Cartagena & Playa Blanca - Week 45

22nd to 26th July

We arrived in Cartagena at about 5pm and as we got off the plane we felt the wall of heat - lovely! - like a holiday in a holiday.

Flying in to Cartagena

It was 31 degrees and quite humid so we quickly checked into Hotel Marlin with air-con and then walked over to the old city to have a look.

Cartagena is thought to be the best preserved example of colonial architecture in South America, with a beautiful historical section within the city walls. But because it is so well preserved it is also incredibly touristy and very expensive. We spent ages on our first evening in the old city trying to find somewhere to eat and ended up in a reasonable pasta place where we spent the most that we'd spent on a meal for months (about $25 - not in the budget!!).

It was nice to spend a couple of days mooching around the old city and walking the wall forts. We popped into a few churches and found shady spots in the lovely squares to drink lovely cold beers straight from the fridge in the supermarket!

Katie's always posing

Statue of Simon Bolivar - the liberator of Colombia from the Spanish

Typical colonial mansion

We also visited the fort of San Felipe, the largest fort in South America! The whole of Cartagena is one large fort really due to its importance to the Spanish. The majority of the wealth the Spanish made in gold and silver was stored here before being shipped back to Spain. For this reason Cartagena was a prime target for pirates, with countless attacks over the years. In 1586 our man Sir Francis Drake (probably the worst of all the pirates) attached Cartagena with 1,300 men. Then in 1697 the French pirates Baron de Pontis and Ducasse attacked with 10,000 men. The largest attack by far was by Sir Edward Vernon with 27,000 men and 3,000 pieces of artillery. He failed though as he was thwarted by the hero Blas de Lezo with one eye, one arm and one leg!! With his men he defended the city of Cartagena against the English for 56 days, finally defeating the English pirates.

Blas de Lezo

After exploring Cartegena, we decided to take a boat out to some of the islands nearby and to what people kept describing as the nicest beach around, to stay the night.

We had a row with the boat people about prices and once we'd got them down from an extortionate price to a less extortionate price, settled on the boat ready for the 'cruise' to the islands. Hmmm, first stop was Isla Rosario where the only attraction to see was the aquarium (apparently it is a beautiful island but we couldn't get anywhere else on it) so we went for a lovely swim instead.

The next (and final!) stop was Playa Blanca on Isla Baru and they weren't wrong about it being a great beach - it was like paradise!

Thinks he Hasselhof or something...

We were also really pleased and smug that we'd decided to stay overnight as between 2pm and 3pm all the tourist boats descend and it is mahem but after they have all left by 3.30pm it is absolutely beautiful and very tranquil. I think there were about 20 other backpackers dotted around but we barely saw anyone all evening (we've finally got a bit bored of making conversation with other sweaty backpackers that we're never going to see again and have become somewhat reclusive!).

Our 'cabaña'

The sunset was gorgeous and the swimming perfect.

The night in the cabaña was really hot and sweaty so we were up and in the sea by 7.30. The swimming was just so good. Lovely clear water and perfect temperature.


It was a perfect couple of days but also very nice to get back to the air-con in Cartagena!