RTW: Exchange in Chile

Cartagena, Colombia!

Incredible. I was really looking forward to this, and for a reason. I mean, Colombia is the crown on South America's head -if that could be announced just by knowing the northern parts of the country.

Venezuelans put up a persistent struggle before I got out of there. About 10 road blocks with "documentación, por favor" and a stuck-up border official were the highlights. Plus a guy who clogged the bus bathroom before it left the terminal for its supposedly 15-hour trip to the frontier. No worries, just arrived 6 hours late finally to Cartagena, plus I got more taste of the South American bureaucracy: being stuck at the border, the ladies in our bus suggested that we bribe the official to let us pass -and so we did. He got like 35 euros worth and let the bus pass without an inspection. You just gotta love these countries. And some people still wonder how smuggling is possible!

Then, after changing the bus in Colombia the scene changed immediately. I had some rhum with some locals as nobody can watch the Van Damme greatest hits (or should I say misses) about the tenth time (I mean, why do the bus company guys love them so much?!?) sober. As the journey went along, we picked up about twenty football fans coming from a game and serving us with aguardiente, a local (or, Columbian) booz. So we partied all the way to Cartagena and suddenly the 28-hours in a bus were not all that bad. No sign of guerrillas here and no formalities of any kind, mind you.

Then I got to see the city. It is an old colonial town (actually bearing the name Cartagena de las Indias), and back in the day this was the major port for shipping the Indian gold to the old continent. This also made it a tempting place for pirate attacks and guys like Francis Drake made a go for it in their time. The Spanish then fortified the town, and the remnants are still surrounding the old town -plus there is a big ass fortress on the side of it. Mind you the place is also right next to the Caribbean coast and this all makes it just about the most incredible town I have seen on this trip. Also, in the old town the buildings are still mainly colonial style: 16th century architecture with narrow streets, palaces, churches, plazas, monasteries, etc. -see the pics below of the town, followed by the fortress. And if this was not enough, right now there are Caribbean games of nameyoursport here in Cartagena, so there is a lot going on. And the snorkeling, diving and chilling on the beach is still ahead..

























I have eaten twice in McDonald's in my three days here. Shameful? Something wrong with the local food? No, but as I went in to see the Bicmac prices -6900 pesos (2,22 euros) for a burger and 9100 (2,93 euros) per meal- I noticed the same kind of salsa bar McD's had in Peru. Imagine combining 6 extra ingredients to a normal McProduct, among them 4 spicy salsas -now that gives a new kind of life to the burger. I decided to live in an even more Westerner style and went to movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean in order to "get into the vibe". Only they weren't passing it anymore so I had to see the new Superman. I was not too overwhelmed.

On a different note, I still lack a clear way to get out of here on time to catch my flight to Cuba from Panama. There are no roads to Panama, so obvious ways are via sailboat (primary option, cheaper and sounds just too good to be true) or via plane (no direct ones from Cartagena, so it will cost a bit..). Time will tell what happens, as for now the sailboats are going rather irregularly to say the least.

posted by Kassu @ 3:46 PM