Cartagena

I arrived off the plane hungover and exhausted from the previous night of partying with Rishi and Nelson. I don't regret the decision to stay up drinking and partying till my flight at the moment but I totally regretted it while lying in the heat waiting till my bed was unoccupied. But let's not dwell on hangover moments, Cartagena was absolutely stunning. 

After napping for a few hours I met my co-year from AC who happened to be in Colombia at the same time. We ate a yummy lunch of arepas rellenas (filled corn patties with whatever goodness you want that day) and delicious fresh juice which was the perfect lunch for a hot sticky day. It was lovely to catch up with Tania during lunch and wandering around the old town. The old town is absolutely beautiful, the architecture is a combination between crumbling fishing village and Italian villa. And the flowers climb the verandas giving the sense that a giant octopus has wrapped it's leafy tentacles around the multi coloured buildings. After losing about half our body weight through sweating we decided to head back to the hostel and say our goodbyes. Quick dinner with my lovely Danish roommate, yummy crepes this time :) and then an early night ready for a full beach day the next day.

The beach (Playa Blanca) was beautiful, crop out the venders and the sunburn and the day would have been staged in a movie. Actually the vendors were a bit of a joke there were so many of them but Cartagena the city is surrounded by meters if not miles of slums from the surrounding area, all of the inhabitants trying to save as much as possible while living in the slums, and the beach goers definitely gave them business. Katherine (my danish roommate and friend) and I watched this lovely british guy get totally sucked into the ridiculous deals that were people handed willy nilly along the beach. We eventually rescued him from a crowd of sellers as he kept saying "Hola" instead of "No gracias." which had us laughing but he was utterly confused.

After chatting for a while we decided to head back on the late bus (well we kinda had to unless we wanted to stay overnight and with the mosquitos around even at the hostel back in cartagena I wasn't keen). We bounced along the dusty road back to our hostel, invited the british guy for drinks and then a lovely american photographer who was helping/working with Spencer Tunick (Check out Spencer Tunick Bogota) to do a arranged naked photoshoot with about 8,000 people in Bogota the day after I left. And let me tell you...Bogota is not like Cartagena. Its really cold even in summer, so 8,000 people got up in the really cold early hours of the morning and where placed around the main square in Bogota in order to just be. Nude and human. 

Back to Cartagena, we had a lovely night drinking with people from the Hostel. Stewart the lovely scottish/australian guy who helped us by giving us some of his aloe vera as we both looked very much like over cooked lobsters, joined us in the evening for drinking as well as the guys from the beach and a guy I knew from Medellin. All lovely people, but as I was so sunburnt I decided to just have a quiet night.
(New town on the right, old town on the left)

The next day followed our quiet night and we just chilled as it was both our last nights. Met to absolutely lovely English girls who I chilled with for the next day and totally clicked with them and I hope to see them again. After seeing a failed sunset, I had the most delicious and expensive meal Ive had in Colombia, but it was so good it was worth it. And the company, Stewart and Katherine, was excellent. More drinking (as it was my last night) but ended up just chatting to Alex who was the guy from Medellin, we talked about random stuff and it was super lovely and hopefully we will meet again as he to lives in the UK. 

 (My nest Burlesque act for sure!!)

My last day in Cartagena wizzed by and I wandered around taking last minute photos of the beautiful, timeless, colourful buildings. Covered by vines and though provoking graffiti. Some from the same artist that I had learned about in Bogota.  

(So adorable)

Off to Bogota, lovely last night in Hostel Sue who treat me like family. And then onto UK. 

Besos
xx