I don’t know why but I was so excited about Cartagena. I hadn’t heard bad things about it but nor had I heard anything particularly good either. Maybe it was the lack of expectation that made it exciting? Either way, I was gassed. I arrived late afternoon to the bus station, which is in central Cartagena, jumped in an Uber with a somewhat over-friendly driver and drove just shy of an hour to the Ciudad Amurallada part of Cartagena.

My first feeling about Cartagena was that is was giving Miami x Dubrovnik. Have I been to Miami? No, not yet, but Cartagena was giving what I imagine Miami to be like, mixed with a little Dubrovnik, ‘old town’ charm. The Walled City is like a rabbit warren with small streets coming off small streets off small streets. There are gorgeous boutique clothing shops, souvenir shops and of course emerald shops. Colombia is known to have the best emeralds in the world, so being the jewellery fiend I am, I promised myself I would get myself a pair of small Colombian Muso emerald earrings. I went to Lucy Jewelry and had a beautiful shopping experience – prosecco, super helpful sales associate, no rushing, no pressure. For the 30 minutes I was in that shop, I wasn’t a broke, budget, bummy traveller, I was an elegant lady, buying herself jewels. I wandered around some more, dipping into shops to have a browse and eventually got scammed by some Palenqueras, which I can’t even say I was mad about. The Palenqueras, are the ladies you see dotted around Cartagena in colourful, ruffled dresses. Palenque, (a town about an hour from Cartagena), was the first community of free and escaped slaves in Colombia. Although free, times were still hard so the women travelled to the more lively city of Cartagena to sell their produce. I guess the rest is history and now Palenqueras are an iconic part of Cartagena, on almost every street corner taking pictures with tourists.

Of course I did a walking tour with Beyond Colombia, (duh). Plaza de Santo Domingo which is right in the centre was the first plaza and church built in Cartagena in 1569. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, (author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, find my thoughts here), is actually buried up the road from the cathedral. Cartagena is in a perfect strategic position, as a port city on the Caribbean Coast, it was a target for other European conquerors and also pirates. In 1586, Francis Drake invaded the city burning a good chunk of it down, including the original cathedral. To avoid another attack like that, the decision to build a fortress wall around it was made. It took some 200 years to build the wall for protection but it now acts as the iconic ‘Old Town’ part of the city.

One of the girls I had met in Cali was in Cartagena at the same time so we met up the following day at the beach. I did some research, (ie. consulted ChatGPT), and was told that Playa Hollywood and Playa Castillo Grande were the best beaches in mainland Cartagena. For the best beaches in the area, the Rosario Islands came highly recommended. We spent the afternoon in Playa Castillo Grande – chit chatting, practising salsa, drinking coconuts and generally just frolicking around. That evening we headed to some rooftop bars, (Movich Hotel, TownHouse, Alquimico), and ended our night at Plaza de la Trinidad in Getsemani with my one true love of the trip: a Smirnoff Ice.

I love a city with a beach and that’s exactly that Cartagena is but with a sprinkle of a reminder that you’re in Colombia with Parque del Centenario where you can find sloths, monkeys and iguanas. The weather was beautiful, (if a little internal organ roasty at points), and it’s really just a great place to wander around. The city has a rooted elegance energy to it – Cartagena is the effortlessly cool girl who is really smart and big on history and culture.