Cartagena

From February 28th to March 3rd

Day 1

• Arrived at 2am at Sofitel Legend Santa Clara Cartagena after a long day of traveling from Antarctica, flight from Santiago Chile to Bogota, to Cartagena. The driver met us at the airport and shuttled us about a 15 minute ride to the hotel.

Day 2

• We woke up to some construction on the roof around 7am. We got up around 11am to walk around the gated city. It was around 80 degrees with what felt like 80% humidity. Nonetheless, we walked around the perimeter of the city wall and made our way to lunch at Celele, a well known and highly recommended lunch spot in the city. After lunch we walked more around the town and outside of the city gates, through all the well photographed umbrella and flag streets. One of the street vendors got a little close to Max, tried to “sell” him more than just the basket of bracelets he was holding. In Max’s attempt to distance himself from the vendor, he stepped off the curb and twisted his ankle in a street sewer. Shortly after, we made our way back to the hotel to get it checked out.

• The hotel concierge sent a doctor to the room to have it looked at and wrapped up. Turns out Max’s ankle twist was a bit more than a simple twist, and so we watched sunset from the room, ordered room service and called it a night.

Day 3

• Max’s ankle was still bothering him, but we didn’t let it slow us down. We took a car ride to lunch at El Baron, where we had both an incredible lunch and delicious cocktails. We walked a bit more through the streets, bought some souvenirs, and headed back to the hotel for a nap and to take it easy.

• In the evening we went to dinner at Cande, one of the nicer restaurants in the area, and also very authentic with music and dance shows going off every 15 minutes. The restaurant was packed and well run.

• After a nice seafood dinner at Cande, we walked to cocktails at the #10 bar in the world, Alquimico. We stayed for several cocktails while seated up at the bar and listened to the DJ play live music. When we arrived (early) there was no line. When we left there must have been about 50 people waiting to get inside.

Day 4

• Left the hotel at 5:30am for the airport in Cartagena, about 15 minutes from the hotel, for a flight to Panama, then down to Ecuador for our cruise in the Galapagos Islands.