Cartagena, Colombia

Last week I got to escape the craziness of Lima and go to Colombia for 5 days!!! I met up with Jim in Cartagena de Indias, a city situated on the northern Caribbean coast that was founded by the Spanish in 1533. It's best known for its well-preserved, colonial-walled neighborhood - which honestly made me feel like I was on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Back in the day, the city served as the Spaniards' main port and temporary storage location for all the valuable goods taken from the Indians until they could be shipped back to Spain. In other words, pirates didn't need to go hunting for treasure - it was all in Cartagena.

Hmmmm...this may seem like a no-brainer, but apparently the Spanish didn't think ahead....Lots of treasure = lots of pirate attacks. Cartagena suffered many sieges by pirates including one led by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. After the siege, Drake agreed to spare the town on the condition that he receive a ransom of 10 million pesos. Afterward, the Spaniards built the giant colonial wall and several forts around the town, many of which are still standing today.

You would think that Jim and I would have visited at least one museum. Nope. We hung out on the beach and ate the entire trip. Well at least I ate. Seriously, I think I out-ate Jim almost every meal (which NEVER happens). One night I ate my entire meal and about 3/4 of his. I couldn't help it. The food was SO good. Fresh seafood and shellfish at every meal (usually cooked in coconut milk). Fried plantains, which are a Colombian specialty. And at every street corner there was a vendor selling sliced mangoes (with lime and salt) and watermelon.

Cartagena is definitely set up for those who want to eat, drink and relax. There are tons of open plazas that are filled with outdoor restaurants and bars. The two coolest bars we went to were set up on the colonial wall so that you have a view of the historic city on one side and of the ocean on the other. It was amazing because you could order drinks, watch the sunset over the water, and listen to local music all at once!

We also went out to the Islas del Rosario, an archipelago of 27 islands where we hung out on the beach (you're probably noticing a trend...) drinking coconuts and Aguila (Colombia's national beer). Then, we were told we could go on a boat ride to see sharks and dolphins - so, of course, we went. No where in this conversation did they ever explain that we would be going to a cheesy aquarium with a bunch of sweaty little kids running around and pushing us over to get better views of the caged animals that clearly were not going anywhere. After a 12 year old girl almost pushed me into the dolphin tank we vacated that plan, played with some birds until our boat came to retreive us, and headed back to our beach, accepting the fact that our attempt to do something productive was a failure and we should just continue sitting on the beach for the rest of the weekend :).

For more photos click here!!