Cartegena, Day 1

After yesterday's fiasco, I was sure to leave even earlier today to get to my airline in time enough for the people checking us in get a game of Farmland in and get me to my flight on time.

It was great to see a friendly face in Eric when I arrived, and after a week of rain (and still managing to get himself a severe sunburn) and nearly being eaten alive by bugs while staying at a rural beach of Boru for many days, he was happy to see me too.

The first thing I noticed about Cartagena was the crumbliness of it. Everything seemed to crumble, as if the walls couldn't handle all the music coming from everywhere and they just began to break from the decibels. Tiny taxis everywhere and crazy traffic. Not a ton of it, just crazy people diving the cars. Lots of beeping, too. The people of Colombia seem to beep for any reason they can think of and many they can not. It became a bit of a joke between Eric and I; I'm coming through! MEEP! MEEP!... I might be coming though - MEEP! MEEP!...You think you are cutting in but your not - MEEP! MEEP!...I'm behind you! MEEP! MEEP!... I'm in front of you! MEEP! MEEP!...Don't think about crossing the street in front of me! MEEP! MEEP!... Why are we sitting still!? MEEP! MEEP! I feel like beeping! MEEP! MEEP!... Look at me! I'm driving a car! MEEP! MEEP!...I watch The Jersey Shore! MEEP! MEEP!

Eric's fluency in Spanish amazed me. We would hop in a cab and he just knew how it worked; the right questions to ask (about price for a ride) before getting into the cab. He seemed to completely understand what everyone was saying, and he could respond with ease. I could understand quite a bit, but Eric not only knows the language but the culture.

On the cab ride there, he seemed concerned about my dazed state. He would ask me questions or tell me things and I would "What?" him almost every time. I never realized (now I know it's because so much of my traveling, as little as I have had, has been on my own) that it's because I was taking everything in. It was as if my brain couldn't handle observing and communicating at the same time. Poor Eric. He was a good sport about it, joking about spending all his time with me talking to himself because I was in my own world; this new world.

I was exhausted from travel, and we made our way to our hotel. A beautiful old place called Don Pedro De Heredia, in the heart of Cartagena.  It had a beautiful courtyard and a view of the city from the roof. We dropped off our things and went off to explore, getting lost wandering the streets and people watching. We went to a restaurant/bar built into the wall which surrounds the city. It was such an interesting sight - a man deejaying with his stereo and speakers set-up in the wall's ancient crevices. We were amazed that there wasn't some kind of law against it.

I was discombobulated from the long day and it's delays, not to mention the fact that we both felt slighted because I should have arrived 24 hours sooner, but in an attempt to rise above my crankiness we wandered the beautiful city some more, taking in the music and the dancing in the plazas. Street vendors of all kinds were scattered about; food, trinkets, paintings, even Colombian versions of payphones- stations called "Llamadas" where there sat a person with a collection of cell phones who you would pay to use one of said cell phones. Often the phones were attached to a wooden table with string, so the caller couldn't take-off with the phone. Horse-drawn carriages klip klopped through the tiny streets, sharing them with the pedestrians and the MEEP! MEEP!ing cars and taxis.

Llamadas!

The hotel, while beautiful in it's antiquity and history, had dark rooms with fluorescent lighting. And the shower was a problem (for me, anyway - Eric didn't care). It was like being tinkled on and the temperature would change without warning from scalding hot to very cold. "You can't expect much from such an old place" Eric reminded me, "Think about how good the plumbing will be in your house 300 years from now if no updates are made."  It was a good point which failed to curb my whining. I learned something that I suspected has been the case for a very long time...While I like to think of myself as a tomboy, I am actually an annoying, unaccommodating princess. The next morning, we changed hotels and I was happy as a clam at the funky, modern Hotel Cartagena Millenium, which was a short taxi ride outside the city in Boca Grande, and was only a little bit more expensive.  And my nice boyfriend didn't mind at all.