Cartagena

In the afternoon, I arrived at the third stop of the Colombian tour: Cartagena, a seaside city. When I got off the plane, a burst of heat came to my face. It was more than 30 degrees and the humid coastal climate made me sweat immediately. I just watched a pirated movie in Bogota-Will Smith's new movie Gemini Man, which was filmed here. I booked a youth hostel for two days, and the conditions are too good. I have never stayed in a youth hostel with two toilets and bathrooms in one room, and breakfast is included. I'm the only one in the six-person room tonight, so worth it!

I went out for a casual stroll in the afternoon, and there were a lot of graffiti and hawkers in the alleys of the city. It was obvious that it was a super-commercialized tourist city. When asking the price before, locals and tourists will be told the same price, but here the price is at least doubled, and it is impossible to bargain.

Strolling all the way to Monumento Torre Del Reloj, the Colombian parade is still going on in the square in front of the bell tower.

Walking and walking, I heard the music and went away, and saw a group of local black dance performances, and there was an accompaniment band next to it. In this hot weather, they can still twist like this at such a fast speed, it is really passionate and contagious. Feel like watching a fast-forward video, I swear I didn't fast-forward! And after each dance, they went to the tree in the middle of the small park to change their outfits for the next dance, which was also extremely fast.

The next morning, I went to the Castillo de San Felipe castle alone. I bought a ticket as soon as the gate opened and went in. The view of the city from the top is not bad.

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On the sofa guest app, I contacted a donkey friend who wanted to go out with me. He is an Indian studying graduate school in Germany, studying sustainable energy architecture. He recommended me to take a free city walking tour. During the walking tour, I met two new friends, a German and a Dutchman. They really have a lot of holidays. The two-hour walking tour was almost sunburned. This city is really too humid and sticky. After that, I, a foodie, took the three of them to several restaurants recommended by locals to eat local specialties. This coastal city is famous for its seafood. Fortunately, we went early, and the whole restaurant was full in a short while, and most of them were locals. The portion of the food here is too big, in line with the principle of not wasting food, I killed all my portion!

After eating, we continued to walk around to digest food, but we couldn’t find the place to go according to the directions on the map. There happened to be a school next to it, so we went in and asked for directions. A boy scout came out to help us guide us and lead us there. In the concentrated area of tourists, you can see some local aboriginal blacks buying with a basket of fruit. The clothes are very colorful, which is exactly the same as the painting on the wall in the restaurant just now.

In the evening, I had planned to go to Baluarte de Santo Domingo to watch the sunset with the donkey friends who were walking in the city, but they didn’t have internet and couldn’t be contacted. Only the Indian brother showed up. There are many people, and it is difficult to coordinate and coordinate.

For dinner, I had an appointment with a local senior foodie couch friend, who not only recommended me and my Indian brother local specialties, but also popularized the Spanish names of a bunch of foods with us, and strongly recommended some foods that I haven’t eaten yet. It's too late to meet each other, I'm afraid my stomach is not big enough. Maybe tomorrow I will have to change my plan in order to eat more of the delicacies he recommended!

I planned to take a long-distance bus to Santa Marta in the early morning of the third day, but since I met the local foodie friend last night and heard him introduce a bunch of local delicacies, I decided to stay for half a day and go to a place with him Mercado de Bazurto, a market only locals know. He even brought me an empanada early in the morning, which is exactly what he said yesterday: the empanada here is different from the stuffing in Bogota.

Before going to this market, he gave me various vaccinations, saying that the area where this market is located is relatively poor, and all kinds of dirty and messy, so I must be mentally prepared. He also told me that Anthony Bourdain (the famous food traveler in the United States) rarely returns to the countries he has visited to shoot again, but Colombia is an exception. He had been to this super messy market to shoot before his death, but he spoke highly of the food.

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It's a quarter of an hour's walk from my youth hostel to this market. There are noisy voices and various smells permeate the air. My friend is not exaggerating at all, it is indeed dirty and messy, but it is very authentic. I am very happy to visit this kind of local market every time I go to a country. My local friend hasn’t been here for a long time. Even he has never seen a lot of food and fruit. When I asked what the hawker was, he was told and added: Welcome to Colombia. Haha, it seems that he was also treated as a tourist. Many stalls sell all kinds of magical dishes similar to big pot rice. I asked the hawker to put a little of each kind on a plate to try something new. My friend told me that there are shark meat and turtle meat in it, and the rest are normal paella. This big platter, two glasses of fresh juice, and a bowl of fish bone soup cost less than $8 for two people. After that, he also recommended that I pack a cassava and fried fish to take to the next stop, Santa Marta, for dinner, because he was really not good there, and he had a look of disdain when he said it, haha.

After packing, he went home and drove me to the long-distance station. He also told me that when the driver stopped to buy water on the road, I should try the local snacks sold by the vendors on the road. Today I tasted a fruit that I have never tasted before. It tastes very familiar, but I can't remember what it is.

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