Cartegena, street food, beers during mass Merry Xmas! 12/25
It took us a full 24 hours of moving for us to make it from Bariloche to Cartegena, with three different layovers. I was expecting our bags to not show up from the long journey but they did! We took a taxi to old town Cartegena. It's really fucking hot here, so we put on our shorts and flip-flops and prepared to walk out on the town. It was around 10am so the town was still pretty sleepy but things started to wake up over the next several hours. A lot of the stores were closed, which is a good saying because it's already busy enough. I can't imagine how busy it is on a nonholiday. Especially the hawkers (dudes selling shit), they're everywhere but they don't bother you too much as long as you don't look at them in the eye.
The old town is amazingly beautiful. It's for old colonial building with all different bright colors against what balconies with Bougainvillea hanging around them. We walked through the streets taking everything in, past the boutique hotels, and then we walked to the wall where you could actually walk up on the wall to see the ocean and the rooftops. We're headed back into the old town and sat down for a couple of beers in the main square. There was a mass going on and the doors are open so we could hear all the hymns while we satw our cervezas. It was too touristy being there so we left and look for some street food. We had some amazing papaya, mango, and watermelon. They also had chicken empanada, and a potato item that had butter and cheese inside and we put picante sauce and different sauces on it which was really delicious. Then we walked by a guy selling chorizo out so course we had to try it. It's surprisingly tasted amazing with the pallenta. Each piece of food was $3k pesos so ~$1 each. I love some street food!!
Back at the Viajero Hostel for a siesta, we did only sleep 4-5 hours on the plane. We decided to buy a bus ticket to Santa Marta for 7am after dealing w the airline. I bought our return flight from Cartegena connecting in Medillín, and we wanted to pick up the flight in MDE and leave the N Coast. Apparently LATAM would cancel all our flights if we missed the first leg! Are you serious? Even if I call the airline? It's their policy. Well shit.
We head out to walk around and find some dinner. Everything was slamming! People everywhere, dancing, eating, shopping, especially taking in the Xmas lights. The whole town was alive and now I could see where it's considered a party town. It's nuts like this on Xmas, I'm sure other days must be crazy.
The old town is amazingly beautiful. It's for old colonial building with all different bright colors against what balconies with Bougainvillea hanging around them. We walked through the streets taking everything in, past the boutique hotels, and then we walked to the wall where you could actually walk up on the wall to see the ocean and the rooftops. We're headed back into the old town and sat down for a couple of beers in the main square. There was a mass going on and the doors are open so we could hear all the hymns while we satw our cervezas. It was too touristy being there so we left and look for some street food. We had some amazing papaya, mango, and watermelon. They also had chicken empanada, and a potato item that had butter and cheese inside and we put picante sauce and different sauces on it which was really delicious. Then we walked by a guy selling chorizo out so course we had to try it. It's surprisingly tasted amazing with the pallenta. Each piece of food was $3k pesos so ~$1 each. I love some street food!!
Back at the Viajero Hostel for a siesta, we did only sleep 4-5 hours on the plane. We decided to buy a bus ticket to Santa Marta for 7am after dealing w the airline. I bought our return flight from Cartegena connecting in Medillín, and we wanted to pick up the flight in MDE and leave the N Coast. Apparently LATAM would cancel all our flights if we missed the first leg! Are you serious? Even if I call the airline? It's their policy. Well shit.
We head out to walk around and find some dinner. Everything was slamming! People everywhere, dancing, eating, shopping, especially taking in the Xmas lights. The whole town was alive and now I could see where it's considered a party town. It's nuts like this on Xmas, I'm sure other days must be crazy.