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The city of Cartagena on the Caribbean Coast is beautiful, full of cobbled alleys, large balconies covered in big bright flowers, and old colourful 16th and 17th century colonial buildings lining the streets. While the city has expanded into vast suburbs, the original parts of the town still remain inside the old city wall constructed by the Spanish to protect it from pirates trying to siege treasure plundered from the indigenous people. The climate in the town is very hot and humid which we found out the hard way after wandering around admiring the sights in the scorching midday heat; most of the locals go out in the evening when a welcome coastal breeze cools the city down! At this time the plazas in the city fill up with various street performers, and tourists and locals alike take a seat to relax and watch the entertainment outside with a cold beer in hand. The 21st of June was Zach's last night of travelling so we marked the occasion with local rum, beers and Zach style crazy dancing until the early hours. After bidding a rushed farewell to him the next morning as he was running late for the airport, we enjoyed a bit more sleep and needless to say were looking forward to a good couple of weeks of detox! That evening we caught a 1.5 hour flight down to the Colombian capital city of Bogota to avoid an uncomfortable 24 hour bus journey! Our arrival time of midnight did of course mean a taxi driver who didn't know where our hostel was, and when we actually found it, it was full despite having been able to book a room online, so we were taken to another around the corner, which luckily was even nicer than the first!
Next morning after one of our best breakfasts in South America of buttery croissants, egg, Colombian coffee and fruit, we had a wander around the centre of the city. Until 5 years ago the FARC guerrillas were at the city gates, but since then it has been undergoing rapid development with large amounts of investment to convert it into a safer city with a modern 'cool' vibe. The city is composed of vastly different areas, with elegant colonial architecture dominating the historic centre, high rise modern towers filling the skyline of the financial north, and ramshackle shanty areas in the south. Whilst in town Sophie bought her third fake Casio watch of the trip and we played along with the good humoured Colombians to bargain the price down to 21,000pesos, her old broken watch and a mint we had in our pocket...
On the 25th July we joined 'Bogota Bike Tours' to explore the city with a local guide whilst on two wheels. A group of about 20 of us peddled precariously through the roads of Bogota, weaving between stationary cars, and battling with the various issues on our bikes such as brakes that hardly worked, seats that would suddenly fall down whilst riding along, locking wheels, and chains coming off the gears. Cycling along 'Carrera 7', the main pedestrianised street in the city, it was full of various activities going on including magic acts, Michael Jackson interpreters, and even guinea pig racing; it was a struggle to ride our bikes straight with so much distraction! Next stop was a big fruit market where we tried so many samples we were worried we were going to be on the toilet all afternoon. Trying the fruit in Colombia is a must do though as many of them are solely grown in the country and not available anywhere else in the world. Some that we tried included guanábana, lulo, granadilla and tomate de árbol, with a lot of them being extremely sour in taste and with a slightly frog-spawn like texture... Next we were off to a large hall to play the traditional game of 'tejo', a national sport which involves throwing a small weight at a board on the floor about 20 metres away covered in soft clay and interspersed with small pieces of dynamite; the aim is to hit those pieces of dynamite and make them explode to score points...it's about as safe as it sounds. The hall was filled with groups of elderly men playing the game whilst smoking and drinking and we quickly escaped upstairs to have a go at a miniature version of the game, where the explosions deafened our ears and bits of clay were flying everywhere! Later in the tour our guide explained various graffiti murals on walls and buildings throughout the city. The art is fairly political in nature, from highlighting concerns over environmental issues to treatment of indigenous peoples. Our guide explained the story of a local boy that got shot by police many years ago for graffitiing a wall, which is strictly illegal in the country, and the police planting the gun in his hand afterwards to make it look like gang violence. With the truth known there was a big uproar amongst the youth and graffiti communities. This was further aggravated when Justin Bieber visited the city a couple of years ago and requested to paint some graffiti on the wall, which was of course ok and the policemen even guarded him in the process...The next morning the walls of one part of the city were covered in graffiti done by locals who were outraged by this celebrity favouritism, and the police no longer have a leg to stand on regarding the issue! We also visited a cemetery in the city where many ex-presidents are buried, although you wouldn't know it from the state of many of the graves! Many were not popular when in office, and several, along with various politicians, had actually been assassinated! Interestingly there were other tombs that locals often visit with flowers or offerings to seek good luck, health or wealth, such as the tomb of two young girls who died many years ago from a disease which is now visited by locals if they have sick child themselves to ask for good health. Finally we visited a small coffee factory and then cycled our way back though the city via the red light district full of rather large scantily dressed women standing on the streets outside various dingy looking bars...we were told to ride a bit faster through this area!
That evening it was time to move on from Colombia down to Bolivia and we caught a rather overpriced 3 hour flight at the convenient time of midnight. Colombia had been great, we'd heard about how friendly the people were there and they truly lived up to expectations. We would often be standing in the street looking a little lost and someone would approach us asking if we needed any help before pointing us in the right direction. This was a breath of fresh air after our troubles in Ecuador! The country itself truly feels like a rapidly developing one full of energy and always a party atmosphere, especially on the Caribbean Coast areas! The people are very passionate in their views and seem to be working hard to overcome their country's recent violent past. It had been interesting to experience a country away from the Andean traditions, and we only wished we'd had a little more time to explore further!
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