Ever since I was a little girl I’ve dreamed about going to Colombia. Why?, you may ask. Well, I used to watch a lot of telenovelas with my grandma when I was a kid (I still do tbh), and most of them were Colombians. All of them would show you these amazing landscapes and big cities you could only imagine in Nicaragua, but there was this special feeling telenovelas would show you, love. They would make you feel everything is about love, loving your friends, loving your family, loving yourself, loving what you do and especially loving that one person, that one that makes you feel home no matter where you are. And that’s something I found out my first day in Colombia, but I couldn’t say it until I was in Cartagena, this city is for the lovers!
It took around 13 hours to get to Cartagena from Medellin, the bus ticket was $40 with ”Brasilia” which is the only company that goes from Medellin to Cartagena and it was not as comfortable as they advertised, so the only thing I had in mind was shower-food-beach. Hostels in Cartagena are quite expensive so we decided to stay in an Airbnb for $10 the night, (best decision ever), the house was nice and clean, room was big, kitchen was very equipped and the wifi was very good.
I was extremely happy to have warm weather again, and also I was even happier because it was Dennis’s first time in the caribbean, there’s nothing I love more than the caribbean. For some reason I always had the idea Cartagena was a small town, couldn’t be more wrong! It’s such a big city, full of skyscrappers, fancy hotels and shopping malls , most of them are along the shore tho, in this neighborhood/beach called ”Boca Grande”. Here we spent most of our time.
Back in colonial times Cartagena was one of the most important ports in southamerica, so it was always under the attack of pirates hence the spanish built 11 kilometers of defensive walls, making Cartagena impregnable and creating what we know now as “The Historic Center”. As you walk through the main entrance called “The Clock Gate”, you feel teleported to another dimension. The cobblestone streets, the colonial houses painted with vivid colors, the wood balconies decorated with multiple beautiful flowers, the ancient doors that get to hear all the lovers little secrets.
You can’t go to Cartagena and skip the Totumo volcano, known for its mud crater. This mud has healing properties due to is full of minerals which is good for sunburns, acne and skin problems in general. We got a tour from our airbnb for $20 each including transportation, lunch and entrance to the park. So, time to get dirty!
As you get yourself into the pool of thick mud, a strange man starts rubbing mud all over your body then he pushes you to the next guy who will give you a massage, in the meantime I was thinking, “Where the hell is the bottom of this?”, the mud is so thick that it’s impossible to reach the bottom, so once the massage is over you go out. They say it’s not recommedable to stay longer than 20 minutes, and probably you wouldn’t wanna stay longer than that, the pool is very small and you’d get bored after a while. After getting out, you go walking down to the lake (still fully covered in mud) where local ladies are waiting for you to help you getting rid of the mud. These ladies take their job very seriously, believe me, they are gonna ask you to take your bikinis off so they can wash it and even help you washing yourself! So don’t be shy!!
Now back in town again it’s time to discover the nightlife of Cartagena! I’d say that the historic center at night was one of the landscapes I liked the most in Colombia, maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic but just walking holding hands around the city looking for a place to party was a really beautiful feeling to me. We supposed drinks there would be expensive so we first bought some beers out and drank them in a small plaza called “La Trinidad” full of people doing dancing shows and travelers selling their art work (FYI is not allowed to drink in the streets in Colombia, however as long as police don’t see you, it’s alright). We stayed there for a couple of hours until we met Shawn, an Aussie we stayed together with in The Sugar Cane in Medellin!! What a coincidence!!, he had met a Colombian girl that knew about a nice club so we all went there, it was definetely a cool place, the place is called Eivissa, it reminded us so much of our beloved Chango in Cusco. We had a fun night for sure!
So, why did I talk so much of love at the beggining? Well, being in Cartagena, back to the sea, to the beautiful Caribbean in the country of my dreams where all those epic romantic stories I watched (and still do) happened, I got brave enough to tell Dennis how I was feeling about him. One day, when we were just enjoying the sun in Boca Grande I got all this courage and told him I was in love with him, even tho I thought he wasn’t of me, but I couldn’t keep hiding this feeling anymore. My surprise (and what a wonderful surprise) was his answer, he immediately reply with “I love you, too!”, so yeah, Cartagena is definitely the city of love.
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