Travel advice for Cartagena, Colombia?

[ponyo]

My little brother went there late may and loved it. I have 2 friends there right now.

And my other buddies who went last year said you can order hookers like Dominos pizza. And they even deliver!

Did they go to Cartagena? Or somewhere else in Colombia?

I'm not surprised at hookers. You know it's a problem when many of the hotels have no outside unregistered guest rule spelled out as condition of booking a room. Hell, half the single guys going to Costa Rica probably go for sex tourism. But as American, you shouldn't have problem picking up girls in bars without paying if you have even little game. Many of these girls are looking to hook up with Americans and think we're all rich.

 

[purbeast0]

Did they go to Cartagena? Or somewhere else in Colombia?

I'm not surprised at hookers. You know it's a problem when many of the hotels have no outside unregistered guest rule spelled out as condition of booking a room. Hell, half the single guys going to Costa Rica probably go for sex tourism. But as American, you shouldn't have problem picking up girls in bars without paying if you have even little game. Many of these girls are looking to hook up with Americans and think we're all rich.

Nah they went to Medellin.

 

[ponyo]

Nah they went to Medellin.

I've read Medellin has large population of good looking Colombian girls and that's where all the young people go to party. Since I'm not looking for bars, clubs, and nightlife, I'm thinking about skipping Medellin after reading that. I did that stuff when I was young and single while traveling and got that out of my system before I married.

 

[purbeast0]

I've read Medellin has large population of good looking Colombian girls and that's where all the young people go to party. Since I'm not looking for bars, clubs, and nightlife, I'm thinking about skipping Medellin after reading that. I did that stuff when I was young and single while traveling and got that out of my system before I married.

Yeah it was a group of like 10 single guys mid 30's who rented a huge villa for like 5 nights. All they did was exactly what you probably think they did.

 

[ponyo]

We just returned from our 7 day vacation trip to Cartagena, Colombia. We spent all 7 days in Cartagena. 3 days in Bocagrande area and 4 days in Getsemani. I thought long and hard about spending 4 days in Cartagena and 3 days in Bogota but decided to just take it easy and relax in Cartagena instead of going back and forth between cities and flights. We'll go to Bogota and Medellin next time we visit Colombia. And we will go back. Colombia has lot to offer and we loved the country. Beautiful and friendly people, amazing food, and really cheap prices. If I was young and single, it would be near the top of my list of countries to go and live for 6 months just to learn Spanish and mingle with the locals and travelers.

It was less than 4 hour direct flight with Delta to Cartagena, Colombia. I used my Chase points for the flight so the tickets were free. I used Booking.com to book the rooms at Bocagrande and Getseman areas. We went to Bocagrande first and stayed at this place called Morros City. I thought the place was nice and it was only like $100/ night for 1 bedroom beachfront condo. All the places we stayed in Cartagena had 24/7 security and only let in registered guests so we always felt safe.

view from the balcony of our condo unit

Beachfront restaurant next to the condo where we ate dinner the first night. It was like at 4:30-5:00 pm. Prices were high by Colombia standard but we were hungry and tired from the air travel and didn't want to go far. For us as Americans, prices were still dirt cheap but I saw lot of people come in, sit down, and then leave from shock after they saw the menu prices. I don't know if this place had really good food or we were just tired and hungry after eating the shitty airplane food, but all three of us really enjoyed the dinner. Plus the view was great.

my first night early dinner. Some type of fish filet in seafood sauce with coconut rice, salad, and fried plantain.

View from the bedroom while laying awake in bed at 4 am in the morning. I think I went to bed the previous night at 8 pm because I was so tired.

Early morning breakfast at La Brioche. It's french inspired chain in Colombia. It was one of the very few places open at 7:30 am in the morning and less than 5 minute walk from our condo. It was ok but we found much better place for breakfast later on our trip.

One thing that we quickly noticed was the food portion sizes were really generous in Colombia. I would say the restaurant food portion sizes are comparable to US restaurants. Which means way bigger than Europe and Asia. For light eaters, two people could share one plate. But I always over ordered on purpose to sample different dishes and because everything was so cheap. Even the tourist restaurants were cheap.

We spent the three days in Bocagrande just relaxing at the pool and the beach and eating. We didn't do any major sightseeing other than people watch since I knew we would be moving to Getsemani area soon and that's better area to serve as base for sightseeing since from there it's easy walking distance to the old city. So we just chilled and enjoyed the 100 F heat at the beach and pool.

Enjoyed the day relaxing on the beach with the locals and tourists. The water looks dirty and dark because the sand is made up of dark fine volcanic particles. So it makes the water look dirty from the distance but when you get up close, you can see the water is clean and clear. I read lot of negative comments about the not so nice looking beach because of the dark water but I think these people just judged it from the distance. I thought the beach was fine and enjoyed it.

Late lunch/early dinner at Crepes and Waffles. It's popular chain restaurant in Colombia. It's like their version of the Cheesecake Factory. But Crepes and Waffles food tasted much better. Portion sizes were massive and their dessert menu was great. I saw lot of Colombians bring their date just to eat the desserts.

You can't see from this pic but the size of the dessert in the two glass cups were insane. The glass cup was literally the size of my head.

 

[ponyo]

continued... It seems there's 20 picture limit with this forum software. So I have to divide the post and pictures.


The last morning of our 3 day stay in Bocagrande, we found this amazing breakfast/lunch place. Ely Cafe. I wish we found it the first day because I would've ate there everyday. Everything about the food at Ely Cafe was amazing. Fresh and simple ingredients, beautiful presentation, and wonderful taste. And the place was clean, had great cold A/C, and the service was fantastic as well. If you go to Bocagrande, I highly suggest eating at Ely Cafe for breakfast or lunch. They open at 8 am. Can't recommend this place enough. Fantastic.

Our final day in Bocagrande. Relaxed and enjoyed more time at the beach and the pool. It's 90 degrees and 102 degrees with the heat index everyday in Cartagena. The heat and humidity is brutal during the day.

Quick lunch at El Corral. It's Colombian fast food burger chain. I had the doble doble burger which was their local take on our In-And-Out burger. I found it very good and better than the real double double from In-And-Out.

We enjoyed our 3 day stay in Bocagrande area but if you're not fan of the beach, I would skip this area. It's like poorer version of Miami beach. And compared to Mexico, I found very few places with English menu and found most people only spoke Spanish. But I actually liked that I had to rely on speaking Spanish since it allowed me to practice my terrible Spanish. My daughter and Google Translate app helped great deal. Most people smiled and laughed at my horrible Spanish and my daughter said they found it cute. I think the Colombian people were happy I was trying and despite some initial confusion, we always managed to understand each other with laughter and smile. We only had one instance during our stay in Colombia where someone tried to scam us. Waiter at one horrible restaurant in Bocagrande tried to sneak in 25% tip for himself on the bill. The restaurant name is La Fonda Antioquena. The food was terrible. I mean really bad. But I can forgive bad food but I really have a problem with people trying to scam. Tipping is not the norm in Colombia but I always tipped 10% at restaurants because that was common in tourist areas. But no restaurant adds 25% automatic gratuity. When I pointed out the obscene amount to the waiter, he had the nerve to go back and reduce in half to "only" 12.5%. Like I said, the norm in Colombia in tourist area is 10% for good service. He provided neither and wanted 12.5% after I caught him trying to charge me 25%. I could have fought it and left 0% tip but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of calling the police and/or arguing with the waiter fool. We're only talking about 2,000 Colombian Pesos or $0.65. I figured if he wanted $0.65 that bad, he can have it. I gave him exchange change and left the restaurant in disgust. But that was the only bad experience during our entire stay. Rest was great and we found the Colombian people overall very honest and friendly.

to continue... Sightseeing and drug pictures to come. Yes, I did buy lot of drugs.

 

[DigDog]

FINALLY!!
had to read the whole thing but eventually the drugs showed up.

 

[shortylickens]

Joan Wilder recommends you do not.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Can you get a refund?

 

[Exterous]

Awesome! Looking forward to more pictures

 

[sdifox]

Joan Wilder recommends you do not.

You are juat a few months late. Like six.

 

[JEDIYoda]

So when do we get to see your episode of Locked Up Abroad?????

 

[ponyo]

Instead of taking taxi from Bocagrande to Getsemani, I decided to test out Uber in Cartagena. A very nice woman picked us up and drove us 15 minutes to our hotel at Getsemani. She had bit of a problem finding the exact location of the hotel at Getsemani and had to stop twice on the street to ask for directions, but she finally found it after some struggle. I thanked her for the ride and tipped her the max percentage allowed by the Uber app. The max tip only ended up being $0.17. The Uber ride in US dollars was only $2.18. Taxi is extremely cheap in Colombia. But you always want to agree upon the price before you get in and ride.

I had booked cheap budget hotel called Casa Mara for 3 nights but they overbooked and sent me to another hotel of theirs 2 minutes down the street called Casa Villa Colonial for the first night. They tried to blame me saying I had lost the reservation right because they had problem charging my credit card in advance. I knew that was BS excuse because no other hotels had the same problem. But I agreed to the change without a fuss since I only had to stay one night at the other hotel. I actually ended up liking Casa Villa Colonial better than Casa Mara but both were pretty comparable quality wise and I was happy at both places. Staff was super nice at both hotels. Rooms at both were clean with cold working A/C and both had a pool to cool off from the sun. And the free breakfast at the hotels was surprisingly good. It was so good I ate the free breakfast every morning and didn't skip it.

Our budget room at Casa Villa Colonial

On the hotel roof looking towards Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas fortress in the distance. I wanted to visit the fortress but my daughter didn't want to go because of the heat.

After checking in to the hotel, I asked the guy at the desk for restaurant recommendation in my broken Spanish. He told me he liked restaurant called Accion de Gracia. It was only like 5 minute walk from the hotel and was popular with the locals. I liked the food there so much I ate lunch there for 3 days straight. It was big restaurant and really busy during lunch but I didn't see any tourist besides us during the 3 days we ate there. Wife had the Pargo Frito (fried whole red snapper) and I had the Mojarra Fritza (fried whole tilapia). The fishes were fried perfect the way I liked it and everything was super tasty including the 3 sides. The whole meal including 2 coconut lemonades drinks was only 69,000 Colombian pesos or about $22.

After the tasty lunch, we decided to walk to and explore the Old City since it was like 5 minutes walk from the restaurant. Entrance to the Old City.

One of many fruit ladies in the Old City

Old Town or also called Centro. The area is busy lined with all kinds of shops and plenty of tourists and street vendors.

More fruit ladies

Parroquia San Pedro Claver Catholic church

Girl feeding pigeons near the church.

 

[ponyo]

On top of the protective city wall looking towards Bocagrande

Fruit ladies taking a break on top of the wall

Restaurant on top of the wall. This restaurant is perfect place to watch the sunset.

After exploring, shopping, and just enjoying the nightly public entertainment, we headed back to the hotel.

Full moon out and the weather in the perfect high 70 F.

For dinner we went to restaurant called La Mulata. The place had like 4.6 rating out of 5 with over 1,500 reviews so I had high hopes. I liked the restaurant atmosphere and the staff. But the food taste was disappointing and bland. The fish in ceviche had numerous bones and was too acidic and sour. Just poor tasting dishes all around. But the service was generally good even though I got charged for extra beer I didn't get. But I didn't feel like trying to dispute it with my broken Spanish over like 5,000 Colombian pesos or like $1.60.
Seafood ceviche

Octopus

fish with seafood sauce

 

[shortylickens]

You are juat a few months late. Like six.

Your GIRLFRIEND is six months late!

 

[ponyo]

I really liked the Getsemani area of Cartagena. It's close walk to the Centro Old City yet far enough away so the rich tourists stay away and stay in the Old City. Getsemani used to be neighborhood filled with violence, drugs, and prostitution. But now Getsemani is vibrant artsy area filled with locals and lot of young people. Certain areas at night can still be little scary but the area has really fun overall vibe. During the day, I would see woman selling fish on the street with no ice.

And good bars and restaurants everywhere.

And there are street arts, performers, vendors, and young tourists everywhere.
Street art in front of Hotel Leyendas del Mar. This is the final hotel I stayed and I really liked this budget hotel as well. I felt like I was staying in nice hostel. Super friendly staff and clean accommodation.

 

[ponyo]

My favorite place to hang out in the evening was Plaza Trinidad. You see all the young kids gather here in the evening. Local kids, tourists, everyone, rich or poor. It's great place to people watch.

Excellent fruit juice here.

But just like that, our week was up and it was time to leave.

But before I left, I went to the drug store and bought medication to take home. I was little sick so I bought bunch of antibiotics and this.

They sell all the prescription drugs without asking for prescription. Even grocery stores and small convenience stores all sell Viagra, CIalis, and generics like candy and everything is super cheap. If you take lot of expensive prescription drugs, it might be worth it just to fly to Colombia to stock up on medication.

 

[ponyo]

I forgot to mention, Colombia is great place to shop as well. My wife bought like 5 hand sewn bags and my daughter also bought bunch of hand sewn bracelets and bags and everything was super cheap. Other countries we visited all sucked for shopping since they mostly all sold made in China crap I can get cheaper here in the US and other tacky stuff. But in Colombia, they sell lot of handmade things made by the local people right there. So it's unique and worth to buy.

Also forgot to mention about the girls in Colombia. Colombian girls are HOT. I saw so many good looking Colombian girls with banging body. If you're young single male, you need to get your ass down there, NOW. Thank me later.

And I don't think I talked about the food enough or posted enough pictures. I mean how can you say no to fried pork belly and sausage? Food in Colombia is cheap and awesome. Go there and eat. Meet girls and have fun. And maybe if you're lucky you'll also learn some Spanish.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

That ceviche looks great. Funny you said it was too acidic and sour. Isn't it just fish in lemon juice? How could it not be either of those things?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Sure, here's a tip for down there: if you rent a car and are driving about, an egg hitting your windshield means you've been selected for a robbery. Do not cue the windshield wipers and fluid - the ammonia contacting egg white will cost you what visibility you have and force you to either stop, and/or get out of the car - exactly what your muggers want. Put your hazards on and keep driving until you are out of the area, flag down a cop if you can.

Except cops can be impersonated, so watch out for that too

 

[BurnItDwn]

Sounds like an awesome trip.

It sounds like the city has turned around a lot over the last few decades, but, still a good idea to be careful.

https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=23782

 

[Mayne]

So you risked the lives of your family for some fucking food? smh

 

[Exterous]

Thanks for sharing! Colombia is on my list to visit although that doesn't mean much given how many places are also on that list

 

[ponyo]

That ceviche looks great. Funny you said it was too acidic and sour. Isn't it just fish in lemon juice? How could it not be either of those things?

Looks wise it was one of the prettiest ceviche. I'm not ceviche connoisseur but I've had plenty ceviche in Mexico. The ceviche at La Mulata was so sour I had to make sour faces as I was eating it. The sourness was really overpowering. And it was kind of dangerous to eat because of all the small fish bones still on the fish. I had couple sharp fish bones stick and needle me in the mouth. That shouldn't happen. They should've probably spent more time on the food prep and taste rather than pretty presentation.

 

[ponyo]

Sounds like an awesome trip.

It sounds like the city has turned around a lot over the last few decades, but, still a good idea to be careful.

https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=23782

We had fun. I didn't think it was any more dangerous than place like Mexico. You just have to keep up your guard and practice street smart. You can still get unlucky but there's crime and violence in the US too. I didn't take any random taxi. I used the official government taxi ticket counter at the airport upon arrival and had the hotel desk call a taxi for me when we left.

So you risked the lives of your family for some fucking food? smh

You risk your life everyday when you wake up. You can trip and fall and die going to the bathroom. Cartagena is the most visited city in Colombia. It's where all the tourists go. So it's safe. Any city can be dangerous if you're unlucky or if you act like idiot. Just exercise caution and use good judgement and hope for the best.

And I will 100% travel for food. My family and I will be going to Busan next spring for a week just to eat. That's 20+ hours of flight each way just to eat food. But it will be worth it to eat the seafood there.