HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Eating a passionfruit gelato
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Forking over 268AUD for postage
WORD OF THE DAY: Postage goneski…….
We had absolutely no plans for today except to head back to the courier place this morning to find out what other prices they had been able to source. We saw Blue Heather and she said DHL were quoting 430AUD for 3KG!!!!! What a rip off, so it made us feel better that maybe the prices we were given were quite okay, well better than we would get anywhere else.
We had definitely missed breakfast this morning finally getting out the door at 10.30am, so we decided to head straight to Macca’s (yes again) for brunch and then with a full stomach visit our postage mates. We also hit the ATM again for some more pesos and it is awesome to hit the withdrawal button asking for 300,000 pesos and then seeing your balance of 5 million pesos still in the bank, if only that was the case using an ATM back home. I am a millionaire in Colombia and it feels great.
So we went back to our postal mates and they had prices from DHL of 754AUD and another company that was a similar price, so they did have the better rates by far and we decided to just bite the bullet and get these damn packages sent. It is the most I have paid for postage so far in my 12 months away, but only by 18 dollars, with my package sent from Morocco costing me 250AUD and that was also via courier as it is the only way your packages had a chance of getting out of the country and actually arriving to its destination, which for the record mine did. As part of the form filling process we had to put our finger prints on the address form and all for carbon copies and a police report also had to be filed, finger printed and signed as well. Talk about high security just trying to send some magnets and travel knick knacks home. But with all the paper work done, addresses and contact numbers all done we left 1.5 hours later with both of us 10kg lighter in our luggage and 265AUD dollars lighter in the wallet the boxes are on their way to Australia and New Zealand respectively. I was thinking that this would be my last package to be sent home, but while we are in Ecuador we are going to South America’s largest markets at Otavalo and we are there for the main market day of Saturday, so I am thinking I may have one more to send home and then that means that I can still just check-in with the one bag, my trust backpack that has lasted the distance (touchwood) but is sporting some superficial wounds, but I think the bag will hold for the next 9 weeks.
It was so hot today and I had plans to go to the beach, but with a bit of cloud cover anyway and the humidity we decided to have a midday siesta before heading into the old town this afternoon. I need sun to be able to sit in it. I know, I know you still get burnt with the clouds buts just not the same and my skin can probably do with a break anyways. We caught a taxi at 3.30pm into the old town, the cost was 3.74AUD, and spent a few hours walking around. The old town reminds me a little of Havana in Cuba. There are a lot of beautiful buildings that are in need of repair but in the same breath there are some beautiful buildings shining in all their glory it was just an amazing section of the city. The city was one of the first sanctuaries of freed African slaves in the Americas and is currently populated by an ethnic mix representative of Colombia's own variety. Cartagena, located on Colombia's northern coast and facing the Caribbean Sea, is the most visited city in the country by tourists. It gets extremely crowded in the December holidays and the holy week, when schools are out and most Colombians take their vacations. The city has basically two main parts where tourists go: the walled colonial city ("ciudad amurallada"), which is truly amazing and has many fancy restaurants, clubs and hotels; and a long strip of hotel towers and condos fronting onto the beach, known as Boca Grande. It is also nice to visit the exclusive neighborhood of Castillo Grande, filled with recently built condos, places to jog, and a quiet beach to soak up some sun. It really is a city of contrasts and has a lot to offer for any traveler.
The "walled old town", Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, began in 1533 and took 150 years to complete in 1639; to protect from pirates and thieves and what is referred to in present time as "the old city", Ciudad Amarullada. Cartagena was one of the first cities founded by the Spaniards in South America, but its location soon demanded a fortress built around it to protect their people and wealth. The wall stretches for seven and a half miles and behind this wall is an entire city of people sharing their Colonial heritage with churches, homes, businesses and plazas. Cartagena's main industry is coffee, shipped throughout the world. Additionally, they have many tropical fruits and flowers, and produce nickel, copper, coal, gold and emeralds. In fact, Cartagena is said to be the best place in the world to buy emeralds, so long as using a reputable company.
We were in search of a post office, which seem extremely hard to find in this country and ended up asking the Information Centre and found a large souvenir shop that sold the stamps. Now I am not one to pass on a look in a souvenir shop and I ended up walking out with 3 ceramic masks in stands as my purchase from Colombia. They also had country patches, the type that you sew onto bags. Sharon decided to buy all the patches to the countries that she is doing on her 12 month trip, and as much as I wanted to do the same thing, it was going to cost a lot as I would need to get over 100 of them at 5 bucks a pop, so I will save that for an EBay purchase when I get back to Oz and try and get them a little cheaper. I’m not sure exactly what I will do with them, but Sharon is looking at putting them onto a blanket and that sounds like a good idea. I did buy an Australian patch and an Ethiopian patch and I think I might get them sewn onto my new backpack before I head back to Europe and Africa.
After getting a passionfruit gelato we headed back to the hotel later in the afternoon to repack and to organize someday bags for the next few days on the road. We basically are hauling arse for the next 3 days to get us to the Colombian Capital of Bogota. It is going to be a long few days on the truck, so with that in mind we went to the supermarket and we stocked up on snacks. We only have like 6 truck days left and I have enough snacks to last 12 days I rekon.
So it is goodbye to our beach days in Colombia and beaches period. We are back to small towns, en-route days and big cities for our last 10 nights of the tour. I get butterflies thinking that this section is coming to a close but I have bigger and better things to look forward to so I am confident and happy that time is passing by. It could be worse and I could be heading back to Australia with no home, no job and no man-but instead I am continuing on to Easter Island, Barbados and the United States of America, a reunion with friends and family, a reunion with Zeme, a further 6 weeks of travelling in Europe and then the start of a new and exciting life in Ethiopia, Africa. Yes I am excited for the future and I am doing A-OK……
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