A warm day by the Caribbean.

Hello All,
I slept in today, and I feel pretty caught up on sleep.  I used today to familiarize myself with the 'Centro' area of town.  I walked around for about 30 minutes trying to find my hotel last night before finally stumbling upon it.  I grabbed a map from the tourist booth near the clock tower, and then set off exploring.

Cartagena is a beautiful walled city on the shore of the Caribbean Sea.  The views from the top of the city walls are great, and the old city is filled with old churches and atmospheric architecture.  After looking around for a few hours, the heat and humidity drove me back inside to refresh with some A/C and change my sweaty shirt.  This heat will take some getting used to.

In the late afternoon I took a taxi to the upscale Bocagrande tourist area.  This is the area filled with high rise hotels and package tourists.  The city's best beaches are found here as well, although they are not up to 'Caribbean' standards.  As soon as hitting the beach, I was assailed by touts and salesmen.  They were pitching 'fresh' oysters (with a sexual potency pitch), messages (ladies with low-cut tops & massage oil), and beer (mmmm, beer), among other things.

I walked the semi-crowded beach for a while until the weather started getting bad.  The downpour started while I was in a pharmacy getting some anti-malarial drugs, and I was forced to flee while looking for a taxi.  BTW, it's really hard to bargain for a cab when you a drenched head to toe in a deluge.  Thankfully, the taxi took me right to the hotel door, and then I started the drying out process.

The rain stopped shortly after, so I went out for some food.  I picked a sidewalk cafe outside the Convento de Santo Domingo.  The plaza contained about six different restaurants.  Each of them aggresively attempts to attract patrons by waving menus about and throwing revved-up sales pitches at everybody walking by.  After checking all of the menus, I picked the cheapest one.  They must've hated me.  How dare I do such a thing.  :)

The exchange rate here has changed quite a bit since February.  And as is the case these days, it was not in the US Dollar's favor.  Because of this things seem really pricey.  Maybe it has more to do with the fact that Cartagena is Colombia's biggest tourist town.  I will find out once I move on to Santa Marta in a few days.

Dinner was tasty, but it was constantly interupted by sales pitches galore.  I did chose this plaza because it was crowded, I guess I expected it.  It was a very good area for people watching to be sure.  There was also a good Afro-Carib dance performance put on in the plaza, which was followed by a 'pass the hat' collection.

On the way back to the hotel I found a tour guide that sold me a trip tomorrow to the Islas del Rosario.  They are a group of 27 coral islands west of town.  The boat will also stop at an aquarium, and the best beach in the area Playa Blanca de Baru.  I met Paul from the taxi at the local grocery store, and he is keen to come along as well.  It should be a fun day!

Later,
Phil