They also really enjoyed our trip to Cartagena two years ago and wanted to go back, so the next day we took over a row on Avianca and flew to Cartagena.
Bogotá from the air is always quite a thing to see.
As soon as we landed in Cartagena, Elena was ready for the beach.
It was late though, so the first stop was dinner at Maria, one of our favorite restaurants from the last trip.
The last time we stayed at Casa San Agustin, which is a lovely hotel, but in the two years since then, it made all kinds of world's best lists, and the room price went through the roof. So, we looked around for something in the old part of the city that would be nice, but also affordable. We settled on Casa Claver Loft Boutique Hotel. It turned out to be a great choice. The location was perfect, and we got an apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a loft for the girls to sleep in.
Breakfast was included, and they brought it to the room in the mornings.
It was also nice to have a living room area to relax in the evening.
The public areas at the hotel were also lovely. Reception always had fresh flowers.
And there was a courtyard with a pool right off the entryway.
We spent most of our time at the rooftop pool though.
It had a great view in both directions, and we got pictures during the day and at night.
The general plan for this trip was to take it easy, but also try to get to some of the places we hadn't gotten to on our last trip. We were generally lucky with the weather, which was a bit overcast, but that kept it from getting too hot.
Our first itinerary item was getting out to the Rosario Islands which are about an hour speed boat ride from Cartagena. While Cartagena has a beach, it's not really what you think of when you think of the Caribbean, but if you get out to the islands, then you're in the real Caribbean. The hotel helped us book a boat, and the girls went right to the front as we left the marina.
As we picked up speed, Elena retreated to the back, but Vivian went as far up the bow as she could.
We paused to look at the forts that had protected the bay from pirates.
Then, the captain recommended that we all move to the back as we picked up speed on the open water.
Our first stop was the aquarium on one of the islands, the Oceanario.
It's part of the national park system, and its main goal is education to improve conservation. They had a little petting pool at the front with starfish and turtles. The girls were thrilled.
There were also tons of birds around.
The most impressive were the enormous pelicans.
The staff moved us along to the main area for the demonstrations by the sharks and dolphins, but first we stopped by a larger pool for turtles.
It started to rain a bit at that point, but not too hard, and since we were all in our bathing suits, we weren't overly concerned. Jeff got some pictures of the shark show with the water proof camera.
The trainer explained about how they work together. The birds also seemed ready to participate in the show. Next up were the dolphins, which the girls agreed were their favorites. There was one main female who showed off. The babies were in a separate area and the two males were in a third area. They got some jumps in.
But the dolphin in with the main trainer was clearly the star. We were told that she really likes applause, so we clapped enthusiastically.
It was a great first stop, despite the sprinkle of rain. We then headed back to the boat to sail around a bit. We went by what used to be Pablo Escobar's island home. It's now property of the state, but they haven't done anything with it.
A lot of the islands are privately owned, and some look mostly undeveloped.
The most famous beach in the area is Playa Blanca, a long strip of heavily developed yellow sand. We told the captain that we did not want to go there, but instead wanted a nice beach with fewer people and the option for a seafood lunch. He warned us that it could get expensive, but we said that was okay, so he took us to Agua Azul. It was exactly what we wanted, and the food was indeed ridiculously overpriced, but we spent a lovely few hours there.
We picked a table with an umbrella right on the sand, and the girls immediately claimed the stretch of beach in front of us.
It was perfect, because we could enjoy our tropical drinks, while keeping an eye on the girls and dipping into the water whenever we felt a bit too hot.
For lunch, we decided to be big spenders and get the mixed seafood platter. It was delicious, and we even got the girls to eat some of it. Vivi went for the shrimp, and Elena discovered that she likes octopus.
We lounged post lunch. The girls played some more and Elena kept bringing us treasures.
There were ladies that kept coming around asking if we wanted a massage. We finally caved when they agreed to what seemed like a reasonable price for me, Jeff and the girls. Unfortunately, when they finished and we went to pay, the lady in charge insisted that they had done more than we had originally agreed on, and it would therefore cost double. She was quite mean about it, but I held firm on the price and eventually the ladies left and we didn't see them again. It left a bad taste in my mouth though. We found the beach vendors in general to be very rude and aggressive. We're used to vendors from Thailand, but the ones in Cartagena are much pushier and ruder than anything we ever experienced in Asia.
We shook it off and took a parting picture of the girls' sand fort creation.
It was a little cloudy and rainy as we were getting ready to go, but the weather had pretty much held for our beach time. Overall, it was a great few hours.
Elena was wiped out. She cuddled her shark that sucker Safta bought her at the Oceanarium and fell asleep.
Eventually the Cartagena skyline came back into view.
The girls had been up late the day before, and after a full day at the beach they were ready for an easy dinner and bed. They have Rappi in Cartagena too, so we asked the front desk for a pasta place recommendation and ordered the girls some food. They ate early, and we put Elena to bed before the adults headed out to dinner at La Vitrola. It had been one of our favorites the last time, but we had gone for lunch and not dinner. We discovered that children were not allowed at dinner time, so the girls being tired worked out perfectly. They were just setting up live music when we got there.
The music was lovely, and the food was yummy. Jeff and I tried the octopus in teriyaki for an appetizer.
My dinner was also delicious, a pasta with shrimp and zucchini.
One of my favorite parts of visiting Cartagena is all the seafood I get to eat. Yum!
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