Day 178, Cartagena: Tourist tours, friend-time and never-ending sunsets.

I'm back in Cartagena and very very happy about it. Even better, S is back as well, and my Cali friends A, S and E came to visit. Perfection. I'm going traveling again starting from tomorrow, thus these have been my almost last days in Cartagena. That is of course why time runs and days just pass by. I don't sleep enough because I'm somewhere all the time and before I notice it is already past midnight. But I'm really making the most of the time I can spend with my friends in this beautiful city. Too soon it will be over and even if I'm a little bit excited about returning to Paris, leaving also feels impossible. But let's not think about that yet, but just enjoy. Here are some pictures from these past days.

My friend A had found a great Groupon Spa deal so me, her and our friends K and L spent Sunday morning at the fancy spa of Hotel Capilla del Mar in Bocagrande. For 80000COP (24€) we got a 40min massage, a 1 hour facial care, and unlimited time of relaxation in the jacuzzi and Turkish sauna. Maybe for Colombia it is a normal price but for Europe/US definitely not, so have to take advantage while we still can. Besides, after my horrible panic attack on the plane Saturday night, I was still feeling a bit nauseous and week, so spa time was exactly what I needed!

Me and A ready for spa

The place to be in Cartagena in the afternoon/twilight time is Café del Mar, a terrace on top of the wall in the old centre. From there you can admire the sunset over the Caribbean Sea. That is where I took my tourists A and S on Sunday, and my Cartagena best friend S joined us as well. 

Back together again!

The best Cali girls

Beautiful S modelling in the sunset

S and A in action for the next photoshooting

Gorgeous A

Me drinking wine (no beer anymore)

Café del Mar

Me, A, Cartagena flag and Bocagrande towers in the background

For the love of sunsets

We also did some walking on top of the wall, even if A was scared:

We then met up with Cali boy E and her girlfriend, that was fun, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures...

​Monday, a new day in my beautiful Cartagena:

I did some writing during the day to catch up with my blog and to post everything from Medellín. In the afternoon I took A to an other great spot to see the sea, to a shopping mall called Plaza Bocagrande. S and her boyfriend F had been apartment hunting the whole day and needed a break as well. No surprise, they chose the exact same spot than me and A. Cartagena is such a small city (or well the central area is), it is funny how often I run into people I know even if I don't have that many friends here.

S asked F to buy her a mango juice. Instead he bought her mangos with salt and pepper, a common snack here but that none of us likes...

Later in the evening we met Cali S for dinner and spent some time on the rooftop terrace of her hostel, a place called Friends To Be. If you travel to Cartagena and can afford a little bit more than the cheapest accommodation, I recommend you stay there, it was a lovely place. We left S to sleep since she was still recovering from a nasty food poisoning, and walked with A back to her hostel, El Viajero, on the other side of the centre. With A we have been walking around a lot these past days. I never get tired of Getsemani and the Walled City, I can spend days literally just walking around and it is always as pretty.

We took a break on a terrace of a Cuban style bar, and I ended up singing with a guitar player guy who was performing there. 

On Monday, the tourist tour went on. Me, A and S climbed up to the main sight of Cartagena: a castle called Castillo San Felipe (where I hadn't been yet even if I've been here for almost 5 months...) Short lesson about the city's history: without this castle, the Spaniards would not have managed to defend Cartagena from the English attack, and the whole country's, and even the whole continent's future, and culture, could have turned out to be very different. On a video we saw, they even explained that had it not been to the great defence from this castle, and the Englishmen had manage to keep the city, the language spoken in South America could be English instead of Castellano. Impressive.

Me and A conquering the castle

S and Cartagena

The three musketeers!

A loves cats

And we all had fun practicing to be hair style models in the wind

Cartagena, one more time

S should really be a model!

​After the castle visit: zumba and then sushi with S, as you always should on Tuesdays (before it was yoga, now it's zumba). Perfect day, again. 

Thanks D for the class and all the new great songs and choreographies!

Thanks girls for the company, I'm happy that I've gotten to share with you my love for Cartagena. See you soon (very soon if all goes as planned) and I will now continue my travels, direction Minca, Tayrona, Ciudad Perdida and Guajira. I will leave my laptop here so blog updates coming a bit later!

Take care,
xx Emi

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