Return to Colombia

''Is this the bus to Cartagena?'' - the movie, Romancing the Stone has been in my head for most the of the trip and this was the pinnacle of all that.

We were up really early from Tayrona, about 6am, and walked the path back to the very first camp (where the car dropped us off) and were fearful that we'd need to walk the 2 hour road back to the main street. However we were in luck, and we caught a return trip in the back of a truck to the entrance after waiting only about 5 minutes.

We went back to the hostel and picked up our packs (we only took very, very small day packs to Tayrona) and inquired about the bus to the Cartagena, which was due to arrive in only 20 minutes outside the hostel.

Soon enough we were on the bus to Cartagena and along the way we stopped at a tourist company office to use the bathroom. On the next block we saw the golden arches, and ran to McDonald's to grab some familiar food (Quarter Pounders are the same everywhere:). Cartagena is only 4 hours from Santa Marta, so it was very berable.

We soon arrived at Cartagena. The city itself is split into two main cities - the old city and the new city. Our hostel was only about 5oom from the old city (which is the more tourist part of town and was always highly reccommended). Petra was still with us, so the 4 of us were able to book a full room to ourselves at the Hostel Holiday.


After we got settled, we headed out to explore the old city at sun set, had a (very expensive) drink at Cafe Del Mar - an atmospheric restraunt right on one of the points of Cartagena. I managed to knock my first straight Johnny Walker Black right off the table (onto my leg and Petra), so I bought another.

We headed into the center of the old city where its full of restraunts, street sellers, entertainers and a quadrangle full of tables and chairs for the various restraunts. We had dinner here and again it was a very, very different part of Colombia.

Afterwards we headed back for a few quiet rums with the other guests of the hostel before calling it a night.