Cartagena - it's a delight

Being so late that you think you're going to miss your flight is a horrible and stressful situation and one I don't intend on repeating. A combination of events led to a mad dash for the gate and somehow we made it - the full story is admirably covered in Viva Latin America

Rocking up in Cartagena my first impression wasn't all that thrilling. The airport was fine.  In fact the flight was extremely smooth and sitting in the comfortable brand new plane I was able to de-stress from the madness that led up to boarding it! But as we entered the backpacker part of town in our taxi, I started to wonder whether we were heading for the right place. Run down buildings and no shortage of threatening looks aimed your way. Plenty of awkward eyes. And in these parts a man with nothing to do will happily sit on a wall and dish out shifty looks by the dozen!

However, spend a bit of time there and you soon find there's nothing too threatening lurking about after all. Once you've experienced the stares second time round, its like water off a ducks back. Of course, your confidence is helped by the thousand or so police officers patrolling the area!

A ten minute walk down the road is the historic quarter which is not only completely safe but truly beautiful. Even more so at night when all the buildings are lit by up-lighters. There is no shortage of restaurants and bars there - though they don't exactly cater for the backpacker budget, you can treat yourself once in a while.

Each morning from the port hundreds of people leave on boats out to the various beaches nearby. We took one out to Playa Blanca (a popular choice) and enjoyed the white beaches, the turquoise waters, the hassling vendors less so - they don't take no for an answer so you just have to be rude.

Most people express concern about travelling to Colombia and think its a dangerous place to be. I heard before we came out that its a bit of a dated view now and I have to agree. There is a visible effort with tourism and that was especially noticeable in Cartagena. Its no surprise that its one of the top tourist destinations in the country.