So, we flew out of Bogota on a very pleasant flight to Cartagena on the north coast of Colombia, on the Caribbean Sea. Took maybe 1.5 hours or so. Very efficient taxi service as we arrived. Used the ticketing system as advised rather than the freelancers who work without a licence and park further away. We paid 25K (~ $10 AUD) pesos from the airport to Hotel Caribe. That compared to the 48K pesos hotel to aeropuerto in Bogota.

We are now ensconced in the tourist precinct of Cartagena. Reminds me of the Gold Coast, Australia. People friendly, weather quite warm (between 34C and 25C minimum overnight) and high humidity. Hotel Carible is older style but very comfortable. Breakfast this morning was delicious, especially enjoying the very good fruit in Colombia – loving the fruta pina (pineapple).

Have a half day tour of old city booked this afternoon, then another tour to Baru Island (not sure what to expect on that one but we shall see, but we will get to transit through Cartagena city and suburbs. Like many places in Colombia I believe, there are the affluent suburbs, so it will be helpful to see where the ‘real people’ live, while we exist as privileged tourists in our bubble.

I look forward to a swim in the pool later, and a cocktail this evening. Just have to watch the kilojoules! Meantime, the birds here are clearly South American, as seen below. They wonder about and need to be removed from eating areas as times. Otherwise, we are chilling. How lucky are we.

Hasta luego – see you later.