Cartagena, Colombia 🇨🇴

The weather is back to hot and sunny today as we head off on our last day in Cartagena. We follow the walls along to Getsemani and then over the bridge to the district of Manga. Another tip from the laundry lady, and it feels less touristy. There are a couple of colonial buildings and a large marina that looks across to the high rises of Bocagrande. Fuerte Pastelillo is a small fort sat on the edge of what would have been a key canal and perhaps a critical defence post.  

It was a lovely area to walk around but it’s hot and our search for a iced coffee led us back to the main tourist area of old town. We found a trendy bar that did a jar of iced coffee and chocolate that was deliciously refreshing. Our walking took us through the town and back up to the convent, so we could go down into that famous crypt. We then headed back towards the hostel, stopping for lunch at La Mulatas, where Polly had had a meal on the first night. The shrimp and rice was excellent and a great final meal before we said goodbye to our friendly hostel team and piled our luggage into a taxi again.

My flight to Bogotá is with Avianca and as they have a pilot’s strike on at the moment I was pleased to see my flight wasn’t one of the cancelled ones, I had also been upgraded to business which is a pleasant surprise. Polly left at 5pm for Amsterdam and I finally strolled through security about 7pm. My flight was then delayed a couple of hours so I finally landed past midnight into Bogotá. My deluxe hotel has failed to arrange a shuttle so I am forced to get a taxi in the rain. I am pretty miserable by the time I check in and finally get to bed.

Cartagena, Colombia 🇨🇴

It was so nice to sleep in a comfy, dry bed and have a warm shower this morning. Minca was lovely but because of the wet atmosphere all material felt damp after a few days and I feel like all my clothes need a wash. This morning we are up and out for our trip to the Rosario Islands, it is raining but we hope it clears for a beautiful beach day. We arrive at the port on time but the rain doesn’t seem to be easing. Eventually they tell us that all island trips are cancelled for safety reasons, as we can’t go tomorrow we get a refund but it’s a shame.  

We go back to the hostel to shower off the sun cream and dry off before making plans for the day. I do need laundry doing so we go to the quirky beer & laundry place to deliver my damp clothes. The roads are all flooded with the rain so it is slow going in slidey plastic flip flops. The lady at the laundry is so helpful and gives us a few ideas for more interesting places to visit.  

The gold museum is first on the list, it is a small version of the one in Bogotá but is nice and also free. It has a section about the Zenù tribe, who from 200BC created waterways in the area to control water onto crops and avoid flooding. Sometimes these channels were dug 4km long, really incredible to see a map of this time. They have lots of similar gold artefacts to those I have seen before but also clay women that were part of the burial process in the area.

We walked round the old town, doing a bit of window and souvenir shopping as we go and we manage to walk a fair chunk of the old walls. We peak into the centennial park looking for sloths but don’t spot any. The laundry is done by 2pm so we collect it and enjoy a Hawaiian pizza with a dash of hot sauce. I definitely need a nap today and enjoy a wee siesta before we head out for dinner.  

We both go for fish this evening which is delicious and we then walk along to the Sofitel Santa Clara. This is a recommendation from the laundry lady, and we can wander around the converted convent, covertly under the guise of a bathroom visit. The bar here does a mean mojito and also has a interesting history. As part of the hotel construction they excavated the crypts and the writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez was inspired to write one of his famous novels “Of Love and Other Demons” after apparently visiting when workers were removing the remains. Here they found the body of a young girl with 10m long red hair and he references this in the book claiming that when the stone had been shattered by the pickaxe, ‘hair the intense colour of the copper spilled out of the crypt’…whatever the stories it is a decedent place to have a drink on our last night.

Cartagena, Colombia🇨🇴

Time to leave the tranquil Minca today. Jan is also leaving and Polly rather energetically elects to walk down to the town with him whilst I opt for the motor taxi with the luggage. It is a shame to be leaving today as it is the best day yet, with glorious sunshine and views for miles. The ride down seems easier than the uphill, although there are a few hairy moments where they are fixing the path. I pass them a fair way down and wait at the collectivo stop, fortunately they stroll in just as the ride starts to fill up and we are whisked down the mountain in a jeep this time. The family from Germany are also in the jeep regaling us with tales from travelling Venezuela which doesn’t sound fun.

Four of us hop out on the outskirts of Santa Marta and cram ourselves into a tiny taxi for the short drive to the bus station. On arrival we are hustled into a bus that looks a bit rickety but is a bargain £5 to Cartagena. This turns out to not be such a great deal when you correlate with efficiency. It seems to stop everywhere and when we get to Barranquilla they change us buses. It seems like a better bus but the air conditioning breaks down soon into the journey, we stop to fix it and then keep going. In short what could have been 4 hours took about 6, but felt like it went on forever.  

On arrival to Cartagena we were still miles out of town and needed another taxi to navigate us safely to our hostel, in the San Diego area of old town. It was such a relief to arrive and be welcomed back. We quizzed Edward on island trips for tomorrow and booked one to Gente del mar, mainly based on its excellent snorkelling reputation. We are pretty exhausted and Jan seems to be ill following something he ate on the bus so we grab a quick pasta before bedtime.

Minca, Colombia 🇨🇴

I decided to get up and join the two on the hike to the mirador. Partly because I was wide awake but partly because there were three Germans practising yoga outside our window and there was no chance of going back to sleep. We have a huge bowl of fruit and oats before setting off up the hill. The birdwatching tour pass us having seen lots of birds so we try to spot what we can as we head up. There are quite a few black birds with vivid yellow tails.

The walk up turns into a mud scramble in a few places and as we climb higher we realise that the cloud is not going to shift to give us that 360degree view we hoped for. It is still quite cool siting in clouds listening to the sounds and enjoying the jungle like vegetation below us. We clamber down and walk back to the hostel so that Polly and Anna have time to join the Coffee tour from the finca.

I sat and read in a hammock until they returned for lunch, turns out they had missed the tour but enjoyed chilling over there with the free coffee. We sit swinging in hammocks all afternoon marvelling at the mist moving through the hostel. After dinner there are card games to play, I am just feeling antisocial but Polly joins in.

Minca, Colombia 🇨🇴

Over a amazing breakfast of banana and maize pancakes we met Anna and Lauren from the UK. Anna decided to join us on our Cacao tour at the small farm across the way. The walk across was really nice, through coffee plants and huge bamboo vegetation. The tour guide was the owner of the farm, third generation of the family working with organic methods across the 40hectares. They have 1500 cacao trees which produce one tonne a year. The farm also has great coffee production and hundreds of mango and avocado trees alongside.

The cacao fruits are large and quite a long germination period. The flowers are pollinated by natural wind pollination and it takes 5 months for fruit to ripen. The fruit has to be hand picked every two weeks throughout the year to ensure they are kept safe from pests – fungus and squirrels.

We were then shown the rest of the process and as the fruit was opened go to taste the sweet gel the seeds are wrapped in inside the pod. They scoop out seeds and put in a fermentation box. Then they are dried naturally in the sun, before being roasted and then shelled. We tasted the raw nibs which were different tasting but delicious and tasty, he then ground a portion and made fabulous hot chocolate for us. Once we had finished this indulgent drink we got to have a chocolate and coffee face mask applied. This was a lot of fun in our group pictures and made my face feel very clean.

We rushed back to the hostel in time for the lunch bell, it was already raining so we were pretty damp by the time we sat down. After lunch and a cold shower we sat and read for the afternoon, chatting with a few other people and generally having a chilled out time.  Polly and Anna are discussing a early hike up to the mirador at the top of this peak.  It sounds like a lot of effort and it’s great that there is someone else willing to get up early with Polly.

Minca, Colombia 🇨🇴

On 17 December 1830, at the age of 47, Simon Bolivar died of tuberculosis in the Quinta de San Pedro, Santa Marta. Simon Bolivar was one of the leading figures in South American independence, first president of several countries he died before he could sail to Europe disillusioned with the countries he had freed. In Santa Marta they have preserved the Quinta de San Pedro and it sits alongside a art gallery and gardens on the outskirts. 

We checkout and take a taxi up to the estate, stepping down the commonwealth plaza lined with flags first. This leads us to the art museum, which unfortunately has had a power cut, so viewing art by phone torch is difficult. The gardens are a mix of huge trees and cactus, I quite enjoyed spotting geckos and iguanas in the grass. The historical Quinta buildings show a little of how they would have farmed sugarcane at that time.

We head back to the hotel late morning and have a snack at the Cathedral cafe before getting a taxi to the market to join a collectivo for Minca. The taxi driver offers to take us all the way for a reasonable amount, so we jump at the chance to stay in the air conditioning. The road up is fairly windy but we make it and are safely dropped off into small town. We know we need to grab a mototaxi up to the hostel but I hadn’t realised they would be just a motorbike. We hopped on the back of one each and paid for another one for our luggage. Finally my wheely bag got its rucksack straps out as a poor guy got stuck with it on his back and Polly’s on the front as we road up ahead of him. It was a hairy ride up a muddy dirt road, past several waterfalls and my driver just told me to hold on tight as we skidded across stones trying to maintain momentum on the trail. The hostel was found after about 20minutes and we rescued the guy drowning under our luggage before checking in. The hostel seems very chilled with lots of sustainability projects and places to chill out.

The heavens opened at about 3pm and so we read for the rest of the day. The dinner gong sounded at 7pm for our homemade pasta, very tasty. Early night ensured after our travel and the peacefulness of the mountain.

Santa Marta, Colombia 🇨🇴

Time to leave our friendly B&B and head for the big city of Santa Marta. This is the oldest city in Colombia, having been the first Spanish settlement. After a super breakfast we caught a taxi to the bus terminal and then a lovely air conditioned bus to Santa Marta which is about 4 hours away. Once we arrive on the outskirts we have to get a taxi in, a friendly guy who tries to cheat us…

We arrive unscathed and check into our hotel, we deliberately picked this hotel for the pool so we could relax in the afternoon poolside, overlooking the Cathedral. Once the sun had gone down we walked to the main pedestrian street with lots of bars and restaurants. Dinner was at a restaurant where I had excellent roast pork, reminded me of home. After dinner we walked back via the seafront which seemed very industrial rather then pretty. There were lots of families out enjoying a Sunday evening together. We strolled back to the hotel via the Simon Bolivar plaza and the Cathedral square. 

Punta Gallinas, Colombia 🇨🇴

We are not surprised to be up with first light, in time to observe a beautiful sunrise over the tranquil bay. We are all ready for breakfast by 6.30am and are on the road soon after. The road is even more desert like and sandy, making it a slower road to Punta Gallinas. We stop briefly to see flamingos in a reservoir before we keep going through area bordering Bahia Honda and Bahía Hondita. 

Along the way each community or family puts a little barrier up across the road, and our ‘toll’ is water, biscuits or sweets. We must have stopped at at least 20, mainly manned by cute children smiling as they got their payment. 

The Taroa dunes were epic, there was a forceful wind blowing sand at us as we climbed over a dune. You then skidd down the fine sand to this side empty beach that has the most mighty waves. We didn’t swim there, just paddling and you could feel the power of the sea. It’s a beautiful place but after an hour in the sun we scaled the huge dune once more to get back to the jeep, driving on to reach Punta Gallinas by midday. I have a moment at the Northern most point of South America, thinking of the distance I have travelled over the last nine months, feels like a good finishing point to have on this chapter.  

We viewed the panoramic Mirador Castillas before arriving at our Ranchería. We eat a massive freshly fried fish for lunch, which was amazingly before getting ready for a swim this afternoon. Clambering into a boat we headed across the channel to a calm swimming beach, only we didn’t realise that first we were going to see flamingos. This involved heading out to sea, headlong into the big waves which became a bit scary, Polly was worried about sinking and how she would protect her camera! After about 30minutes we found a huge flock of flamingos, they were amazing and really vivid orangery/ pink colour. It was worth the trip but once the guy cut his anchor to release us we were pleased to be heading back. We stopped at our nice tranquil beach, Playa Boquito, for a swim and the sunset before making him take us back before it got dark.

We join another group for cards, beers and dinner before heading to tonight’s hammocks. These are bigger and I can cocoon myself right into it, which is good as the fierce wind looks like it will make it a rocky night.