Hello 2017! This year we are planning so much. The goal is to travel somewhere every month! We usually do a few trips a year, but at that rate we’ll never see the whole world :) So up first for January--Cartagena, Colombia and Iceland. I know! Very opposite ends of the spectrum. Of course there is a good story behind the planning of this trip. We’ll get there later. For the last 3 years it has been tradition among my friends, to pick a different country to go to for each one of our birthdays. There are 4 of us and we are still going strong. So January is Mia’s birthday. She chose Colombia and Peru for a 2 week extravaganza. Now...if you know me, I was like Colombia?!?! Have you seen Narcos?! I have been adamant to NO COLOMBIA since seeing the show (which is amazing by the way). I know Pablo has been gone for a gagillion years, but I also know the country has been in a civil war with guerrilla warfare groups pretty much until present day. It just didn't seem safe to travel to. I was not on board. It took some coaxing and googling to see we would not be in too much danger. Cartagena is a touristy city. So off we went. I still wasn’t completely convinced, until our taxi ride to our apartment. There are tons of high rise apartment buildings all over the place. They are gorgeous! Most are just steps away from the ocean. They are throwing these high rises up left and right. It has a very Miami vibe. Boy, did we get lucky in the apartment we choose. The view from the 29th floor of this brand new ultra modern place was spectacular to say the least. We all pretty much threw our bags down and drooled all the way to the balcony. You can see how quickly I was convinced I was never leaving. Amazing! We didn’t leave that balcony for at least an hour. We decided to pull ourselves away and start exploring the town. We picked a prime location. Pretty much anywhere along the beach might be prime, but look at above picture again :) We got a good view all the way down the beach and around the other side. When you come out of the apartment you are just steps away from restaurants, couple casinos(nothing on Vegas), a huge mall, and tons of souvenir shops. First stop is to the ATM so we can start playing. We all took out $400.000 Pesos. That came out to a total of $142US. Of course we didn’t know how for that would last. But, boy does it last! It’s very inexpensive in Cartagena. A good fancy meal (which we did for lidia’s bday) was only $29 US. That included food, wine, and tip! Jumping ahead a bit. That shows you can really have a great time here. Our lunch was only $12.50 pesos. That is $4.25 US for steak, fries, a small salad, and a drink! Now for the rest of the night we just wandered around and called it a night. We had a long day of traveling. Day 2 Alright! Up and at em! We are up and hungry. We are staying outside the old city so it’s time to check it out and get some breakfast. It is beautiful walking the streets. The doors are amazing. Breakfast was yummy and at a fancy location. All for less than $10US. On to exploring the city. Great architecture and old world feel. There are a good amount of people walking around. It is so peaceful compared to Europe. We came at a good time because it is not really busy. Or perhaps like me people do not know a lot about the gem that is Cartagena. After walking around a bit we wanted to find a tour that could take us around the old city. What a great deal we got. We were able to just get in on a tour that was starting. The cost was $22US. This included the tour of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, Los Zapatos Viejos, Convento de Santa Cruz de la Popa, plus driving around the city and seeing the sites. This also included traveling by boat to the Rosario Island with lunch included for the next day. Score!!! Now luckily I have spanish speaking friends. The tour was in spanish. Not sure if there is english speaking tours. There might be some, but with that price my friends can translate. They didn’t translate the whole time, but just being there and seeing everything is incredible. Day 3 Off to Rosario Islands. The van to the pier was provided. The guide was at our lobby at 8am sharp. We headed down to the pier where they check you in and you wait in blazing sun until you are called for your boat. Bring lots of sunscreen. All the street vendors sell hats. I recommend you get one. I bought mine for only $3US. After about 30-40 mins we were called to our boat, which held about 20 people. It takes approximately an 1 ½ to get to Rosario Islands via a high speed boat. You can see the water transform from dark & murky to beautiful Caribbean water. We arrived and there is no dock. You have to jump from the boat into the water, or there are locals that help you off the boat. Once your feet hit land it’s time to find somewhere to sit and relax. We found a great location. The locals rent out seats, lounge chairs, and umbrellas. We got four chairs and an umbrella for only $10US. The water is amazing! The locals are selling everything. Drinks, necklaces, bracelets, massages, and all kinds of local goods. They walk by like every few minutes which can become a bit much. In the water they sell all kinds of water related fun. Seadoos, banana rides, and other stuff for only $5.000 pesos for 15 mins. That’s only like a $1.70US. The girls had a good time taking advantage of all they had to offer. The lunch that was included was either fish or chicken. I got the fish and it was absolutely the best food I had on the trip. It was so flavorful. I was so sad when it was gone. We befriended one of the locals that told us there is also a bus that can bring you to the island. He prefers that mode of travel as the boats can be unpredictable. He said they have also flipped over before. Well that was a bit discouraging, but we made it out alive :) I won’t say it was completely relaxing, because the locals are trying to sell you something ever so often. The water was really nice. We stayed about 2 ½ hours and back we went. Now upon arrival we thought the same van that came and got us that morning would take us back. Clearly we were wrong. We wish we had known that tid bit of info. Luckily, we didn’t live far. It’s very inexpensive to take an uber. It only costs about $3US one way to get to the old city from where we were staying. We get home, shower, eat, and prepare to hit the nightlife. We asked our uber driver and our waiter what was the best club. There was not a consensus. So we got dropped off and headed into the square and found Eivissa Lounge. A club with a rooftop lounge. It was a great way to enjoy the scenery at night. We were there a bit early so it was like our own private lounge. So that calls for a photoshoot! Lol Shortly after it started to fill up. It was a great vibe with great dance music. There is also a first level that plays Latin music that we also enjoyed. We met a lot of cool people. We ended up hanging with a few guys from Argentina and this couple from Bogota. At around 2am the Argentinian suggested we go to a local club. Walking the streets at night brought back my apprehension. I don’t know what was scarier. Arriving in Morocco or walking the dark streets of Columbia with strangers. Both ended well lol. We ended up at hostel party, that had a shallow pool and make-shift bar. It was fun until the guy from the couple got jealous of another guy that went to dance with his girl. Drama. We tried to help settle the matter, but that did not work. In the end, they talked the rest of time we were there. This lead us over to the shallow pool where a couple of the girls and the Argentinian proceeded to hop on in. Just splashing and dancing in the water. Nothing crazy. The water was just up to about mid calf. Shortly upon entering the party it was over :{ Music cut off-THE END. The Argentinian wanted to hit another party. Sounded cool until we got outside and the guy was still arguing with the other dude. We decided just to walk back and leave them. We were starving and there were tons of carts selling street food. I’m not one to try mystery meat on the streets. I have so many questions. Where did it come from? How clean is it? Will my stomach survive?! Kim and Betsy love eating street food so they hopped right on it. Mia and I on the other hand...But, we were starving so we took the chance. Oh man. Oh man! I’m so glad we did. That was the best marinade on meat I think I have ever had. I wanted him to bottle it up and sell it to me. It came with potatoes and salad for about $4US. I could eat at that cart everyday of my life and be happy! Eat the street food!! You will not be disappointed. I’m salivating just thinking about it. After sitting and talking to the locals and filling our bellies with yummy goodness, we decided it was finally time to call it a night. We got home around 5am. Phew! Fantastic day :) Day 4 Celebration of the birth of Mia :) Now grant it we slept most of the day away recovering from the night before. The day before we were told by our uber driver there is a nice restaurant that also has live traditional dancing. We thought that would be a perfect place to celebrate Mia’s bday. It was called Cande. It was a very dimly lit, cozy restaurant. The servers were dressed in the traditional clothing. The traditional dance performance happened about every 20 mins. They danced in a very tiny area, but it was a delight to see. We had called ahead to notify them it was Mia’s birthday. It was gonna be a surprise, until the owner came to the table asking whos bday was it :/ Geez...later they did bring out a little dessert and sang Happy Birthday. It was still great! We were still a little exhausted from the night before. We decided not to go to another club, and instead we walked to the Baluarte de Santo Domingo. There is a restaurant on the top. It had a low key vibe. It was a beautiful night, and you can look out and see the the city. The ocean is right there so the ambiance couldn’t be better. We sat and had a pitcher of pina coladas. I had been craving them. We just sat and enjoyed life. Day 5 Our last day. It was spent wandering around our local area around the apartment. We had been on a search to find a spa for Mia’s bday a couple days before. We wanted it to accommodate all four of us at once. Each swanky hotel we went to could only do two at a time and were already booked. So as we were wandering our neighborhood Mia & Betsy saw this hair salon that they wanted to check out. Turns out they have massage rooms upstairs, and they can accommodate all of us. Score! We were told it would be $95.000 pesos each. That would be roughly $33US. Sold! The massage was great. Very relaxing and much needed. When it was over(which is always way too soon) we came out and were told there was actually a special. It would only be $75.000 pesos( about $26US). Oh yea!!! We ended the night with crepes and coffee. We went home to try and figure out the rest of our journey. The original plan was to head to Peru the next day. We didn’t plan that well. Apparently, you are supposed to get a ticket to be able to hike. There are only so many given out a day to hike Machu Picchu. We were unaware of that, and turns out there were no tickets for our time-frame :( You need to request days in advance. So that left us in a bit of a predicament. Where do we go next? We didn't want to go somewhere and just spend money in another city. So we decided to go home. We flew to JFK. Then the girls got this crazy idea to go to Iceland. It’s only 5 hours away.
Now we were only packed for beach weather. How were we gonna go to Iceland?! I was freezing already in NY. I couldn’t possibly go to Iceland unprepared. Welp, they had planned everything out so quickly that Iceland turned into the plan. I decided I was not gonna go, because I hate being cold. I would die in Iceland. I was convinced I was going home. They had other plans. They went to the dollar store and bought hats, gloves, and legwarmers. Kim had extra jackets to spare since she lives in NY. After all that effort I couldn’t say no. I was in. Next stop ICELAND!!!
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AuthorTraveling makes my heart happy. My mission is to use words and pictures to inspire you to get out there and take in the beauty of our world. Archives
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