Caribbean Getaway

Media Luna Hostel

Cartagena is everything Lonely Planet promised.  The city is beautiful, the hostels are amazing, and the beaches are calm and equally as beautiful.  We are having an amazing time.  We arrived in town late on Tuesday night and made our way to the Media Luna hostel. The three hour bus ride quickly turned into a six hour one and we strongly regretted skipping lunch. But we finally arrived, tired, hungry, but ready to see a new place. The hostel was full, so we settled on a less fun one down the street for the first night. We checked in and jumped into the first pizza place we could find. We were accompanied by a fellow traveler from Japan who was making his way around the world from the US to South America to Africa, Europe, Australia, and then back home. After dinner we stopped in at another hostel and inquired about the infamous catamaran tours from here to Panama. After checking out a few boats we decided on the one we wanted. It would be a 15 meter long catamaran run by a friendly Austrian expat named Fritz who gladly boasts to have the best food in the area. After planning our departure for the 26^th we went back to the hostel and quickly fell asleep in the very humid room. The next morning we checked in to the Media Luna and were very glad to see a nice cool pool situated in the courtyard. We claimed our bunks, parked ourselves by the pool, and frivolously read our new John Grisham books we picked up at the hostel book exchange. Quite content at our new residence, we continued this pattern for the next few days. We ventured out sporadically to check out the colonial city and visit the local Exito.

 

View of Cartagena from Tallabamba Island

The third day in Cartagena we met with Captain Fritz and got a tour of the catamaran we would be taking to Panama and met three of our future boat mates.  We were pleased with the boat and the fact that they greeted us with beers.  The spacious vessel and the promise of gourmet Austrian cuisine sold us on the trip.  We then took a break from sunbathing at the hostel to doing the exact same thing at a nearby island.  After a few hours of laying on the beach with John Grisham and enjoying some overpriced fish we headed back to the hostel and made burritos.  That night we heard about a concert in Old Town, so we walked over and watched the band for a while.  We grew tired of the Colombian music and being the only ones unable to salsa dance, so we continued our walk to the wall that surrounds the city.  The wall was constructed to keep out the Spaniards from invading during Colonization.  Much of the architecture also from this era is still well preserved and beautiful to walk through.  We made our way back to the hostel and called it an early night.