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Arriving at my hostel in the early hours of the morning I was shown into a six bed dorm instead of a 4 bed but decided other than a small protest I would stay until morning. Hard to get into a good agruement in a foreign language when you are tired and other people are asleep in the room!
The next morning I removed my stuff from the room so I could check into the right room then headed out to the old walled town to join the free walking tour. This did not go well as it was the worst walking tour I have ever done - very tempted not to pay at all but being British I had to give something however small. The girl had only been doing the job for 2 months but proceeded to speak Spanish very fast when none of us were native Spanish speakers and her English was just OK and what she said was boring.
To cheer myself up I went to the sushi place Grace had recommended me months ago and overindulged in good sushi before heading back to my hostel to check into my new room and cool off in the air con.
Cartagena is HOT! Dripping with sweat minutes after leaving the hostel was to be the story of my stay here.
I met up with Cherry who I had met on the Guatape day trip and we went out for a drink on the old town walls and then food in one of the main squares. The old town looks great at any time and the free street entertainment further enhanced this at night.
I had heard about a great graffiti tour but could find nothing really about it on the internet so wasn't 100% sure that it existed. However getting up after one of my room mate had left I found a flyer she had left and headed around the corner to Plaza Trinidad just in case. Sure enough at 10am a Belgian guy turned up and said the tour would start in 5 minutes. Complete difference from the day before the tour was excellent - I had walked past amazing street art the day before without really noticing and now our guide bought it to life with details about the artists and the stories behind the art. I now learnt what I had hoped to learn the day before about the history of the town and the impact of the slave trade.
Getsemani where my hostel, along with many others, is used to be the slave quarters - more like a prison as they couldn't move around freely - reminding me of the Jewish ghettos in Prague and Krakow. The area is being gentrified by the demand created by us damn tourists threatening the lives of the inhabitants - which is really the whole charm of the area. Lets hope it doesn't completely disappear.....
After the tour I headed to the local park where today's guide said there were two sloths - I found one and also monkeys, squirrels and iguanas. This did slightly make up for the fact that I realised I had lost my lovely sunnies somewhere in the supermarket or park and would have to buy some cheap fakes the next day :'(
I headed to the hostel for a shower planning to head the the castillo in the afternoon but the heavens opened and I abandoned the plan. I walked around the corner to find the main road totally flooed in some parts so had a quick snack and returned to the hostel to read. The only other excitement that day was the fab pizza in the evening - they let you have half and half like Dominos (but much better) - great for indecisive people like me.
Next day I hit the Castillo expecting to find it to be like the end scene of Romancing the Stone. Not the case - it is not surrounded by water, there are no grates in the floor above the tunnels (that do exist) to see the caimans and no youndg Michael Douglas or large emerald called the Corazon. Despite this is it was an interesting castle with a bloody history of attacks by the French and British. I did spent the time moving slowly between shady areas to avoid the intense heat.
In the afternoon I went back to Old town to take the photos I couldn't be bothered to take on the walking tour in case I missed an interesting fact (ho ho). I also visited the Museum of the Inquistion telling the tale of more of man's inhumanity to man.
That evening I had food in the old town and returned back to the hostel and got chatting to a Scottish girl and we ended up going down to Plaza Trinidad for beers and people watching joined By Alex and Katie, the German couple I had travelled with from Ipiales to San Augstin.
I did enjoy Cartagena and it is a beautiful city but there is only so many times you can wonder around the old town so I was glad to be on the shuttle to Santa Marta the next morning.
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