Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Cartagena

The Drive from Medellin to Cartagena is a long and beautiful one. To get out of Medellin you have travel through a mountain range on a 2 lane highway. It is slightly scary because the route is packed with large trucks, motorcycles and overtaking cars. There are also the obstacles to avoid, these include; farmers walking milk to the market, land slides, trees in the road and oh did I mention the overtaking cars. We stopped for some food once we safely negotiated the tourist unfriendly zone. The food was delicious, beans and rice. Laura had an Arepa con queso.

Laura was a champion and drove the whole way on 4 hours sleep. She didn't trust my 20 years of first world driving experience. I reckon I would have been fine as I have driven on the wrong side and in Italy. We left Medellin at 5:30am and arrive around 7.Cartagena is an interesting part of Colombia a mix of African, Colombian, Spanish and Paez People. The city has 2.5 million people. On our arrival I was confronted with the hecticness of the 3rd world. Load noises, sirens, people, trash and traffic. Being a passenger for three weeks I think I have worked out the major differences. Driving can be done 1 or 2 ways, offensively or defensively. The first world has all fallen victim to the  delusion that  regulates our  road systems. While the 3rd world applying a offensive strategy makes no attempts at regulation the only rule is that you try not to kill any thing. Now Colombia (sorry about previous misspellings)  is  not the wild west like Asia this system seems to work here  and I have only seen 2 accident. Arriving to the old city is quite a journey. In the distance I noticed the beautiful  beginnings or the old city. Cartagena de Indias BEAUTIFUL. We stayed at Casa de la Mantllai on calle del la Mantilla. It was purchased by Laura's grandfather during the Escobar years. Now it is run as a lovely guest house with 2 small pools and a rooftoop sundecks. 

When we arrived we went past this place to see if the owner was there. Laura bought Anthony Boudain here for his Colombian show and he is suppose to have the best Mojitos.  Unfortunately he wasn't here. So we went and had dinner somewhere else. No Pictures sorry.Later in the evening we met up with Jorge (the owner of La Cevicheria) and went dancing.

 The next day I attempted to flex a bit of independence and attempted to cash travelers checks for myself. Unfortunately this was not to be I got lost and the banks close at 11.30am. For a Spanish style siesta until 2. This was quite unfortunate as  I had no dinero. ( spanish for cash) So I made my way to La Cevicheria, calle Stuart 7-14 for a meal.  Jorge was there and  he made me a mojito and a Suprema de Supremas ¨the best of the best¨. It was a type of seafood soup served with clams shrimp and calamari. It was good except the calamari were a tad over done. The atmosphere of La Cevicheria is really great beautiful music, good food and a very friendly staff. I highly recommend you pop in and tell Jorge hello.   After lunch Jorge invited me to his  beach shack. We picked up a bottle of Run and headed to the sea. Jorge and I discovered that we have very similar taste in Music and we spent the day drinking, dancing and laughing. Meeting Jorge was fantastic he was very funny, found me very sexy and very sexy him self. He had a cute restaurant and cute beach shack. The weather was hot the ocean was the Caribbean . All in All the experience was perfect.
Laura and Kimmies join us. We spent all day Friday hanging out, drinking, swimming and some other stuff.  
The Sunset was perfect. 
 
Jorge has a women who helps him look after is house her name is Rosita. 
 This is Bob Marley. 
The view of Cartagena from the 8th floor.

Laura and Kimmie

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