After two weeks in Santa Marta, we drove four hours to Cartagena, also on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. We also spent two weeks in Cartagena, which was our last stop in Colombia. Cartagena is one of the most touristy destinations in Colombia and is known for its historic old city and beautiful beaches.
The main plaza in the historic downtown 
We stayed in an area of Cartagena called Bocagrande, which has lots of big high rise apartment buildings and hotels right on the water. It was definitely one of our nicest accommodations of the trip, and the building had a pool and hot tub with great views of the water. It was about a 15-20 minute walk to the historic old city, which is where most things are located.
Living room in our Airbnb 
Terrace 
Surprisingly few people used these hot tubs besides us 
Walking along the beach in Bocagrande 
View from our Airbnb
We were not expecting to like Cartagena as much as we did, given that we had heard it was super touristy. Although Cartagena is indeed touristy, it’s also a very lively, charming, and beautiful city. It also didn’t hurt that it had lots of cool bars and restaurants, many of which had live music.
Cold, fresh coconuts on the street made Cartagena’s heat much more bearable 
Live music at dinner
During our first week in Cartagena we decided to take another salsa lesson since we had enjoyed this in Medellin. We ended up taking two classes over the course of the two weeks, which was fun but challenging and mildly stressful (our instructor kept telling us not to think too much, which would have been impossible if he wanted us to move our feet in any way that mildly resembled salsa dancing).
We spent our first Saturday in Cartagena going on a very hot but fun walk throughout the city. We first walked over to Castillo San Felipe, a massive 16th century fortress that is still very much intact.
HOLA 
(not the best tourist attraction for claustrophobic people)
From there we walked over to the walled city, which basically refers to the main historical downtown area. There is still a wall surrounding the old city that was built by the Spaniards for protection in the 16th century. Today you can walk on top of the wall in some places, and there are even some bars and restaurants set up along the wall (we went to one of these bars around sunset, and it was beautiful but not surprisingly packed with people). During the day we enjoyed walking around the colorful, narrow cobblestone streets, exploring the various plazas, and visiting a museum about the inquisition and the history of Cartagena.
Market in the historic downtown 
Davy’s an influencer now 
Getsemani (neighborhood near the historic downtown) 
Clearly the only ones with the unique idea of watching the sunset from the bar atop the wall 
The following day we booked an all day catamaran boat trip to visit some of the tropical islands around Cartagena. Cartagena has some beaches, but the real nice blue water beaches are on the Rosario Islands, which are located anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours away from Cartagena (via boat). We went snorkeling off the boat (although there weren’t too many fish) and then went swimming by two of the main islands, Isla Grande and Playa Blanca. The ride itself was also quite fun since there was a mesh hammock-like area where you could relax and look out at the pretty water.
These kind gentlemen delivered seafood to our boat 
Praying this doesn’t cause severe illness!!! 
Floating on some noodz 
The following weekend we spent another afternoon walking around the old city since it’s such a nice place to hang out, and we celebrated our last night in Cartagena (and Colombia) by going to a cool cocktail bar and dinner.
Colorful buildings of Cartagena
The following day it was time to pack up our Airbnb, say adios to Colombia, and head to the airport to fly to Peru! Colombia was our favorite country, and we both felt like there something really special about it that’s hard to put into words. Our sense was that Colombia is a beautiful country with friendly and welcoming people and a real lively spirit. It’s also amazing to be able to explore Colombia knowing that it was unheard of to travel here so recently. Although we were sad to leave Colombia, we were looking forward to the next few months in Peru!
SPICY BONUS PICS
When Davy points out that wearing all black is less cool in South America than it is in New York City 
Transformed 
Fun fact: the man in the bucket hat took a meat skewer and put it down his pants shortly after this picture was taken 
View of our living room/proof that we do actually work in South America 
Evening view from our Airbnb 
Catamaran that took us to the Rosario Islands 
Ok, we didn’t fully adhere to the whole “stop wearing black” thing 
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