Day 41. Our first full day in Cartagena.
Cartagena is beautiful. It’s an old colonial Spanish town meets beachside haven meets modern highrise city. It’s long and chequered history involves Spanish pirates, French pirates, and at some point, Sir Francis Drake. Flowers line the large balconies and music is everywhere. People live with their doors and windows open to the world to watch and be watched (and to survive the moderate heat). A light wind constantly blows as respite to the afternoon sun.
First job, find somewhere permanent, and more importantly, quiet to live. The music never stops in Cartagena which is fantastic if you’re awake but not so fantastic if you aren’t (or more accurately, weren’t)! We settled on the cheap but very cheerful Casa Mara in Getsemani, the old part of town.
Our street: Calle de Espritu Santo
Our home: Casa Mara
Next job, wander around town to orientate ourselves. Cartagena is split into several districts, the main ones being Getsemani (the old crumbly single storey part of town with lots of flowers – think Garden of Gethsemene) and Centro Historico (the old but swanky part of town also lined with flowers).
Final job, find the beach! Boca Grande is the Miamiesque district of Cartangena with beaches and tall buildings. After a quick dip in the sea followed by a fresh coconut juice, we bought some provisions from the supermarket and headed home for an early night as we contemplated starting Spanish School in Getsemani bright and early.
Dear Reader,
Now that we’ve finally settled in one town and we’ll be learning Spanish for half the day, we’ve been thinking about what might happen to our blog posts. If you’re averse to us posting nothing more than lists of Spanish irregular verbs, let us know!
Annie & Safe
P.S. Happy Birthday Tony Ram!
tony says – thanks for the birthday message. keep on trekking!!