Sailing the Southern Caribbean

Today’s post is a little different. Instead of me droning on for an hour, for you slow readers, or twenty-eight seconds, for those realizing they got the wrong site, I would like to present you with a cinematic master piece. A MONTAGE!!!

But before you cringe let me also say that it has music, and dolphins jumping, and oceans, and an amazing car race with scantly clad women….OK the last part is a lie.

It’s a video re-cap of our sailing journey across the southern Caribbean from Grenada to Colombia, over 1000 nautical miles, 7 months, and 2 sailboats later.

So go pop some pop-corn, sit back and relax!

Sailing The Southern Caribbean from Hop & Jaunt on Vimeo.

It’s also on YouTube if you have a preference.

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Perros and Plazas of Cartagena

During the last month of staying in Cartagena (we were there 3 months) we rented a room at Casa Valdez, a hostel-like place only a block from Plaza Trinidad. We had scored the upstairs room with the only balcony/window at the place by the second week and though the water didn’t work in the sink we  called it home. The hostel technically came with a pretty decent communal kitchen but John and I were already so unaccustomed to cooking that it might have taken a half a day to recognize what it was.

Untouched Kitchen

It had most of the utensils we needed.

Nice Design.

The truth is that we had grown accustomed to eating the ‘typical’ food of the city at as local a price as we could get them. There was not many meals that we could make that would be as good or as cheap as a Chorri Perro (giant hot-dog with crushed potato-chips, four different sauces, and melted cheese) or bbq chicken and vegetables on a stick, or even a plate of beef steak and potatoes from the street vendors at our local plaza (square).  The truth be told we were quite happy to save our money by going out to eat everyday. We tried street vendors, local lunch dinners, and on a special occasion we even splurged on a five-star night out. Today I’ll take you on a mini culinary tour of the city of Cartagena.

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Storming the Castillo

 The Hop & Jaunt crew explore the largest fortress of the Spanish Main.
Its been nearly a month since we left Colombia.  Alyson and I are really missing the tropically warm climates and bustling city life.  So today we are blogging about one of our favorite afternoons in Cartagena when we visited the “Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas:  The largest Spanish Fortress in the World!”

Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas

The fortress is really an impressive structure.  It can be seen towering on its hill looming over the old city and water front.  It’s a massive construction, but it needed to be.  In the days of Spanish Conquisition in the New World, Cartagena was THE major port for exporting gold back to Spain.  That meant that nearly all the gold in South America had to come through Cartagena to make the jump to Europe.  As anyone can imagine, this made Cartagena the jackpot for pirating.  Pirates plundered and attacked the city numerous times.  Most notoriously was Sir Francis Drake, the famed English privateer.  Eventually after numerous attacks and ship loads of stolen gold King Ferdinand of Spain ordered the fortress to be built.

It took over 200 years to build it.

Although you can see the castle from anywhere in town we did have some trouble getting to it.  First off, we didn’t know the actual name of Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas.  We just called it the Big Fort.  So when we got into a taxi cab we had trouble giving directions to the driver.  Neither of us knew the Spanish word for “Fort”.  We drove around in circles for nearly 15 minutes babbling to the driver about how we wanted to go to the “Big, Old, Building”.  The poor guy was so confused.  He kept staring at us through the rear view mirror asking, “Que?”  Finally, I remembered the word Castillo and he instantly knew what we were talking about.  He had a pretty good sense of humor about it.

Entry into the fort is about $5 US dollars and its definitely worth it.  One great way to spend an afternoon in Cartagena is just walking around taking pictures, and the Castillo is a pretty awesome place to explore. 

Alyson camera ready at Castillo de San Felipe. Our photo tour begins.

Guard tower at the corner of the wall.

At the top of the wall, there are several entrances into the fortress.

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24hrs In Bogota

It was a couple of weeks before Christmas when John and I decided to heed the call of his family and visit them for the holidays. We managed to find a decent deal flying out of Cartagena (not the cheapest place to fly in and out of) and as a bonus due to the flight schedule we had an entire day to spend in Bogota. The catch was that we had not told a soul, our visit was to be a complete surprise to his family. The only one who knew was his cousin Griffin, who we had arranged to pick us up at the airport. In order to achieve maximum impact we orchestrated the arrival to be on Christmas Eve, at night when we knew the entire extended family would be sitting around the tree at John’s childhood home.

Flying To Bogota

We flew out of Cartagena without a hitch and in a few hours found ourselves racing through city highways and traffic as our yellow cab wound it’s way through Bogota to our hostel.

Airport Vendor in Bogota

Handy Translations For Tourist In Bogota Cab

We arrived in the hostel by 3:30pm and we had to be at the airport no later than 5:30 am the next morning. With such limited time we wanted to hit the city fast to see as much as possible. After checking in we realized a few things about our immediate surroundings: 1.) Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was the nicest backpacker hostel we have been in, and 2.) It was CHILLY in Bogota at 60F! It was a little worrisome that it was already feeling freezing to us at 60F when where we were going in the U.S., even though in the South, was a nippy 30-40F! I guess spending 8 months where the temperature never dropped under 70F had seriously damaged our sense of hot and cold.

Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was created by a backpacker who fell in love with Colombia and wanted to create a hostel where all the needs he had identified while traveling where put into practice. The results are quite nice.

Cranky Croc Hostel

Aly at the Cranky Croc Hostel

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Christmas Time in Cartagena

The Old Walled City of Cartagena at Night

One of our favorite Christmas time traditions is to go for a ride and look at the Christmas lights and decorations. This year we continued the tradition in Cartagena by taking a horse drawn carriage ride through the old walled city. We picked a nice warm night, grabbed the cameras and hit the streets.

For me its different to be in such a warm climate during the holiday season. Its odd to be sweating in the mid-day heat while listening to “White Christmas” (although I suppose there is plenty of “snow” here).  Despite the heat, Christmas season is celebrated in Colombia just as enthusiastically as in the United States.  The city becomes decorated with an array of vividly colored lights and ornaments.  Nativity scenes are especially prominent in front of the gigantic, ominous cathedrals. 

A Large Illuminated Nativity Scene

Cherry blossom Christmas lights are set in trees throughout the city

The old city is safe enough to stroll through during the nights and evenings.  In fact, it was one of our favorite activities to aimlessly meander around town in the cool of night.  But if you want to view the city in style, you can’t beat a horse drawn carriage.  The clip-clop of the horse’s shoes on the cobblestone streets really add to the charm of the city.  A fair price for a coach ride is around 25,000 Pesos ($12.50 US).

We hire a coche for a ride around town.

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