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.