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Deco07

Boat Sitting: A Luxurious Alternative to Hostels

The roof tops of Cartagena

So we’ve been living on the sea for the past eight months. And life was good. But once we arrived in Colombia, it was time to go ashore and try life on land for awhile. Skipper Paul was kind enough to let us stay on his boat until the craziness of Festival Week subsided, but once the locals returned to work…so did we.

Alyson and I took to the streets everyday in search of the perfect accomodations. And while hostels are overly abundant and accomodating in Cartagena, we wanted something a little more unique. Ideally we had in mind a nice little apartment overlooking some scenic downtown plaza. Our friends say that “we have Champagne tastes on a beer budget”, but everyone has to have a dream.

Its really quite difficult arriving in a new place and trying to find a place to settle down. Cartagena’s streets are a labyrinth of alleyways and narrow corridors, and the midday heat was exhausting. Not to mention that we have no car and no phone. Its not easy, but we were determined.

Looking for Apartments

We visited a few rentals. Some were high end and some were more economical. We ended up looking at a few high end apartments as the rent listed in the ads and the “actual” rent were off by a few zero’s behind the cost! But while we were there it was nice to imagine living in such a posh, clean, and cool place. It turned out that our timing for renting long term could not have been worse. Cartagena is a touristic city and it’s seasons are high from November to January. In these few months most of the businesses make up to 80% of their yearly income! Especially for renters. We found that Cartagena offered almost every type and level of accomodations. In fact, during the high seasons most condos, apartments, houses, mansions, rooms, and any other type of living quarters are rented by the day. Thus if you were on a vacation there are endless alternatives to staying at the typical chain hotel ( though they have really nice ones as well).

Stopping in a diner to get out of the heat and have some lunch.

Looking for apartments is tiring.

We found that the prices varied extremely as well. A high end, furnished two bedroom apartment in the center of town will go between $1000-2000 a month. This was a bit too high for us, and wishing they would of said as much in the beggining of the 2 hour tour, we grit our teeth and headed back out into the heat.