Meeting Friends in Cartagena
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” -Tim Cahill
Cartagena: A Quick Overview
I’ve spent a lot of time traveling in mountainous cites and jungle hikes. Obviously I’m impartial to these locales. It’s time to spice it up with something different: Cartagena.
To give some background, Cartagena is an old port city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It has a historical center called the ‘walled city’, which sits right next to the water. Tourists walking around the walled city can take in colorful colonial buildings, cobblestone streets, and balconies overflowing with tropical flowers. For those visitors looking for beach time, the nearby Rosario islands are known for blue waters and white sandy beaches.
These are the positives. And they’re big positives. But these attributes don’t go unnoticed in the traveling world, so Cartagena is also occupied by more tourists than any other Colombian city I’ve visited. And with tourists come jacked up prices and aggressive street vendors. Oh, and it’s hot and humid all the time.
No place is perfect.
The REAL highlight of my week, however, was not Cartagena itself but the arrival of a traveling friend. Erica and came all the way from DC to hang out in Cartagena for the week. I’ve made plenty of traveling acquaintances thus far, but was BEYOND EXCITED to have my awesomely gorgeous friend join me. It also helps that ella es mexicana and speaks fluent español. Here’s to being able to communicate to locals in complete sentences and ideas! Double win!
Starting the Week Off Right
As is expected when a friend finally joins after two months of traveling alone, Erica and I spent our first night bar hopping and drinking too much. We gave the local speciality drink a try (traveling tip: aguardiente is disgusting) and hunted down a rooftop bar with a view. We made it back to our hotel long before sunrise, and stayed safe. My family and some of her co-workers read this blog and that’s all you need to know.
Let’s start with the strange.
Volcanos and Mud Baths
If someone tells you the ‘must thing’ to do in Cartagena is to take a mud bath with a dozen strangers in an active volcano, think about it. Question their judgement as a friend and as a human being. And if you’re game for a crazy adventure, do it anyway.
Firstly, I want to address this ‘active’ volcano concept. Sounds intimidating, right? You might be thinking, you must have to climb really high to get to the top. This seems like some high-end, exotic South American day spa shit.
Well the volcano in Cartagena is none of these things. It’s 12 meters high or 40 feet tall. It takes less than 2 minutes to climb to the top via man made stairs. The experience isn’t so much a spa treatment as it’s a muddy mosh pit. To get in, Erica and I climbed down a 10 foot ladder in swimwear into a bottomless mud pool of strangers. Waiting for us in this dirty pond were a handful of Colombian men giving ‘massages’ for 5,000 pesos. These men don’t ask permission. They grab every tourist they can and start massaging before the tourist knows what touched them. After leaving the pit, the ‘masseuses’ (and I use this turn loosely) hunt down their victims and demand payment for the awkward, un-asked for body rub.
Before I climbed down I distinctly told Erica I was NOT letting those mud men touch me. But as I reached the pit of goop I lost my sense of equilibrium and all reality, and I’ll be damned but I had to pay those dudes 5,000 pesos. They pushed Erica through like a tourist assembly line, but I got flipped, dipped, and massaged before I knew what was happening.
Erica was very concerned about drowning in the pit, but this, it turns out, is scientifically impossible. The mud is so thick we couldn’t sink. But we didn’t exactly float either. We just bobbled, like one of those blow up punching bag faces that bounces right back after you smack it in the jaw.
It’s disarming to lose your sense of balance this way. Erica and I both got kicked and grabbed by strangers desperate to find something to hold on to. An older man I had never met held my hand for a full minute while he got his own unrequested rub down. I don’t know if he was scared, trying to get a sense of balance, or thought I was his wife, but it felt important to support him in a time of need so I didn’t pull away.
We had enough to fully appreciate the experience after about 5 minutes. Once out, we were directed to a nearby lagoon to wash off. Whereas I got the special treatment in the mud pit, by virtue of her Spanish speaking abilities, Erica got the special treatment in the lagoon. Once again there were a group of locals, women this time, holding plastic bowls waiting to help tourists wash off for a little extra cash. Erica and I politely declined, but Erica got a Spanish earful about how we need to let them help us as it’s how they support their families.
It was all so weird.
In retrospect, I’m glad I did this with Erica. With a friend, it was a memorably strange but hilarious experience. If I were by myself I would have wondered why I just paid some company to get mildly assaulted.
Colombian Party Buses
The other positive of this peculiar mud adventure was that Erica made friends with some British tourists who also thought mud bathing sounded fun. And our new friends invited us out on a Chiva bus that night.
A Chiva is just a fancy name for a Colombian party bus. It’s a mix between an open air trolly and a school bus. To make it extra obnoxious, it’s decorated with bright colors and flashing lights. And just in case you STILL didn’t take notice, the buses will either blast loud music or will have their very own band on board. We had a band.
There are a dozen or so of these Chivas that run every night in Cartagena, filled to the brim with tourists and locals. Erica and I took it on a Tuesday and it the buses were full. The bus drives around the city for an hour or so while street vendors sell party busers beer at stop lights. The Chiva makes make two stops – el Castillo (i.e. the Castle. We’ll cover this shortly) so people can go to the bathroom and get food from a line of overpriced food stands. And a club called Taboo. Why do all cities in all corners of the world have a trashy club called Taboo?? The one in Cartagena is exactly like you’d think. It’s best to come here after you’ve already had a few drinks.
It was a trashy, touristy, weird day and I really enjoyed myself.
Touristing
Erica and I didn’t just sit in mud pits and drink booze all day, we also fit in our share of city sites. We did a free walking tour of Cartagena and visited the historical sites in the walled city. The walking tour wasn’t anything special, but we did meet a few new friends who were coincidentally from DC and shared a drink with them after the tour. During the tour, I also got to see Erica dodge away from several stray dogs and pigeons. Erica is a tried and true city girl. She’s not cool with random animal encounters.
We also visited El Castillo and La Popa. El Castillo de San Felipe is a castle that sits within walking distance of the walled city. You’d think Erica and I would have noticed a giant castle on a hill when we were walking around but we didn’t. So we took a cab to get here when we could have walked there in 10 minutes. Live and learn. The castle occupies a huge site in the center of the city, has nice views, and you can walk inside and explore dark passageways. The dark and creepy passageways were not Erica’s favorite but I thought they were pretty cool.
La Copa is a former convent atop a steep hillside that offers the best views of Cartagena. There’s a small museum to walk around once you get there which isn’t much to speak of, but the views are worth a stop.
We also spent a good amount of time exploring the nearby artsy neighborhood of Getsemani. If I ever went back to Cartagena, I would stay here. It’s my favorite part of the city. It has some really amazing graffiti art, cute coffee shops and restaurants, and is close to, but slightly less touristy than the walled city. Erica and I enjoyed many a meal and cup of coffee here. By chance we also happened upon a free Zumba class in the main square that happens every Sunday night. It was fun just to watch. The energy was phenomenal!
Birthday Plans and Traveling Reality
Our week in Cartagena was (supposed) to culminate with my birthday that Friday. Yes, I aged over the course of this blog. Don’t feel bad about not sending me a gift. You still have time! Erica and I planned on going out for a nice meal, and maybe a cocktail. But as the story goes, the best laid plans….
Instead we opted to both get sick. Not the way I intended to kick off the year, but such is life.
Getting the flu put a stop to our evening plans, but didn’t stop us from going to the beach. Given both of our conditions, we skipped a guided tour to the Rosario islands and decided to grab a cab to nearby Playa Blanca instead. This beach is technically part of the Rosario islands, but is still attached to the mainland and is accessible by cab.
This brings me to the nerve-wracking part of the week. Maybe more nerve wracking for some of us (I think you can guess who) than others.
The Cab /Uber Incident
Here’s the thing about Colombian transportation. If you don’t want to mess with taking a bus, you take a cab. They’re cheap and easy to find. Cabs in Colombia, however, don’t run on a meter. Similar to many other countries, riders haggle the price. If you’re smart, you do this before you ever open the door. Prices for locals and tourists are quite different. I accepted a long time ago that I will always pay more. But as in any haggle, the game is best played when the tourist knows they are getting over charged, but can talk down the initial price down. And the driver still charges double or triple what they would a local. Everyone is happy.
The first cab driver we talked to did not understand this game. He thought if he started with an outrageously high price, and argued it, we would just pay. In the days of Uber, this was not a game he was going to win.
Here’s the thing about Uber in Colombia. It’s not exactly legal. It’s also not exactly illegal. A local described it to me as in a ‘grey area’. Uber is widely used and is cheap. But when taking it, riders sit in the front so that it’s not obvious it’s an Uber. When taking an Uber to the Colombian airport, for example, you say goodbye to the driver like an old friend. This is to make sure the police don’t stop him.
I knew this Uber situation beforehand. But Erica and I made the silly mistake of scoffing at the cab drivers high price by saying we would Uber. I should have known better. By the time our car arrived, the cabbie called the local transit authority (note: NOT the actual police) who were waiting to pull us over. A long lecture ensued. Basically the transit cop was aiming to get a bribe. We felt horrible, but there wasn’t anything we could do. I left some money in the console, and Erica and I ended up grabbing another ride.
Once safely in a new but slightly more expensive cab, I felt much calmer. However, I realized this feeling was not universally shared when I looked over midway through the ride to see Erica following our trip on google maps. After that Uber incident, Erica was going to make damn sure that cab driver brought us exactly where he agreed. If we turned to the East, Erica was on high alert as the beach was CLEARLY WEST.
Her anxiety wasn’t helped by the aggressive restaurant vendors that jumped in front and hung onto the cab as we got closer to the beach. Even in my lax travel style (aided by flu exhaustion), this got me a little riled. The driver told Erica this was normal, but he could see how this looked like they were trying to rob you. No, this did not help calm those nerves AT ALL.
Side note to/about Mom: My mom called me that morning to wish me a happy birthday. Erica and my mom have never met, but after saying hello, my mom told Erica that it was her job to keep me safe. Her exact words were ‘I hope she’s good at DEFENSE’. Mom, you will be happy to know that Erica is a vigilance of travel safety. If you two ever meet, you would really like her.
Playa Blanca
We made it to the beach just fine and ordered a giant cocktail in an obnoxiously large coconut to mark the occasion. With my flu, I personally didn’t have much of a sense of taste, but it was a nice mini celebration. Also Erica needed it to calm her nerves. Eventually we were both able to relax enough to take in the sun for a few hours. It was lovely.
After the morning’s incident, we opted for the ferry back to the city after tiring of the beach. I’m glad we tried a change in transportation. It offered a different view of the coastline and dropped us off within walking distance of the walled city and our hotel. Why didn’t we do that in the first place??
I’d love to say that I rallied that night, and we still went out to celebrate with a nice dinner and a few fancy cocktails. But this birthday put me well into my 30’s, and shit did not go down like that. We hung out on our hotel’s rooftop for awhile, but the idea of drinking more just made me feel nauseous. We went to sleep early.
Welcome to getting older.
Traveling with Friends
And thus ends our week in Cartagena. I learned just as much about Colombia as I did about my good traveling friend.
I learned that Erica enjoys a cocktail at the end of the day, and really enjoys if that cocktail is on a rooftop. Prior to this trip, I knew she was afraid of animals. But I got to see just how deftly skilled she is at spotting and running away from many a stray dog, wandering cat, and pigeon. In addition to animals, she’s also afraid of drowning, castle passageways, dimly lit kitchens, and empty hotels rooms. It’s actually quite a long list.
I also learned she says she’s never afraid to ask someone for assistance or directions. She’s great at making new friends in multiple languages. Without fail she always takes notice and the time to appreciate when people go out of their way to be helpful.
She learned I spend most of my day thinking about what I’m going to eat next. Like, a LOT of my day. I can’t tell you how many times I asked – ‘how are you NOT HUNGRY??’. Aside from being hungry, the worst feeling in the world to me is having dirty feet. I hate it. I hate walking through dusty roads with sandals.
I’m also full of restless energy. If I sit still for too long I do a short work out app on my phone. Or I eat something. But on a positive note, I’m also social, fun to hang out with, and come travel ready with a handful of places I want to see.
Since I have a blog and she doesn’t, I get to poke fun at Erica’s travel anxieties for everyone to read. But in reality she’s an easygoing travel companion and helped me relax. I got her out of her comfort zone a few times to try something new. Win win.
I’m glad I got to experience Cartagena with her. She set a high standard for whoever comes next. And if that volcano adventure didn’t convince someone to fly out and join me, I don’t know what will.
