The Gringo Trail: Cartagena, Colombia

We arranged for the same company to pick us up in a colectivo the following morning after arriving in Barranqilla and we travelled the 100 kms to Cartagena in around two hours.

Cartagena is a tourist trap, but there seem to be far more locals that tourists. It's an old coastal town, as is Santa Marta, however, Cartagena is far more appealing/better maintained and not run down like Santa Marta. The architecture is attractive and there is certainly a Spanish feel about the place.

Cartagena is essentially split into two parts, the Old Town and Bocagrande. We stayed in the Old Town, in Getsemani, thankfully. Bocagrande is a building site of sorts, it has lots of high-rise buildings, many still under construction. It's clear that in/around the old town this isn't permitted, and although the Bocagrande area has the beach we didn't like it. I've never seen so many people trying to sell their wares to annoyed beachgoers, it really was a joke.

The entrance to our apartment. The building is a large old house split into a few apartments. We managed to rent this via Airbnb the previous day at the last minute. Cartagena isn't as cheap for accommodation as Santa Marta, in fact everything was more expensive in Cartagena. However, food and drink generally are around half the cost of that in Australia.