Cartagena

Love Colombia so far. Only been here for 3 days, but so far it's been really really good.

I'm staying in a hostel which is inside the city walls, which is filled with old Spanish architecture mixed with carribean flair. This city is filled with narrow cobblestone streets, blind corners, horse drawn carriages, houses in every vibrant color possible, balconies with tons of flowers on every street, and friendly colombians.

Theres a few plazas around, and at night everyone around town just goes to the plaza and hangs out, which is common in many countries obviously. The thing is, the plazas aren't huge open areas like I'm accustomed to in the rest of South America that I've been to. They're tiny, and filled with tropical trees and fountains to the extent that you can't see from one end to another.

There are street dancers often found in these plazas once the sun goes down. Really Afro-carribean type drums and dance.. Very impressive..

Last night, my 2 Canadian buddy's and I joined the owner of our hostel and went to Hostel Media Luna, which is just outside the wall.

We walked about 30 minutes outside the city center, into a part of town that is a bit dodgy.. I got asked if I wanted cocaine about 12 times. And prostitutes. Female hookers, male hookers, and male hookers dressed like female hookers. Weird.

A local raggae band was playing really good music all night on the rooftop, everybody was dancing, and drinks were cheap. My favorite part of the whole night was when Shakira came on..

No I don't like shakira's music any more than the next straight-guy. Her videos on the other hand.. I digress. She's probably the most famous Colombian in the international music scene, so when she came on the speakers, everyone went nuts. Chills ran down my spine just being in the presence of people having so much pride. Colombians love their country and want you to love it too.

There were some really amazing dancers there by the way. There were like 3-4 couples dancing in the middle at any given time, just flying around twirling spinning flipping dipping in such unison that it almost looked choreographed. It wasn't though.

Monday I head to Santa Marta. I heard there are really nice beaches there with your squeaky clean white sand, crystal clear water, and the rainforest right next to the beach. Can't wait. !





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone