Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena is the first official International Chaperones trip…Cope and I were deciding between Medellin and Cartagena…I was thinking Medellin, but Cope loves the beach…after researching some history…I found out about San Basilio de Palenque…a town where the first Africans emancipated in the America’s still have their community intact…cool…Cartagena it is…it’ May 2021…covid restrictions are being lifted but things are nowhere near normalized…our Airbnb is in El Centro…the heart of downtown…I arrive a day early and find a tattoo shop two doors down from our residence…schedule a session for tomorrow…I g0t my bicep and left tricep done; Queen Tiye on the bicep and Amenhotep III on the tricep…got that out of the way…found a really good restaurant one block away…got a sim card…bottle of Grey Goose…I’m ready for Cartagena…Cope arrives the next day while I’m in the tattoo chair…he’s already frustrated from how hard it was to find the right location…putting an address in the Uber app isn’t that simple…ordering food through the Colombian version of Uber Eats called “Rappi” is even more difficult which we will find out later…I give Cope his key and he goes to get settled…come back later and schedules his tattoo appointment…we go get dinner afterwards and walk the streets…Cartagena puts me in the mind of Cuba…the old historic, cobble stoned maze of streets… fort and cannons guarding the sea…culturally similar…of course both were Spanish colonies (so it makes sense)…the next day we head to be forewarned…as foreigner…people will recognize that you are foreign…if you are in El Centro they will follow you for blocks begging…young men “rapping” with a boom box on their shoulder were our nemesis…they were relentless…eventually Cope who has a much shorter fuse than I do…had to communicate through nonverbal and verbal skills which I’m sure the young rapper didn’t understand that it was time for him to move along…in a more aggressive and matter of fact way…we still had run in’s with more of them though…young women with their kids in tow, beg standing outside of the restaurant windows…they don’t leave…they will wait for you to eat your whole meal, have a few drinks, socialize…they’re still at the window waiting for you…I’m very compassionate…but I have my limits…next time it would be Bocagrande and La Boquilla instead of El Centro…much less hassle…Day 2 we’re off to Palenque…about an hour and a half ride via Uber/taxi from the city…we get a real view of the different neighborhoods and socio-economic classes…there is a protest going on in the streets and some of the highways are blocked so our driver has to take a different route…one area in particular caused both of us to look at each other, as if to say “this ain’t good”…as Cope would say “if it goes down, we standing back to back”…facts…fortunately we get through and as we leave the city and the landscape gets more rural we see a open air…I guess veterinarian…operating on a dog on a table…I’m not talking about fixing a leg…this looks like open heart or some type of large organ surgery…traveling…new experiences…that’s what it’s all about…Palenque will have to be a post of it’s own…a lot of layers there…but I would be remiss if I did not mention the street vendor selling fruit that we came across on the way back…first of all the amount of fruit that we got for less than $5 USD was astonishing…but the taste and nutrition that the fruit provided was unparalleled…I literally felt the vitamins hit my blood stream immediately after eating one orange…if you know, you know…the following day we take a boat ride to Rosario Islands…the ride there provided a good view of the luxury penthouses and buildings that line Bocagrande Beach…it’s
reminiscent of Miami or Panama City…after a 30 minute speedy ride confronting choppy waves, we reach our destination…we find a tent next to our new friends, Brandon, Alex, and Drew…Alex is a soccer coach who played professionally for a while…he’s been in Cartagena for about a month because restrictions are so tight in Canada where he lives…he also speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and I believe Italian…Brandon and Drew both live in Columbia, SC…Charlotte, NC having been my residence (and matriculating college about 45 minutes from Columbia in Orangeburg, SC) I knew the area really well and we immediately connected…we intermittently waded in the water…sipped drinks and ate lunch on the beach for a couple of hours…on the ride back, they invited us to their hotel…we decided we would go back to our Airbnb, shower, get dressed and head back out to meet them…we were rushing because prior to arriving in Cartagena we did not know that a new curfew had been enforced partly due to Covid but also because of the protests in the streets…weekends it was 230p…wth…so we tried our best to get back out to hang with the bros but we didn’t have enough time…after we were dressed we walked out on our balcony and saw the streets were mostly empty…it was already past 3p…a few taxis and Ubers
were dropping off what looked like locals…it was still possible to move around for reasons like coming from the airport but we weren’t about to drag our luggage around to look like we were in
compliance…at the end of our street, standing on the corner…we saw a police officer, wielding his baton…he didn’t look friendly…none of them did…and we don’t speak Spanish so talking our way out of conflict was next to impossible…we decided against risking it…not to mention…Alex, Brandon, and Drew told us of an incident they had just had with the police a couple of days prior…we had our food, I had my Grey Goose…Cope had his White Hennessy…it was all good…we’ll kick back and shoot the breeze…we were scheduled to leave the following morning and had to rush to grab souvenirs and most importantly grab some street art that we had scoped out a couple of days prior…we rode half broken bicycles from El Centro…my chain kept coming off…the seat was broken…the bike was too small…I had to work harder than what I should have to peddle…the temperature felt like it was already 90+ at 8am…we were
sweating bullets…but we got our paintings…took a few pics near the graffiti covered walls in Getsemani…I hate feeling like I didn’t get to do the things that I had planned on a trip…I came back solo 4 weeks later…It was my birthday…why not?…I stayed in La Boquilla the first couple of nights…this area of the beach is relaxing…much less crowded and popular as Bocagrande…no big buildings or models strutting on the sand…in fact there are a few houses on the beach were locals who from the looks of it are in a lower economic bracket live in small congested homes…however, the energy there was safe and pleasant…a couple of days later I relocated to Bocagrande…The Hilton…it was my bday…I figured I’d
upgrade to a nice suite…it was corner room with a huge patio and panoramic view of the north and eastern sides of the beach…the living area was immaculate…long comfortable couch and love
seat…dining area, well decorated…2 bathrooms…televisions in the living room and bedroom…the bedroom…huge California King-size bed…high thread count sheets that felt like the Snuggle bear…the
mattress with a perfect mix of cushion and firmness…long glass windows wrap around the bedroom and living room giving you the perfect scenic backdrop to catch some good sleep or to stay up and watch the tide come in…

Casa del Colegio hosted by Felipe

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16793608?source_impression_id=p3_1722536882_P3eViK06H5x3byoh