Cartagena Finale

Tara Larkai
Oct 12, 2015
3 min read

We decided to explore other areas of Cartagena on our last day.

We visited their mall, mall plaza El Castillo which is located outside of the walled city.

Then walked around into the walled city

I really wanted to see Los Zapatos Viejo (old shoes Monument) so earlier that day I asked our taxi driver to take us there but he said they weren't accepting visitors at that time but I thought he just didn't want to take us because it said it was opened 24 hours when I googled it. So later that day I asked another driver to take us there which he did but when we got there the place was covered up. It was closed! This stupid driver knew and didn't tell us. I was fuming but at least we were able to peek through a little hole that he made to see the monument. These taxi drivers ain't loyal...he took our money for no reason. We saw a fortress looking building in front of us so we walked over to see it. It was Castillo San Felipe Barajas. It was very busy with tourists and vendors... (I call them hustlers) it's huge and walking up looked painful. We looked at it and decided naw...we are going to pass on it this time. It brought back flashbacks of my very painful stair climbing adventure in Florence.

Our last night, we got all dolled for a fancy dinner at El Santisimo, within the walled city. We didn't have a reservation so we were ushered to sit in the main sitting area. We were the only ones there but people started showing up and soon after it was filled up. There was a British couple sitting to the left of us and two American girls to our right. The couple on our left were really struggling with their Spanish so of course I decided to show off a little with the Spanish that I know by ordering, asking for wifi password and things that I didn't have any business asking about. They were looking at me like "ooh word!". But then the American girls really showed us that they knew better. Although they weren't fluent, they spoke very well and shut me right up. Lmao They said they came from New York to spend the weekend in Cartagena. Must be nice!

We ended our night after dinner because our flight was early the next morning.

After breakfast the next morning, we headed straight to the airport which was not too far from the hotel. We wanted to get there 2 hours before because we did not want to deal with issues of missed flights. Our flight was with Copa Airlines to Panama for a 24 hour layover then United airlines to Newark. Check-in was fine but TSA security was a pain. Before we could enter the airport security area, an officer stopped us and checked our passports and boarding passes ( standard everywhere), we were stopped again before getting the line, stopped again while our bags where on the scanner and asked about why we came to Colombia blah blah! After going through security, we were patted down then all our bags were searched by another TSA officer. Oh but it didn't end there...towards the exit, we were stopped by Cartagena police and our bags were searched again. I was annoyed! I mean I know they are trying to protect the country from drug trafficking and all but damn! This was too much!

My final thoughts on Colombia...it's a relatively safe country despite what people say. So many people tried to convince us not to go because they said it's very dangerous and they often target Americans. Well I'm glad we didn't listen to them. You cannot walk 0.1 mile without seeing a police officer or a couple of them. They are everywhere and they see everything. We kind of bought into the whole Americans are targeted thing initially so much that when asked where we were from, we told everyone we were from Ghana. (Which isn't entirely false). Don't be afraid to be yourself however if you act too much like a tourist, they will take advantage of you and take all your money.

Now the drug issue in Cartagena...drugs are available in every corner. The street vendors sell all Marijuana and Cocaine on the streets (discreetly of course ) but that's a personal choice just do not get caught with it. It is a fun city and reminds me of my hometown, Accra. I would certainly go back and after reading this I hope you now feel more at ease to visit Cartagena.

Stayed tuned for Panama tales.