Cartagena and a Party Boat to Baru Island

We weren't quite ready to leave Pereira, but it was time to head back to the airport and fly to Cartagena for my cousin's wedding!

There were no direct flights to Cartagena, so we had to fly back to Bogota and then on to Cartagena, which meant another full day of traveling. Whew. However, we arrived in Cartagena in one piece, and we were hit with the shock of landing on the tarmac at Cartagena airport. It was so hot and humid that it felt like we just entered a giant gym sock. 

I started sweating right away, and we were beyond relieved to find the driver that our cousin had arranged for us. Our hotel, Casa San Agustin, was just a short distance away, and it was probably the poshest of all of our accommodations so far.

I started sweating right away again as soon as we got out of the air-conditioned car, but the hotel lobby was a bit cooler. The welcome drink really helped!

We got upgraded for the night for an incredible room, which was bigger than our flat in London! It was a two bedroom, two bathroom suite with double terraces and a jacuzzi! The place was filled with flowers, fruit, and patisserie. I got a bit worried about how I was ever going to get J to leave the room.

My older brother and sister-in-law had also arrived in Cartagena that day, and they came over to meet us at the hotel so we could have dinner together. The hotel restaurant was fantastic, and it was the tail-end of their honeymoon so we got to hear all about their visit to St. Lucia. It was really nice catching up with them, especially since J hadn't been able to go to their wedding.

We couldn't stay up too late, as we had to wake up early for the boat cruise that our cousin had arranged for all of the wedding guests. We woke up in plenty of time to have some coffee and slather on some sunblock before we all headed outside to walk outside the city walls to head toward our boat. I probably should've waited to put on the sunblock as I think I sweated it off by the time we got to our boat, along with five pounds of water weight.

I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed that this wasn't our ride for the day. I have a feeling I would've made a good pirate.

But the actual yacht more than made up for it. We had an hour long cruise to get to our final destination, and we got the chance to hang out with the rest of my cousins who had also come to Cartagena for the wedding.

Before we knew it, we were pulling up to Baru Island for the day on a dinghy. The change in the water was dramatic and sudden - it went from dark blue to a clear turquoise!

We were immediately greeted by a barrage of beach vendors pressing necklaces and oysters on us. They were pretty aggressive, but we were forewarned so we did our best to let them know that we weren't interested. It was pretty annoying for the first hour or so we were there as they kept coming by with trinkets and whatnot, and it actually put me off of buying anything even if I did want something. 

Everyone jumped into the water as soon as possible and didn't come out until it was time for lunch.



Then it was straight back into the water until it was time to set sail back to Cartagena just in time to catch the sunset from the boat. It was pretty epic.

We were all pretty sunburned and exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel, but we had to wash up so we could head out to rehearsal dinner, which our cousin opened up to all of the wedding guests. We enjoyed posto while watching the local dancers perform for us with lots of costume changes and live music. It was great fun!

J got off pretty easy as it was our five year wedding anniversary, and he didn't have to plan a thing for us to have an absolutely amazing day! I still can't believe we've been married for that long, but time really does fly when you're having fun! In that time, we've moved to London, bought and sold our first home, seen a lot of things in a lot of different places, and added two furballs to our family. J made partner at his firm, and I'm finishing up pastry school. Life has been so incredibly good to the both of us, and I'm unbelievably thankful for everything.

Pereira, The Heart of Coffee

We were ready to leave the city behind to continue our holiday in a less hectic environment, so we flew into Pereira, the capital of the Coffee Zone, which was just a short flight away.

We took a taxi to a hacienda on the outskirts of town, the Hacienda San Jose. The hotel was built in 1888, and the owners have kept it in excellent repair and true to its original design. The place is drop dead gorgeous! It really felt like we dropped into paradise.







We spent the first afternoon splashing around in the pool and pigging out on local goodies like arepas, which are corn pancakes, and bean casserole. It was pretty excellent.

We were asleep before 9 pm, which was just as well as we had arranged for a tour of Valle de Cocora and Salento for the next day. Our guide and driver met us early the next morning to drive us to the Valle, which is home to the wax palm tree. It's the second tallest tree in the world, and the only palm that can grow insuch high altitudes. It's the first cloud forest I've seen in person, and the place feels ethereal.

We met with the local environmentalist, and we had the opportunity to plant our very own wax palm, which is currently endangered. Now a little bit of a Colombia belongs to us!

We were also greeted by the local restaurant owner with a glass of the local speciality, las cabazelas. It's a hot drink made with passion fruit, cinnamon, cloves, orange juice, panela (sugarcane water) and a drop of aguardiente (the local firewater). J was brave and opted to have the aguardiente added to his drink. It was a great way to warm up before we hopped onto our horses.

We had an hour ride through the valley, and the terrain was quite rocky and rough. I really enjoyed the ride, especially splashing through the streams, but my butt ended up paying for it as it was quite sore for a while from the saddle. I do miss my horse, Crisol.

We returned to the restaurant where we sat down for lunch, which was a Colombian version of fish and chips, fried rainbow trout and crispy plantain. It was yum! Especially since I had mine doused in garlic butter. J was quite jealous.



We got to watch a wayward cow as we ate, and it was better entertainment than what's on tv these days!

Refreshed from lunch, we got back in the car to visit Salento, a nearby town that still retains its old colonial charm. 



J drank lots of cappuccinos, and we walked around a bit on the high street, buying a few souvenirs and checking out the local architecture.



Unfortunately, the heavens opened and the rain just came pouring down. We ended up cutting our visit short due to the rain, but J did manage to sneak in a cheeky cappuccino before we left to head back to the hotel.

The spoils of the day!

All in all, a pretty packed day! We were happy to return to our room, wash off the horse smell, eat, and sleep. 

We were meant to visit a coffee plantation the next day, but the hacienda we were staying at was just too tempting. The place is tailor made for sitting around and doing absolutely nothing.





We decided instead to stay put and enjoy everything the hacienda offered. Not the least of which included Josh! 

I explored the grounds, which is chock full of beautiful birds I've never seen before, along with the familiar hummingbirds. 





There's also a really chill resident parrot! The front desk warned us that she might not be friendly, but we ended up having a great time with her. She would mimic everything we said, including our laughs, or she would make sounds like "corre corre." She was adorable!

There's also an absolutely huge saman tree, which was beyond tempting to climb, but I restrained myself. With my luck, I'd probably get stuck up there with a nest of insanely huge and unbelievably hairy spiders.

Instead of getting treed, I spent lots of time splashing around in the pool, while J barely looked up from his Kindle.

We were both sunburned and mosquito bitten by the end of the day, but I think this was the kind of holiday J was dreaming about.

I've got to say, he's been quite a good sport of going along with all of my travel suggestions. Although he did shoot down my plan of going to the Amazon, which I'm still a bit bummed out about. But I'll live. Which might not be true if I did go to the Amazon, which is filled with piranha, anacondas, and something called a willy bug. Yeah, I can't figure out why J didn't want to go. Shrug.

Sunday Shopping in Bogota

It wasn't a big surprise when we woke up disgustingly early on Sunday morning.

We weren't one hundred percent clear on the plan for the day since we had already hit up most of the major landmarks in Bogota the day before. We talked about hiring a car for the day to visit the nearby town of Zipaquira, but the thought of riding in a car in traffic was a bit off-putting. Instead, we decided to stay local and check out the flea market in Usaquen, one of the historic neighbourhoods of Bogota.

Unfortunately, the market doesn't really get going until later in the day, so we had more than a few hours to kill beforehand. Everything was still closed, but it looked like the mall may be open so we decided to walk over to check it out.

It turned out that the mall itself was open, but none of the stores were! Lucky for us, Juan Valdez (the local Starbucks equivalent) was open for business so we coffeed up and hung out on the open air terrace for a while.



We mall walked a little to stretch our legs, and we were both surprised to find so many American brands, along with a cute umbrella installation that reminded me of London.



We were finally able to grab a taxi and head over to the flea market. Our taxi driver was kind enough to tell us a bit about the neighbourhood as we made our way over to Usaquen, and we were more than excited to be dropped off in the middle of it all.



The flea market takes place on Sundays, and there are a ton of stalls selling all sorts of things. There's a lot of jewellery and other handicrafts, along with the occasional food stall.





We even saw some people carrying around puppies for sale!



The festive ambience of the entire market was enhanced by the musicians scattered around everywhere.



This guy was my favourite, he was playing a Beatles song (And I Love Her, in case you're wondering) on the harp.



It did feel a bit crowded at times since the place was positively heaving with people.



We made our way toward Hacienda Santa Barbara, which is a former home of a super rich guy that has been converted to a shopping centre. Along the way, the streets became more residential, and some of the more enterprising inhabitants were selling snacks and things out of the back of their home. I thought that was pretty clever!





The mall itself turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - it was just a mall, nothing more. I guess I was expecting it to retain more of its former grandiose residential qualities. In any case, I suggested just walking around town, but J was pretty tired from the heat and ducking around the crowd so we headed back to the hotel.

We washed up and made the decision to actually go out for dinner that night. Granted, it was only three doors down from the hotel, but the restaurant had gotten some pretty good reviews so we walked over to Di Lucca.



It's an Italian restaurant, and imagine our surprise when we discovered that it has THE best lasagna in the world. Seriously, you must go and eat this. I think J may have been considering delaying our departure from Bogota so we could eat at this restaurant for one more day. We could tell it was a pretty popular restaurant from how quickly it filled up and the waiters were constantly on the run.

It was a terrific end to our time in Bogota and getting to pet the hotel watchdog on the way back was just cherry on the icing.