We sailed into Cartegena around 9pm Friday night. Being Brendan's birthday there wasn't much to do but to check out the famous nighlife of Cartegena. We said our goodbyes to the Sacanegem and its crew and checked into a hostel complete with a rooftop terrace and pool. Showered and fresh we headed out to grab some dinner that wasn't cooked in a small boat-kitchen and had a couple of beers. Still a little seasick from the boat I wasn't exactly enjoying the smooth and luscious taste of Columbian beer. It turns out most of our crew of sailors were all a little tired after eating dinner and even though it was Brendan's birthday we decided to abort mission and instead get a good night's sleep on a bed that wasn't moving underneath you (although it still felt like it was and I had to convince myself that I was actually off the boat and the room was not swaying with the motion of a sea!).

After a good rest and sleep in we headed with Frenchy into cartegena's Old Town to wander its streets. Back in the day pirates kept invading the town and stealing their wealth so they built a wall to surround their city which is now just a small part of the city known as Old Town. We walked along the top of this where old cannons faced out to the sea and looking slightly to the left the city's modern skyline prodruded from the peninsular. It was an amazing sight seeing the contrasting Old and New towns next to each other. We made the small mistake of going inside a Naval Museum because Frenchy was promised there were "muchas chicas" (many girls) inside. It showcased a lot of model ships and photos of old naval officers, all in Spanish and with no "chicas" in sight to Frenchy's disappointment. We wandered the streets again checking out the colonial, charismatic and colourful feel of it all. The heat of the day was a little unbearable but worth it to check out the sites. We stumbled on a race that was taking place around the city with crazy locals choosing to run in such ridiculous heat! Afterwards we headed back to the hostel for a little relaxation for attempt number two at seeing the nightlife.

Brendan's brother, Sean and his girlfriend, Caitlyn, arrived on this day to take our possie up to seven. A few drinks at the hostel's rooftop terrace and we headed out to the club zone. But not before Kate had an unfortunate run in with a homeless guy. Trying to do a good deed by giving him some money, she realised just after that she'd given him the equivalent of $25 (might as well be $100 for us where every cent counts), a couple of locals realised from her facial expression that something was up and emptied the homeless guy's pockets in the street and retrieved the money. She was also waiting for a slice of pizza to be heated up and she accidently left the area straight away after being given the pizza without paying! It was a weird experience for her and definately shook her up a little. It took her a while to get over the guilt and kept some money in her pocket for the rest of the time in Cartegena in case we ran into him again and say sorry. The next day she went back to the pizza shop and told the man that she left without paying and tried to give him the money....he said not to worry and it was his gift to her....Phew!

With no idea of which club to go into we made the choice and walked in. The bar was semi busy and we patiently waited our turn. Fourty-five minutes later and three attempts at ordering we all had a drink (not what we wanted and overpriced) and we realised that the local bartenders were not exactly thrilled to be serving gringos and were clearly avoiding our presense. This was the first time on our trip we had encountered this and none of us were very happy about it. We decided to switch bars and try again which we had better luck with but we still didn't see the nightlife that Cartegena is famous for. Another bar and dirty street food later we called it quits and headed back to the hostel for a game of pool and hit the hay. However on the way home Kate, Lauren and Sean sang their rendition of the Little Mermaid songs, adding a caberet effect, they were under the impression they were entertaining the people of Cartegena......the appluase was granted to them however only in the form of stares and smirks. All in all it was a very weird night which the full moon definately had something to do with it!

The following day we decided to check out more of the city's sites. Close to the hostel was a huge fort so we decided to ignore our hangovers and check it out. Back when they built the wall around the city they also built these forts just outside the walls to protect from invading forces. It was a huge stone fort with beautiful views over the city. We found some underground tunnels that we explored but at one point the lights stopped and the tunnels continue which definately made things a little creepy and Kate thought it would be funny to hide around a corner and scare the s*** out of me... Not funny. Without a guide it was difficult to understand the full story of the fort but it was really cool to check it out.

That night was chilled out and we spent it organising our next move to Santa Marta, another Carribean coastal town. Cartegena was a really interesting intro into South America with some great culture and cool sights.