My Birthday Trip, Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena
Transportation. Flew Latham airlines from Medellin, airport pickup by Freddy Paz, around town taxis, Uber and pre-arranged tour .
Accommodation. I wanted to experience the charm of the historic walled city alongside the extremes of the ultramodern skyscraper-filled Boca Grande. So I sourced an Airbnb studio in the walled city for 2 nights and a condo in Boca Grande for 2 nights.
Day 1, Tuesday
Evening arrival, picked up by Freddy Paz Tours. Checked into Airbnb and went straight to dinner as I was starving. O. M. G.
LaTinaja Cartagena/can shut up n take all my damn my money.? ? ? ? ? See this fish was just what I needed. Starting out the old city experience the right way. Listen if you’re visiting Cartagena and not hooking up with this brother Freddy Paz right here and his crew you ain’t living right!!
Day 2, Wednesday
Boat party and tour day. 90+ degrees in Isla Barú, Isla Del Rosario, Cartagena De Indias, Colombia.
Hold up wait a minute, no conference calls, no kids, no cooking, not even an email in sight? Yes Lawd, this is the life! Partied on the boat, stopped for swimming, snorkeling and other water sports. It was my birthday and I got spoiled I got to pick my own fresh baked cake at the bakery and had a bottle of champagne too. Did I say Freddy Paz Rocks?
I learned about the genius level defense system to keep the pirates and British army out of the Caribbean seas. One of the heroes was Blas de Lezo a Spanish navy officer best remembered for the battle of Cartagena de Indias. He’s also known as the guy with 1 arm, 1 leg and 1 eye that defended the city against pirates. Using creative ways of blocking the main ship entrance forcing them to go work harder to gain access.
We ate lunch on the beach while island hopping to Rosario islands, Cholon, Playa Blanca Beach and Boca Chica. We had an endless supply of premium alcohol, ice and sodas. The boat was great and came with a captain and an assistant who made sure cups were always full.
Music playlist was fayahhhh. Music is truly universal and everywhere I go, I always Rep Naija??. It was a beautiful thing to see a couple from NC, 2 Chi Town sisters, ATL guys and the Colombian fam singing and dancing to Burna Boy?. Who says good music is not universal. Vamos a empezar esta fiesta!!! ??????????
With so much sun, good food and dancing, I needed a nap once we got back to the old city. Refreshed and ready for some food and action, I took an Uber to explore the new Cartagena. I walked all over Boca Grande and bought a LOT more organic coffee at the local grocery store. (Yes, it was very safe even after dark)
For dinner there was a hidden “back in the corner” family owned restaurant serving all kinds of tacos. Nothing else just tacos. I thought of a taco loving friend of mine and said Sade try it jor, worst case you’ll need Imodium (which I carry at all times but I was fine) at Plaza Bocagrande Centro Comercial. “Village peepuull” tried to mess up my flow by killing my phone charger so I shopped for a new one. Plaza Boca Grande is a large in door mall for with a bustling food courts and typical mall stores.
Day 3, Thursday
Cartagena real city tour and my last morning in the walled city. My host suggested Eureka Coffee House, calle 26 #21-11, Cartagena, Bolívar and they did not disappoint. Breakfast was Yum and the coffee was on point.
This strawberry and chocolate drizzle waffle gave me life!
I wanted to learn about the history you won’t read on WikiLeaks or google and I am glad I chose Freddy Paz for this tour. Dude knows how to speak on history in an engaging way. Mount Popa is the highest hill in Cartagena and we started our tour there. The original Palenque settlement was also way up here in the hills. Cartagena is mix of rhythms such as soca, calypso, salsa and merengue. It is not uncommon to see party buses at night blasting music and restaurants dropping beats during the day. Street vendors always have music playing and a few dance too. Alvaro Jose Arroyo Gonzalez aka Joe Arroyo was born in Cartagena and this is one of his most popular songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWBf9hfW_4Y
At lunchtime, I found myself at Restaurante La Tinaja again as I had another local favorite to try out. Yes it was yum!
Can you tell I love seafood? Now off to walk all over the walled city where my fist observation was that Melanin is seriously popping in Cartagena and this Naija girl is happy.
See The streets and colors of old Getsemani
Colombia produces the highest amount of emeralds. Colombia, Brazil and Zambia are the top known emerald producers. The emerald is the only stone with inclusions. 3 things to remember about emeralds; color, quality and transparency. The deeper the green, the better in emerald. Ever wonder how some of the biggest emeralds ended up in the west? The Spanish traded emeralds across Europe and Asia for precious metals, which opened up the emerald trade to the rest of the world.
Cleopatra was the first woman in history to wear emeralds as it was one of her favorite stones and her passion for emeralds was well documented.
Day 4, Friday
Photo-shoot, Pink Sea, Volcano clay and Palenque tours. First, sunrise mimosas then, fresh brewed coffee in this beautiful beach-side condo and my morning view. My hosts were great and had a welcome note, fresh coffee beans and the fridge stocked upon arrival yesterday.
Good Morning Cartagena!
Next, Sunrise photo shoot with Mark at CTG He was a delight to work with and knew his craft. He also knew the best spots to capture my melanin self in the essence of Cartagena. See Video
Freddy was double booked so the groups were split, we had an amazing driver. Eduardo was funny, helpful and on point in driving, at no point was I anxious and that is not an easy feat! Eduardo our fab driver’s details
Eduardo! 🙂
After pickups, we set off for the Pink sea tour, about 1.5 hours away. Connected Spotify to Bluetooth and we had an Afrobeats party. Naija stand up! P-Square “personally” track came on my Spotify playlist and Eduardo knew the lyrics and said this is a classic. Meanwhile he sang to it with his spotty English! ??
Pink sea was amazing. It was crystallized salt water in the middle of nowhere. Very warm almost hot and about an hour away from Cartagena city area. A local tour guide on a dirt bike met us and escorted us out on an unpaved road to the crystal salt lakes. Be prepared to walk once you get there but it’s well worth seeing this natural wonder.
Next was the Volcano Clay tour at Volcan Del Totumo about 10 minutes away from the pink sea
The volcano clay mud bath and massage at Volcan Del Totumo.?? Laaaaawdddd yes! A feeling of weightlessness with your pores getting cleaned out. It may not be for everyone but my skin felt amazing after. There are local women by the spring that wash you out thoroughly in a hot spring lake nearby. Days later, my skin shall still be glowing and saying thank you. Time for a nap as the driver is heading to the next spot for the day about an hour away and I am ready for lunch.
Palenque tour helped me learn about the African people that escaped from slavery in the 1600’s and somehow have preserved their African culture beautifully. Being a Yoruba speaking Naija girl some references to Orishas and other gods made sense to me.
You cannot come to Cartagena and not do this tour. First things first, a pre-arranged lunch at a local’s house.
Lunch with the locals served in a leaf. Reminds me of Naija!
Next up was our cool local guide a university graduate, who walked us around the town explaining many practices, statues and such. Gosh, my heart is so happy. ?? Everyone and I mean everyone is brown skin like me here. ??????. Palenque language is a mix of Spanish, Portuguese, African Bantu village languages from Congo and Angola. The slave masters picked different areas so they couldn’t communicate and rebel. Well, the slaves outsmarted them and created Palenque. This was how they bonded and about 40 men and women escaped. Today there are about 4000 of them and no matter where they die in the world, the body is brought back home to be buried in Palenque. There is no police here and no mayor but they have a mediator for grievances. Before escaping slavery in 1599 from Cartagena and settling here this area was a jungle. Palenque was established in 1603.
Boxer Antonio Cervantes Reyes is the best boxer in Colombian history. He’s still alive about 75ish now and lives in Colombia.
Antonio Cervantes Reyes
Friday night, party bus tour with Freddy Paz.
Soooooo I’m on a converted school bus now an air-conditioned party bus with poles. Heavy Latin music playing then this happens….. Naija, Haitian and Trini babes are on this bus so we have no behavior combined. Music is great and once again top shelf drinks. ? ? ? ? ? Let me go learn Bachata today. ??????????
We pulled over to eat some street food and watch dancing
It’s the Rumba cross over so let’s go learn how to Rumbaaaaaa! We ended up at the nightclub at La Farra Club Cartagena. Hayyyy Lawd see footwork!!???? These Latinas are killing it. They’ve been dancing for over an hour straight! Thank God for VIP with AC, this is why you take Freddy’s party bus tour. No waiting and VIP straight.
It’s about 2 am and hunger has hit so we end up at an all-night taco and chicken joint near the Hilton hotel. We ate and were allawayyy good. I think I finally crashed about 4 am. I almost made it being awake for 24 hours.
Day 5, Saturday
Time to head back home.
I woke up to this view here, smiled saw it was only 8 am, then had a talk with myself to get up as it was time to pack up and head home.
Cartagena was a blast. Off to the airport I go after I’ve had coffee and a big waffle from the joint across the street. I miss this place already!
