Colombia’s Caribbean coast

Above:  The Bocagrande peninsula as seen from the air is very low-lying.

Flying to the Caribbean coast

I woke at 0230 probably having had too much sleep in the last couple of days.  I managed to doze from 0500 to 0600 before the alarm at 0630.  Surprisingly, I managed another cold wash before summoning an Uber to the airport.

Bucaramanga’s Palonegro airport is located high up on a plateau.  To my surprise, as we climbed up to it in the car, we saw lots of high-rises on the slopes on the other side of the valley.  It was like a light version of Hong Kong skyscraper apartments.

It was cloudy and misty at the airport when we got there.  I’m not sure of the wisdom of building an airport up here weatherwise, but what do I know?

It was a dream bag-drop experience with a short queue and then airside to the lounge where I did some work on the computer.  While small, the airport was clean, tidy and very functional. On board the Avianca A319 to Cartagena, we were pleasantly surprised by the generous legroom, seat width and amazing recline.  In my window seat in a fully-occupied row, I felt less hemmed in compared to my longhaul flight from Madrid in an aisle seat.  Kim slept for most of the 50 min flight (with no inflight service) interrupted by fits of coughing.

On our final descent the sight of a narrow low-lying peninsula with high-rises wasn’t my idea of Cartagena.  I had understsood it to be an old city.  Having left about 15 min early, we landed equally early before the schedule time of around 1100.  We got an Uber to Casa Ebano in the very old neighbourhood of Getsemani next to the official old city.  On the drive, the first thing we noticed was that Cartagena is highly Afro-Caribbean compared to highland/inland Colombia.

It was a pleasant surprise being assigned a room before 1200.  We grabbed a set platter from a restaurant nearby soon after and rested for the afternoon.  Kim wasn’t feeling terrific and I used the dull weather as an excuse for not going out by myself.  Instead, I spent time putting my travel blogs online, something I hadn’t done since arriving in Switzerland.

Exploring old Cartagena

It was after 1730 when we emerged into the last of the daylight for a wander.  To my relief, the old part of Cartagena extends way way beyond our area.  During the afternoon, I had been worried what we would do for the three full days here.  But with Kim napping half a day recently, in addition to sleeping at night, maybe it isn’t such a big concern.

To my surprise, there wasn’t too many outdoor places that were available for drinking and eating.  There were of course some restaurants, some located in gorgeous courtyards.  It was definitely less rundown than Getsemani where we were staying, where there were also more eateries and watering holes.

We found an awesome Mexican fast food place called Chilada’s where we shared a generous burrito.