Cartagena…. What can I say, I’m in love with this place. I am currently writing to you from Puerto Escondidos the beach side in Mexico. It’s way past midnight, My friend is sleeping and its raining and humid…. Cartagena feels like its been forever ago…. However, My memories are still intact.

As soon as I landed all I could think about was people saying Colombia is not safe, be careful, be cautious. I was frustrated from the heat, It didn’t help that I was covered in plenty of layers from Peru and the humidity was killing me. Getting into a taxi and checking in late at night, I was just glad to have a place to sleep. Early morning yes as early as 5 – 6ish am, I can feel the humidity waking me up. I took a cold shower and prepare myself for the day. Bumping into familiar faces is great. That morning Francisco, Simon and I headed to the castle that was hugggeeeeeee and explored it a bit. We had a good lunch and walked around beautiful Cartagena

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Cartagena, it’s a city that has been built around a wall. It is completely surrounded by the wall just a few 100m away from sea. It probably has a strong story about its surroundings but I’m not sure I have to find out. What I can tell you is that there is a little history of witches here. In Cartagena, they used to believe that witches existed and they burned those ladies that they thought were so, those that survived were apparently witches. Also not far from Cartagena, there is a town where boys have to prove that they are men in an unorthodox way using a donkey. Strange.

Cartagena as a city looks alot like Cuba. Beautiful narrow rods, colourful. Lots of squares, people playing dominos and chess on the streets, food and cool drinks at each corner. Everyone is in shorts and dresses.

It’s amazing. Cartagena was where I found a supercool place that had a rock and reggae ish band playing. They played similar songs and had covers that were brilliant such a good night!!!!

2 days or so it enough for me to see the city. I started talking to people at my hostel who had mentioned to me that I could get away onto different places not too far from Cartagena. I had options to go to Santa Marta, Playa Blanco and one other Taganga or something like that. I thought Santa Marta, Tyrona seemed cool so that’s where I headed.

A friend and I took a 6 hour bus in the morning to Santa Marta, then a 15 minute cab ride to a smaller city and a 30 min local bus to Tyrona. We got the park at 5.30pm and we weren’t allowed to get in. It was magendo business by the guard at the park for sure. We weren’t having any of it and nor was he. We ended up staying at the crap hotel that looked like only dodgy business happens there. Nothing opened nothing to do, we drank beers ate bananas watched a bit of master chef in spanish, Anaconda (half way threw) and 127 hours with 3 fans facing us and trying to kill any mosquitoes coming close to us. I had no idea what was going on or how we ended up in this situation. We did end up laughing about it the entire night, partially cos we got drunk on beer on an empty stomach. Early the next day we went to the park and hiked in forest for almost 2 hours. From there I took a horse for 40 min going up and down boulders, through rivers and I promise you it was one of the scariest things I did!!!!!

After all of that, I got to this place which looked like how us imagine heaven. It was a beautiful beach behind a hippyish camp. Tyrona is beautifulllllllll. The water was clear, few people there, beautiful sunset and amazing people. There weren’t dorms but we had hammocks and slept in that. The 3 people in the hammock to the left and right of me became friends. Sharing stories, late night walks on the beach, perfect breeze and I couldn’t feel present, I didn’t even want too. My days felt like I could have been part of a hippie story in the 60’s, I loved this place and I loved doing nothing but beaching.

I just reflected on how fast Chile Bolivia and Peru flew by, the adventures i got myself into and the lost and found souls I made. When it was time for me to head back I was desperate to find a motor taxi after taking the horse and all, there just weren’t any. I continued walking tired and exhausted in the park, hot, but patiently. As I walked I found a horse shoe (which is now with me). I knew key luck would change and it did. A guy who was at the park stopped in his 4×4 pick up and offered my friend and I a ride to the end of the park. It was amazing, he was driving super fast, the wind in our hair and faces. At the end of the park, he got out and said, I’m going to Santa Marta if your going there I would give u a lift. It’s was saving me sooo much time (and money). I thanked him and we continued. I felt like a little girl with childhood memories of sitting behind a pick up. It was amazing.

At Santa Marta, I got on a bus got to Cartagena at a stupid hour and woke up the next morning to find my favourite Irish Man and French man. ‘Lets go fishing’ I was down for that. Fishing, eating and drinking beer was the perfect way to get back to Cartagena.

I think the 3 of us had seen as much of Cartagena as we wanted, that evening we decided that we I were gonna head south to Medellin. The home of the famous Pablo Escobar and explore that for a while.

Time to get some lulo      fruittttt…. Medellin is going to be awesome!!!!