rey Momo (Momo the king of the Carnival with a crown and staff in the hand), and el Congo (dressed as war dancers from Congo with colourful satin pants with patches and ribbons with huge hats with rows of flowers) along with the Queen of Carnival. Images of these characters make up the majority of the Carnival decorations, but people also use bright colored streamers, giant replicas of tropical flowers, and the colors representative of the city of Barranquilla: black, red, green, and yellow to decorate their house and apartments, and to adorn supermarkets, shopping malls, and the city itself.Les mer

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    Courtyard of Casa Tropicalia hostel
    La Inmaculada church

    Around Barranquilla

    8. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    8th of Feb was the first day of main carnival days. This is the day when the Queen of the Carnival is officially crowned and then performs for almost an hour, but the program was at 8 in the evening so we had decided to walk and enjoy the city during the day. By the time we got up, got ready and had breakfast, it was nearly 11am. After that, we spent almost 2 hours trying to get Maria's iPhone unlocked (actually 2 hours more after I reached their hotel. They had been at it since early in the morning 🤤). It had got locked the previous night and all the bank transaction codes etc were configured on it only, so it was quite urgent to get it working. Finally, around 1:30 pm, it got unlocked. With no fixed plan for the day, we decided to walk from Bella Vista, where we were living to Barrio Abajo where all the histle bustle and the famous churches of Barranquilla are. Our first stop on the way was La Inmaculada church. The city in some ways reminded me of Chandigarh my home town. The streets were wide and surrounded by flowered trees and grass covered sidewalks. Every few meters there were sculptures and other decorations in the middle of the street separators.Les mer

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    Start of the party time

    7. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Back at the hostel, I was preparing to sleep when Brian our 24 year old owner of the hostel came over and offered to take me along with the rest of the people at the hostel to a club where they were having the carnival pre-party. We packed ourselves in his car and went to the Michaelangelo club. It was a fun night out. There were people wearing costumes and dancing to the loud beats of the latino music. I also got introduced to all the inmates of the hostel while we danced together. We returned back at 1 am. So much for an early night 😁😁Les mer

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    Reconnaissance for the Carnival

    7. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    After settling the stay issue, we decided to go to Via 40, the main road where the carnival was supposed to take place starting the next day. We just wanted to have a feel of things, just to get an idea about how the stalls are going to be, if there were shops or food stalls nearby etc. The Via 40 was about a km walk and it was quite dark by the time we reached there. A lot of workers were busy building up temporary stalls for viewing of the parade. There were no information brochures or anything. There was not much to do there, so we walked around in the area nearby. The houses had been decked up with carnival figures and buntings. The whole town seemed to be getting ready for the multiple day party. After walking around for a while, we went back to our hostels for an early night.Les mer

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Bus to Barranquilla
    Hotel Ballesteros receptionLunchEven the elevator is decked up for the carnival

    Cartagena to Barranquilla

    7. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    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. 😁    Les mer

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    Fruits from left Maracuya Granel (Passionfruit variety), Granadilla (another Passionfruit variety), tomate de
    L->R Mora (black berries in plastic bags), Granadilla, Tomate de arbol and Churuba (Banana Passionfruit)Tomate de arbolLulo (Naranjilla)Guayaba (guava), Dragon fruit and Plums2

    Exotic fruits

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Walking in the Centro, we had an idea. We decided to go in to one of the supermarket and buy one or two pieces of all the exotic fruits we could find there. The plan being we would get to know how it looks like from the outside and how it tastes as well. We bought the fruits and took them back to the hostel, but with so many fantastic food kiosks on the way, we didn't eat them that evening.Les mer

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    San Diego to Centro

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After we finished our lunch, we walked the beautiful streets with their quaint lovely houses towards the Centro, the center of the old town.

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    San Diego plaza

    Plaza de San Diego

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Plaza de San Diego remains a lasting relic of the city's wealth, acquired at the peak of the gold, sugar, and slave trade. The plaza is a popular place for dining out. There were many restaurants around the plaza, each offering a unique variety of cuisine. It was 4:30 pm, so we stopped by at one of the restaurant for our lunch.
    During the day, there are stalls with various goods, from local crafts and jewelry, to paintings and Cuban cigars. In the evening, local artists perform live music, adding to the atmosphere of this area.    Les mer

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    San Diego area

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    From Las Bovedas, we walked nearby to the San Diego neighborhood. The main place to converge in this area is the San Diego plaza. The plaza is surrounded by brightly painted houses with flowering balconies and narrow cobbled streets lined with bars and restaurants.Les mer

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    Las Bovedas
    Handicraft market

    Las Bovedas

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    From Marbella area we walked back to the old town of Cartagena. This time we walked in from an area we had not been in before. The first place we went to was Las Bovedas.
    Las Bóvedas (The Vaults) are a structure in the Old City of Cartagena in Colombia, attached to the walls. They were built as dungeons. They are located between the forts of Santa Clara and Santa Catalina. The cells in the dungeon now house shops, boutiques and other businesses along the stout walls protecting the old city of Cartagena.
    The arcades deep in the walls were designed as storage vaults but were used as prison cells during the civil wars in the 19th century; at high tide, the unfortunate internees were up to their knees in seawater.    Les mer

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    Iglesia el CabreroRafael Núñez home

    Buses to Barranquilla

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We had been used to the infrequent bus services in Patagonia, off late, so we decided to go to the bus terminal and find out about the bus frequency to Barranquilla which we intended to take the next day. There didn't seem like a single common bus terminal but an individual bus terminal for each operator. 😨
    Luckily, they all sewmed to be in the same area within 2 kms of each other. This place was about 3 kms from the old town, so we decided to walk till there. On the way, we passed the old city fortified walls which on close observation were made of corals from the sea around. We passed through Parque Apollo with its unique Iglesia el Cabrero. Just opposite the park is Rafael Núñez's cabin. Rafael Núñez Moledo (September 28, 1825 – September 18, 1894) was a Colombian author, lawyer, journalist and politician, who was elected president of Colombia in 1880 and in 1884. From here, we walked along the beachfront towards Marbella area where the bus stops were. It was extremely windy near the beach and the sand being kicked up from the beach, made it hard to walk near the road. The sand was flying all across the roads and hit in the face with piercing force. It was easier to walk in the wet part of the beach where the sand wasn't dry enough to fly.
    One by one, we went to all the bus terminals. We realized that there we quite frequent buses to Barranquilla. The one having the most connections was Berlinas, going every 10-15 min. Having figured that part of the next step in our trip, we walked back to the old town.    Les mer

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    Churuba
    2

    A lazy morning

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    It was 6th Feb and our booking in Barranquilla for the carnival was from 7th Feb. So, we had one more day to spend in Cartagena and nothing planned for the day. We had checked out the various options and had found nothing interesting we could do around here. Most of the places we wanted to go to along the coast, were South and a few hours away. That would mean going away from Barranquilla which lied North of Cartagena.
    We got up late and had our breakfast at the same local restaurant we had gone to, a day ago. Walking through some new streets in Getsemani where we'd never been before, we saw an Indian flag and decided to check it out. It was a restaurant being run by an Indian. The owner was on a vacation and it was being run by the employees in his absence. We stopped over for a masala chai. A lady traveling alone from US was having lunch and we got chatting. She was eating a Thali that looked quite good but it was too expensive so we dropped the idea of having lunch there.    Les mer

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    22With the port police

    With the port police

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    By the time we finished our walk around the fortress, the rest in the group had finished their lunch and were returning to the beach where the boats were. After a while, we started our journey back. A lot of people in the boat were not happy with the way the boat operator, particularly the driver had delayed the boat the whole day and jad been very callous, in fact rude and indifferent when they had complained. One lady in particular was very vocal about it. Back at the harbor, she went to complain to the operator and we decided to go along and support her. The operator was sympathetic and asked us to go and complain to the harbor police who could then take some action against the boat captain. Here, we accompanied the rest and gave our voice to the complain. After that, we had our dinner in the old town, before returning back to our hostel.Les mer

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    Fort San Luis de Bocachica

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Our boat took us to Bocachica. Here, the rest of the passengers were taken to the lunch place, while we went to look around the castle.
    The Castle of San Luis de Bocachica, was a military fortress that defended Cartagena in the 17th and 18th centuries. Built by the Spanish during the colonial period.
    We explored the various rooms and corners of the fortress. The entry was free.    Les mer

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    Back to Playa Blanca

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    When we came back, we realized that almost everyone from our boat had already left. They all had lunch included in their package and had been waiting patiently till almost 1:30 pm. The lunch was on the island Bocachica that was about an hour's ride from the Isla Rosario. They had been delayed due to the frequent stops our boat had taken since morning. So, they had all forced the boat captain to get them back so they could have lunch. By the time, we came back from our snorkeling, it was almost 2 pm. We were accommodated on a different speed boat, along woth some of our co-passengers from the morning boat. From Isla Rosario, our boat took us to Playa Blanca. Here, even before the captain could stop him, Hristo jumped out into the refreshing water. I followed quickly and told the boat captain that we will swim over to wherever he anchors the boat. We swam amd walked and reached where the boat was dropping off the rest of the passengers. The boat now took on some more passengers and told is that they would go and drop off these people at Bocachica and come back and pick us up later. That gave us about 40 min at Playa Blanca. We swam around in the sea, relaxed on the beach and just had a good time. After a while our boat came back and took us towards Bocachica. It was a fantastic boat ride with our boat literally flying all the way. A full adrenaline rush.. even better than roller-coasters.Les mer

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    Snorkeling at Isla Rosario

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We snorkeled for about an hour near Oceanario. It was a mindblowing experience once again. There were beautiful colorful fish of all different sizes and shapes. It was a totally different world below the water. Unfortunately, no pictures this time since I didn't have my underwear camera.Les mer

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    Oceanario Isla del Rosario

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    The Islas del Rosario (Rosario Islands), also referred to as Corales Islas del Rosario (Coral Islands of Rosario), is an archipelagolocated off the coast of Colombia, approximately 100 kilometres from Cartagena.
    We stopped at one of the archipelago island called Oceanario. There's an aquarium on the island which is popular amongst the visitors. In fact, everyone except the 3 of us opted to go to the aquarium while we decided to go snorkeling. The captain of the boat asked for 35000 COP per person for snorkeling but we knew that the correct price was 30000 COP, so we told him so. He quickly agreed and soon we were off to the snorkeling area a few meters from the island.    Les mer

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    Isla Grande

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    The next stop was at Isla Grande. Here again, they stopped to pick more people going to Isla Rosario. Some of our fellow passengers now blew their top at the boat driver. We too wanted to join the argument but our limited knowledge of Spanish prevented us from doing it. After everyone calmed down, we asked the captain if we had enough time for snorkeling, to which he replied yes and we were fine with the situation for then.Les mer

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    Playa Blanca

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Playa Blanca (White Beach) was our first official stop for the day. The boat was supposed to stop here to drop off people who had paid for a full day's outing at Playa Blanca and then continue with the rest of us to Isla Rosario. This beach is a long shallow beach with beautiful white sand on a long Colombian peninsula jutting out in the Caribbean sea. There were beautiful beach huts and amazing shallow waters. On top it, it had been quite hot since the morning. We were so tempted to just jump in and swim a while, but the boat driver told us that we would get some time on the beach later in the afternoon on the way back from Isla Rosario. After dropping off some of our fellow passengers, the boat started again, but instead of picking up speed, it just cruised along the beach stopping at at least 3 more places to pick up passengers heading for Isla Rosario. By now, almost everyone in the boat was very pissed as all these stops meant less time for us on the islands for snorkeling and then on the beach later on and on top of it, the boat was going at half the speed. 😠😠Les mer

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    Fort San Fernando de Bocachica

    Fort San Fernando de Bocachica

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    As soon as we reached the open sea, the pilot opened up the throttle and let both the engines loose. The boat literally flew across the water. We would be in the air every few seconds for quite a few seconds. Pretty soon, we had overtaken the speedboats that had left the harbor 10 min before us. But, our joy was shortlived as our boat turned and went straight for Bocachica, a small town on Tierra Bomba island in the Cartagena bay. Here, the boat stopped a while to let off some locals that had come on the boat with us. After dropping them, the boat had barely started picking up speed, when there was a commotion and the boat turned around to the island again. It seemed that one of the person on board had wanted a drop on the end of the island near the Fort San Fernando de Bocachica, a few kms from our 1st stop on the island. A lot of people in the boat started getting irritated by now. But, the boat turned around quickly and we were in open sea speeding away pretty soon. Here we saw some dolphins swimming in the water bit we were too fast for them to swim along. Just a few minutes in and suddenly the speed of boat dropped dramatically. There were some sputtering sounds from the engine. It turned out that one of the engines had stopped working so we had to go the rest of the way at half the power. Despite all the delays, we reached Playa Blanca by 10:35 am, a pretty good speed considering the distance.Les mer

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    Castillo San Filipe de BarajasMonument of the Virgin

    Chaos at the harbor

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We reached the harbor slightly before 9 am. The boat was supposed to leave around 9 am. We were allowed to go inside the harbor after inspection of our tickets. Inside, its a small place where people sit and wait for their boats to go. It was quite hot and there was no shade except a small tent in one corner. Everybody tried to get into that shaded corner. It was packed there. Despite the tent, the heat of the sun passed through its thin white sheet easily and everyone was sweating. That aside, there was total chaos regarding the boats. The tickets didn't have any boat name or timings. People were walking around the small platform trying to find their boats and timings. There were boat operators shouting out names of their passengers. Most travelers being foreigners, the name calling too was not effective; people being called didn't realize it was their name being called. Some of the older people almost fainted due to the heat. It was a perfect example of mismanagement and it was hard to believe they do this every day. On top of all that, this wasn't even peak season. We too tried to squeeze in below the shade and waited for our names to be called. From 9, it went on to 9:30. Still no one called. We went over to the kiosk where we had booked our tickets. Their backside luckily opened into the port and we were able to get to them. We were told our boat would depart in 5 min. We were not happy about it since we had agreed on an early departure and a speed boat to take us there so we get enough time at the island since we were interested in snorkeling there. From 9:30 am, it went on to 9:50 am when our names got called and we sat in a boat. By now, almost 80% of the people that had been waiting had already left. We sat in the boat thankful we were leaving. The boat didn't look like a speed boat but we were happy just leaving the harbor. As it turned, the boat was a speed boat and had a fantastic pickup and top speed. Soon we passed the Monument of the Virgin and entered the open sea.Les mer

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    Maize, cheese and egg snacksMusic and dance outside the churchAt the Pirate Bar

    Night at Getsemani

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Back at the hostel, we showered and cleaned up. It was around 8:30 pm by the time we were done. We decided to go to the food kiosks near the old town to have something for the night. After having a few quick snacks of maize and some juice, we came back to Getsemani. Here, outside the Iglesia de la Trinidad, there was a big crowd of people following the dance moves of a group of people playing music and dancing on the platform outside the church. It was a lovely festive atmosphere. We too joined in and enjoyed the music and dancing. They even played 2 Bollywood tunes and taught some Indian dance moves. After that, we went and sat in one of the bars for a while before retiring for the night.Les mer

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    Around Getsemani

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Even this part of Getsemani was beautiful with lovely colorful houses with bougainvillea and other ivy covering the facades of some of them. Peiple sitting out on the roads enjoying the weather and watching people walk by.Les mer

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    View of the mud volcano from below
    The beach near CartagenaBack in Getsemani2

    Back to Cartagena

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After the dip in the lake we went back to the shack where they had our stuff in the lockers. Here, we were supposed to have a shower to wash off the last of the muck from us but the shower was just a trickle and not of much use. I heard one of the lady running the shack tell a Japanese tourist with us that he needed to pay 4000 COP for the storage and shower services. I informed Hristo about it. This was ridiculous again, since we had paid quite a good sum to the tour operator and we resolved not to pay anything extra. So, when the lady with the tour van came, we told her we won't be paying anything extra since we had been told everything was included. She was fine with that and didn't want anything extra from us. After we changed and came out, she came with a try of watermelons. We were so used to people trying to fleece us that our first reaction was "Is this included or extra" 🤣🤣🤣 She assured us that it was included, so we had some refreshing bites of it.
    After that, our van brought us back to Cartagena and dropped us off a km or so away from our hostel. This was a part of Getsemani that we had not explored before, so we walked around looking around at the buildings. There were people sitting outside on chairs and others dancing with loudspeakers blaring music.    Les mer

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