It's CHRISTMAS!! We got up late and combined with a 6 hour time difference didn't waste time in having a good old phone around.

After we headed straight to one of the nicer plaza's to a nice restaurant Liz clocked the day before. It had prime position at the side of the plaza, we were in major treat mode.

Feeling nicely satisfied and feeling the Christmassy effects of the wine we headed out for a lovely walk around the city walls. In Colombia it is inevitable that you come across an inviting bar, in this case it was on another plaza playing local salsa music. Although Cartagena would not be considered touristy by people used to Europe we enjoyed the more typical atmosphere here. We sat next to two Colombian couples getting very merry on a bottle of Rum, Colombians don't buy individual drinks they buy a bottle. We were told that a cruise ship with 2500 passengers had arrived. We played spot the cruise ship tourists. Being a bit away from the center it was the more intrepid that made it this far without being seduced in by the expensive shops. Although the constant stream of horse drawn carriages was a give away the people on foot were still very easy to spot - they all seemed to be wearing shorts that looked like boxer shorts (probally from Bermuda). They also had a curious but displaced look about them, a few would walk past a few times before making tentative (but unsucessful) move to settle at the more tourist friendly places nearby.

We decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up before heading to a Cuban bar - tipped to be good. This place was still locked so we headed back to another bar we passed with large neon daiseys on the street. Chips, good music, locals arriving and a band setting up kept us hanging around longer than our fatigue would suggest.

It was a lovely rememerable Xmas.