As most tourists do upon arriving into a new city, we found our hotel and slept for 14 hours. Not intentionally, but clearly the 3 am wake up in New York and the excitement of the World Cup on the plane clearly tired us out. Plus a very long and cold flight from the Philippines to New York gave me a cold too.

So really our week started on Monday 8 am at the Spanish school. To get to class we took a small enchanting walk through the streets of Getsamni, an area once know for being ‘dodgy’ now full of hostels, cafes and spanish schools. To start school we were asked to take a quick speaking test. It took about 2 minutes for me to realise how little I remember from school, but I decided to take a more intensive class and study hard to get back into the swing of it! The classes were small, (max 5 people) and the teacher Miguel, looked very young. I also realised quickly that he spoke as much English as I spoke Spanish. At first I was perturbed by this, but really, how else was I going to learn. Thankfully the Norwegian and Germans could help translate when I got into difficulty and google translator helped a lot. By the end of the week I really could understand more and string a sentence together.

Our first evening out in Getsamni we joined the rest of the town to sit in the square outside the church. The square had been an important part of the history of cartagena, and is now a centre of Bohemians, drinkers and the tourists. Every evening we watched dancers, gymnastics, singers, breakdancers come to entertain the audience. Although it seemed very unofficial, we learnt that there was a timetable they kept to, and no randomers with guitars could infiltrate. A really nice way to spend the evenings and something we relished after Asia!

Our second day we explored the main town centre after school. It was like an upmarket version of Getsamni, but adorned with expensive shops, a higher density of sellers and horse carriages carting through the back streets. An evening walk finished on the city walls over looking the sea, perfecto.

On Wednesday we treated ourselves to a nice meal in town at the best cevicheria in town.

On Thursday we were invited to join a birthday of one of the girls in Ollys class. We jumped on one of the local ‘chevies’. An open bus, with a live band, whiskey and a night club finish. The whiskey took awhile to arrive so we started on the beers before, and the birthday team were super generous in buying everyone beers to start the evening off properly! This is very popular evening entertainment and the vibe when the band was playing as we veered around the corners through the streets was great. Our Spanish school had also made us learn a traditional Colombian song for an end of course presentation, so when that started playing we could actually sing along too!

Friday was a national holiday, but we couldn’t find any big celebrations around that day. We decided to visit the small gold museum which was actually very interesting and had some funny looking burial pots that are worth sharing a picture off. Love their little hands.

Again, in the evening we headed to the square with a bottle of wine and met a lovely Mexican guy and German girl and a homeless local. After lots of wine and beer my Spanish with Arnold the local was flowing very well!

Compared to south east Asia, we feel that we don’t achieve as much during the days here, but the temperatures are something else!

Our final weekend was spent venturing up to the Spanish Fort, the largest overseas for the Spanish and then on Sunday we visited the local beach.

The beach wasn’t the average beach experience. Firstly the volume of sellers here is quite incredible. Every minute, without fail, someone would walk past selling tattoos, drinks, food, magnets, manicures, day trips, sunglasses you name it. Our beach neighbours rented a large speaker and they were pumping tunes out all day! None of the British politeness about the volume Everyone was drinking Cerveza, and you’d find huge piles of cans and bottles next to glamorous ladies sunbathing; they can certainly drink in Colombia!