dun dun dun! the death cough!
Just my luck, the day we were supposed to leave for cartagena I woke up with a really sore throat and knew, just KNEW that I was in for a cold. Sarah had infected three of us, but I certainly took it the hardest and was holed up in bed with the death plague for the following 4 days. The bus to Cartagena was half torture, and with a pounding head and aching throat I was ecstatic to check into a hostel in the Getsemani neighborhood of Cartagena.
The first hostel we tried was Hotel Marlin, with its namesake appropriately hanging above the cold, semi impolite receptionist. Since we were both in recovery (albeit sarah was almost completely better already) we hit up the local kabob man before heading to sleep quite early. I awoke in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and discovered a bevy of different sized cockroaches having a powwow in the middle of the bathroom floor, so I shuddered and went to kick them away. That was when I discovered that these were not only the "totally not scared of humans" type of cockroaches, but also the "I will careen towards you in a kamikaze like fashion and try to climb your leg" type of cockroaches. I managed a scream and a very unacrobatic flip-like fall backwards out of the bathroom door and, naturally, made sarah leave the hostel the next day.
After much back and forth we managed to get into Casa Viena, one of the more popular backpacker hostels. We ended up having to share a double bed to save money, which turned out to be a perfectly okay situation other than me coughing all over her at random points throughout the night. She was a trooper though, keeping in mind that she would be most likely immune to me since she was the one who made me sick in the first place. Instead she sympathetically brought me grapes and cups of orange juice in hopes it would make me better. hearts to sarah!
I wish i could say more about Cartagena, but realistically i spent a lot of time there and almost all of it was inside the hostel. I can tell you it is VERY hot and cold showers are a godsend...I can tell you that good quality fake sunglasses cost approximately 10,000 pesos (about $5USD)...and I can even tell you that there were two other sick people in the hostel (gastro problems rather than a cold, though) and the three of us formed an impromptu tv club for a few days where we would each sit in our claimed couch spot watching bad romantic comedies for hours.
I did manage one day at the end looking around the city (beautiful! colonial! adorable! still very hot!), ate one of the most delicious coconut cookies I´ve ever had, and even managed to buy a bright blue dress, but for the most part have very little to say about the city itself. I will be heading back there after the new year to leave on a boat for panama, so perhaps I will have more to report later on.
The first hostel we tried was Hotel Marlin, with its namesake appropriately hanging above the cold, semi impolite receptionist. Since we were both in recovery (albeit sarah was almost completely better already) we hit up the local kabob man before heading to sleep quite early. I awoke in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and discovered a bevy of different sized cockroaches having a powwow in the middle of the bathroom floor, so I shuddered and went to kick them away. That was when I discovered that these were not only the "totally not scared of humans" type of cockroaches, but also the "I will careen towards you in a kamikaze like fashion and try to climb your leg" type of cockroaches. I managed a scream and a very unacrobatic flip-like fall backwards out of the bathroom door and, naturally, made sarah leave the hostel the next day.
After much back and forth we managed to get into Casa Viena, one of the more popular backpacker hostels. We ended up having to share a double bed to save money, which turned out to be a perfectly okay situation other than me coughing all over her at random points throughout the night. She was a trooper though, keeping in mind that she would be most likely immune to me since she was the one who made me sick in the first place. Instead she sympathetically brought me grapes and cups of orange juice in hopes it would make me better. hearts to sarah!
I wish i could say more about Cartagena, but realistically i spent a lot of time there and almost all of it was inside the hostel. I can tell you it is VERY hot and cold showers are a godsend...I can tell you that good quality fake sunglasses cost approximately 10,000 pesos (about $5USD)...and I can even tell you that there were two other sick people in the hostel (gastro problems rather than a cold, though) and the three of us formed an impromptu tv club for a few days where we would each sit in our claimed couch spot watching bad romantic comedies for hours.
I did manage one day at the end looking around the city (beautiful! colonial! adorable! still very hot!), ate one of the most delicious coconut cookies I´ve ever had, and even managed to buy a bright blue dress, but for the most part have very little to say about the city itself. I will be heading back there after the new year to leave on a boat for panama, so perhaps I will have more to report later on.
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