Cartagena

12 - 15 June 2011

After finding our hostel we chilled out in the afternoon & did boring things like shopping.

Monday morning we booked a city tour for the afternoon and walked (in the heat) to Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. This fort had many upgrades across the years, after been attacked many times through history. The most famous was when the British attacked in 1741. Apparently if the British had won, South America would be speaking English right now.

The street of our hostel

Looking from the top back to Bocas Grande

The original entrance.

Just needed some boom powder!

Sloped walls which have a soft centre.

It has been beautifully restored.

It was a lovely day.

Looking along to the new city

Inside the tunnels

That afternoon we went on the city tour, which promptly sucked. We spent an hour driving out to Bocas Grande (where all the expensive hotels are) got told to wait in a random hotel lobby before getting on a bus, which was packed and only in Spanish. The next hour was spent driving back to the old city and back to the Castillo! We toured around here, again, before driving to the old city for around 30 minutes spent in one plaza, located a few blocks from our hostel. Worst tour ever! Lawrie spoke to the hostel when we got back, who offered us, eventually, to be able to do the tour again for free...useless!

Inside a big shoe.

Horse & Cart in the old city

The buildings here are beautiful.

Church tower near the square.

Tuesday we were going to head off to the mud pools, but decided against it given Lawries foot. We instead walked around the city and spent some time on the internet in a nicely air conditioned cafe. On Wednesday morning we headed off to the airport where we decided to buy a laptop, which, at 14" is pretty large to fit in our small backpacks!