Travelling from Galapagos to Cartagena was quite a journey! First, we had to take a taxi to cross the island. Then, we jumped on a boat to get to Baltra Island, where the airport is located. (There is no bridge because they don’t want the cats to invade the island and kill the rare species). After that, we hopped on a bus to get to the airport terminal. After a very slow queue in a place with no fresh air, we eventually managed to check-in for our flight to Quito.

We arrived at Quito airport 7 hours before our Quito-Bogota flight, so we decided to get “his & hers” haircuts” to kill some time! After some sushi, we checked in for our 1am flight to the capital of Colombia. We landed at 3am and waited at the airport for Chloe (Clo), Ed’s little sister, to arrive from London. She was joining us for a 10-day holiday in Colombia and we celebrated her arrival with breakfast at Crepes and Waffles at 4h30am.

At 8am, our Bogota-Cartagena took off and an hour later we were sweeping in to land over the Caribbean – Chloe abandoned her brief snooze to take in the spectacular coastline and clear blue sky – the prospect of 30-degree heat a welcome relief from the cold and miserable climate she’d left behind!

 

From the airport, we took a taxi to our accommodation, a hostel in the centre of town called casa Escallon. Unfortunately, being Easter weekend, this was the best our budget would allow. After a quick shower, we decided to go for a wander around the old city.

The walled city and fortress of Cartagena are designated UNESCO world heritage sites and people might remember it from that classic final scene of the film ‘Romancing the Stone’, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. Inspired, we bought fresh watermelon and mango sticks and Ed, feeling brave, even tasted some street lemonade (a perfect concoction of fresh lime juice, ice and sugar syrup…) he regretted it later…

That afternoon, Ed and Chloe enjoyed a beer on the hostel rooftop, while Lolo ran off to visit some of her friends, who were staying 5 minutes down the road, in an amazing house, Casa Pombo, which we’d see a lot more of the following night for the “White Party”…

This Easter weekend plan had been penciled in to our itinerary long before we left London. A number of Lolo’s friends (Daniela, Lucrecia, Luciana, Carolina, Jaime, Antonio, Maria Clara) had chosen Cartagena as the next venue for the latest “SDP” (Salah Desert Party) – no, this wasn’t a desert and sadly our generous host Salah couldn’t be there. But despite this, a young, beautiful and successful crowd (us included… obvs!) was gathering for what promised to be a serious 4-day party. Ed had timed his Birthday remarkably well…!

To celebrate our arrival in Cartagena, the three of us enjoyed gin cocktails and delicious tapas at a restaurant called “Agua de Mar”. We then headed to a salsa place to meet Lolo’s friends. We only managed a few drinks, before disappearing home, exhausted from our respective travelling.

On Thursday, we crossed the city and headed to the Radisson’s pool to spend the day with Enrique and his family. Enrique is a Venezuelan friend of Lolo’s and now lives in Bogota with his family. It was great for Lolo and Enrique to catch-up – we had lots of fun with his wife and kids (the hotel even organized a cooking class for the little ones – Ed was very upset he couldn’t join in!). We all enjoyed the infinity pool and Clo got to work on her tan!

When we got back, we started to prepare for the white party at Casa Pombo. Dani Q, one of Lolo’s best friends and self-appointed SDP coordinator, had organized the event and apparently, half of Cartagena was invited! Not to be outdone, Ed had bought a crisp, new white linen shirt and Lolo dived into the fresh clothing supplies that Clo had sweetly bought out with her. We felt like new people.

 

Casa Pombo is an incredible place. An enormous building right in the centre of town but hidden, unassumingly, behind a little green wooden door. The house consists of 6 vast, luxurious apartments, all clustered around a central courtyard, which also doubled as one of the two swimming pools, complete with waterfall and hot tub. The other swimming pool (obvs.) could be found on the expansive roof terrace, which is where we spent most of the evening, complete with DJ, copious amounts of alcohol (including Aguardiente, literally meaning “firewater”, a local alcohol made of sugar cane and taken as shots or directly from the bottle) and some spectacular views of Cartagena.

 

The party kicked-off in the house with canapés and a local band of ballenatos (if you wanted to get an idea of what it sounded like, click here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO0V4C8kDb8

The last ones standing ended up dancing in the reception room with Adriana, from El Salvador, playing DJ. Lolo was delighted to bump into her good friend Ambrad from Madrid. Originally from Cartagena, he now works in Bogota where he launched his successful consultancy company and also teaches in a few business schools. A few years ago, when Lolo came to Cartagena with her girlfriends Victoria, Sarah and Charlotte, he lent them an amazing flat with views of the sea.

 

On Friday, we woke up late and decided to go for a proper brunch at a place called La Brioche. Frustratingly, they didn’t have a brunch menu, so we decided to pick off a few starters from the breakfast menu, before waiting until the lunch service began for burgers – an essential part of any hangover cure… we were there for a while.

We strolled around the city in the afternoon and ended having diner in a very cool bar/restaurant in a neighborhood called Getsemani. We had a great view from the terrace and enjoyed a few ethnic tapas and delicious watermelon cocktails with the borders of the glasses coated with green sugar.

Saturday was the big day and the main reason why we had come to Cartagena, namely SDP or the Salah Desert Party. Salah is a friend of Lolo, originally from Dubai and known to throw those amazing parties, which would attract his friends from all over the world. Sadly, Salah could not make it but he still decided to “sponsor” the party and Dani Q did an incredible job at organizing everything. #thankyouSalah

Saturday morning a group of about thirty people met-up at the marina, where we boarded two twin-engine speedboats, fully equipped with food, drinks and a DJ (of course!). Our destination was the Islands el Rosario, a small cluster of Caribbean islands just off the north coast of Colombia. An hour later we arrived at our little private island (there were 2 or 3 houses) and it didn’t take long to settle-in.

 

Whilst the DJ set himself up, we took-in the view from the deck and then descended the three steps to our little private beach, for a dip in the warm sea. Our new friend Castro had bought his drone with him (which he sensibly only used while still sober). It provided some excellent aerial footage of the small island and caught the attention of some of the local party boats.

 

At the back of the house, Dani and Chechy (the other chief organiser) were busy eyeing up the fresh lobsters that the fishermen had just caught. The new purchases were sent to the kitchen and immediately supplemented to the lunch menu!

 

 

The party was soon in full swing – once accessorised (we all received hats), champagne and G&T’s started to appear from nowhere and it was not long before everybody started shaking their bodies J. Boats passed the front of the island and upon hearing our music, started competing with their own… it was total, undeniable, love-it-or-hate-it jet-set!

As you can imagine, Ed had an amazing time and absolutely loved his birthday abroad. His new friends (particularly Antonio, who was actually Vince Vaughn) continuously wished him a happy birthday and there were several impromptu choruses of “Happy Birthday” – he was happy as a clam in high tide!

 

 

It did not take long for everyone to be verrrryy happy. Imagine: sun, turquoise sea, great music, friends from around the world, new friends, (in some cases a lot of flirting and some budding relationships,) endless drinks and delicious food – it was a hell of a lot of fun. #thanksSalah

 

We enjoyed a delicious lunch of the freshest of fresh fish, lobster salad and coconut rice. Full and sleepy some of us tried to take a nap after lunch but it was a wasted effort, since pretty soon the music was up and running again and everyone was back in party mode. We were supposed to leave at 3pm to avoid high tide but we were having so much fun that we ended up leaving at 5pm…

 

 

Suffice to say, the way back was fairly treacherous with enormous waves crashing over the side of the boat – we all got absolutely soaking wet! If we’d been sober I think we’d have been completely terrified but the locals had the right idea and continued to circulate cartones (yes, cartons – as in a ‘carton’ of milk…) of Aguardiente – Ed, in quite a state by this point, did not quite get the name and kept calling it “agua caliente”, meaning hot water, which was quite funny (but not entirely incorrect if you take the literal translation….).

 

 

 

 

We got back to our hotel to find balloons, birthday cards and a bottle of champagne for Ed. Thanks Clo! The last thing Ed or Lolo needed was more alcohol, so we decided to delay any further celebrations, instead opting for a nap. A few hours later, we were showered and ready to celebrate Ed’s birthday (again!).

 

The celebration started with some champagne on the roof terrace and then diner at “La Vitrolla”, which is one of the most well known restaurants in town and very popular with the locals. In wonderful jet-set style, our friend Chechy has managed to get us a reservation last minute. “You simply must go there, I can get you a reservation”!

 

 

Some friends of Clo had joined us for dinner and we pretty much picked-up where we had left off! The food was excellent and as pudding arrived, there was another chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ but this time accompanied by the house Cuban orchestra!

 

The night could have ended in what looked to be a really sweaty club with lots of people but instead it ended with cocktails in the Café del Mar, with a beautiful view on the sea and the old town of Cartagena. We were kept amused by the free-for-all salsa dancing, although none of us were brave enough to get up and try it for ourselves.

Sunday, we woke up quite late and Lolo officially met Dominique, Clo’s friend – they used to work together at Christie’s – who had flown in from California and had arrived during the night. We had a lovely Easter Day breakfast, consisting of fresh fruits, pastries and real coffee (which was badly needed).

We then headed to a place called el “El Pescador de Colores” (Fisherman of colours) which is owned by a friend we had met at the white party on Thursday night. On our way there, our taxi was stopped and searched by police and for a split-second, we all wondered if our adventure would end there! Fortunately it didn’t – we weren’t even required to pay a “small fee”.

 

We arrived to find some reserved sun beds where we duly collapsed. Later that afternoon, we were joined by most of the SDP gang, who had all arrived by boat. We had an excellent lunch of paella, large prawns and some Provence rose (wonderful). The volume levels slowly began to pick-up, some of our friends started ordering shots and an ever increasing volume of wine … out of nowhere a DJ appeared and a few seconds later, the party was ON again! We hadn’t anticipated that spending a relaxing day recovering from the day before would involve a lot more drinking – it was great!

 

 

 

Later that afternoon, we all left by boat – this time the water was much calmer – which took us back to the marina in Cartagena. We said “goodbye” to all our friends and went home for a quiet night, just the four of us. We enjoyed a drink at “Le Baron”, which is considered to be Cartagena’s best cocktail bar. We loved the view and the atmosphere of the square. Later on, Lolo went straight to bed and Clo, Dominique and Ed went for dinner.

 

 

 

 

We ended up in the most comical restaurant, which bordered a giant square, populated with mega-tourists sitting at tables, studying menus with pictures in them. We had clearly made a mistake but the entertainment kept us mesmerised. Hovering around the square like locusts was a host of musicians, dancers, singers and beggars, all jostling for position and defending their plots like drug cartels.

 

 

 

The most interesting group consisted of 4 rappers, who would target tables with young kids, hoping their “coolness” would appeal enough to warrant some lose change. They arrived at the table next to ours and did their little performance. When finished they clapped themselves noisily (annoying) and stood, looking at mum and dad, expecting a handout. Then, one of the kids sitting at the table decided to respond and a little rap-battle ensued. Our immediate reaction was cringe! But the entertainers were thoroughly out-rapped by this little kid – it was priceless entertainment and well worth the expensive pizza and dreadful service!

We are truly grateful for this amazing week surrounded by friends and all the new ones we have made from Colombia, Mexico, the US, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Germany, Greece, Spain and Italy. Sorry for not naming every single one of you (otherwise our post would be freakishly long) but you know who you are! We also witnessed a few love stories starting and since we are finalising this post in 2017, we have a little Lorenzo “made in Cartagena” that joined our world 🙂

Highlights:

• Casa Pombo, a seriously cool place to hang-out in Cartagena
• Ed’s birthday party, courtesy of SDP, Salah’s extraordinary generosity and Dani Q’s expert organisation
• The SDP gang – we loved our time in Cartagena, thanks for making it so memorable!

Gastro Highlights:

• Agua de Mar restaurant, expert seafood tapas and gin bar
• Dinner at La Vitrolla – classic cusisine
• Fresh (birthday) lobster on the Island
• Aguardiente in carton-form! Imagine, vodka in a carton…