Cartagena

We have arrived in Cartagena.  We stepped out of the plane onto the tarmac and the heat just hit us –  93 degrees and wet.  Because we are Alaskan, we are pale and white and not used to heat.   We were also the only non-Colombians in the entire airport.  Or the city so far.   I think we stand out – our pale skin glows, we have the wrong clothes and we are a foot taller than everyone.

Our trip through customs was fine and uneventful, despite the dire warnings from the airline that we needed round trip tickets or Colombia would not let us in.  The cab ride here was all 7 of us and our luggage and the driver packed into a Prius.

The hotel is meh.  It was quite hard to find suitable lodging for 8 in Cartagena.  This hotel is fine but just on the other side of the tourist section, like literally one block away and worlds and worlds away at the same time.  Much more… authentic.  And by that I mean salsa music playing all the time (until 9pm sharp when it all cut out), children playing in the street and some dogs Jennah thought were dead but turned out to be just sleeping.  There are boutique hotels but they had rooms for 2 (and none has 4 rooms available – most only had 4 rooms total) and there are penthouse rentals (not really our style) so I hope this turns out good for us.  Usually we like this kind of thing.

Everyone was exhausted.  We ventured out for snacks and returned with 7 bottles of water, 7 Cokes and a bag of assorted yet unknown bakery products and all crashed.  Jack & Ryan have their own room.  Sylvia, Annabelle, Max, Jennah and I are in the big room.

Tomorrow we head out on to explore the Old Town (which looks beautiful in photos).