Our first real stop in Colombia was Cartagena, an intoxicating Colonial city with a population of 1 million people. Although Cartagena has a reputation for being the most beautiful city in Colombia, we found ourselves arranging our departure early so we could get to more rustic and charming Colombian spots.
Our accommodation in Cartagena might have influenced our early departure plans...... first of all, everything was full. 'No Vacancy' signs everywhere. The city was bursting with people and we arrived after 8:00 pm. With our backpacks we trundled down the busy and narrow sidewalks of the old city for over 90 minutes before two nice young fellow travellers (who had the same problem the night before) helped us finally find 5 beds. A true hostel experience, one that we have not had to have on this trip. We had 5 beds in a dorm room with 10 beds, the bathrooms were in worse maintenance than most outhouses, and then to top it off we had a couple of less-than-conscientious dorm mates. The strangest thing was that we paid $175 for the night there-- the most expensive accommodation we have had the entire trip and easily the worst. This was where Quinn spent her 16th birthday. Happy birthday sweetheart!
The next morning we were up to see the city and desperately wanted to give Cartagena a second chance. We had a pretty good day touring around until Colby slipped on some slimy poop-smelling liquid that was all over a sidewalk. She slipped and fell into the gutter where the liquid covered her shoes and since she was down on all 4's, had it all along her shins and her hands were covered. I have no idea what the substance was but it was a greasy poopy sludge that would not wash off. A police officer saw Colby fall and he ordered a street vendor to clean it up, but it was too late for Colby.
We walked back to the hostel and tried our best to sanitize. It adds to the difficulty when there is no hot water. I had some powdered laundry detergent and Colby was rubbing that directly on her skin trying to cut the grease in the cold shower while I was while I was at a sink gagging trying to clean off her shoes and her clothes.
We decided that Cartagena was not our town and we headed to the bus station and boarded a night bus to Santa Marta, one of South America's oldest cities northeast along the Colombian Caribbean coastline.
We would try Cartagena again someday, it just wasn't our town this trip.
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