The trip report is a little off subject, because after going to Cali for four years, I did not spend any real time looking for girls. My intention was to find out what it would be like to live in Cartagena.
After arriving on tues, I immediately went to the taxi line up and yelled does anyone speak english? Three guys responded but only one could actually speak. His name is Dario and he worked on cruise ships for thirty years. We immediately went to Boccagrande and looked at the hotels. Most advertised on the internet, in the twenty dollar range, were dumps. I settled for the Hotel San martin. Like everything in Carta. negotiate! I got the room for thirty dollars a night including breakfast with no tax. Nice clean hotel with air conditioning. The beach was one block away, but I never went there.
Dario left and I called Juan Paul, a real estate agent. He arrived and we went to see several of the properties that he had sent photos of on the net. It turns out that he and an expat american own the site Cartagenainfo.com. We went to the expats apartment which was his office and met the american. The apartment was about 10x20 and you could see the beach if you leaned out the window. The guy was very impressed that he only paid $19,000 for it. He was pushing along with the Colombian as to which property I should buy. When, after only three hours in the city, I did not commit, Juan told me he had shown all the properties he had available. I told him I would get back with him and returned to the hotel. I didn't see Juan again until I ran into him while I was looking at a penthouse on the beach in Crespo. He lived in the building.
My first night in Cartagena gave me impressions of Thailand, Cuba and Puerto Rico. The clingey atomosphere as I walked thru Bocagrande and the little open air restaurants with people trying to sell t-shirts, sunglasses and jewelry are reminiscent of Bangkok. The walled City, fortresses and narrow streets picture San Juan. The road along the beach, the dark women and the old buildings smell of the malecon and Cuba.
I ended up in a restaurant in the old city. A typical old building with tables in the courtyard like you might find in Italy. Iron gratings on the windows for decoration (not like in Cali for safety). Brick and stone walls covered with paintings and jazz playing in the background. Dinner was, french onion soup ( home made with onions , not bullion cubes)Shrimp in a mango corriander, chili salsa with coconut rice served an aa banana leaf and for dessert A chocolate wafer with mango mousse covered with a blueberry sauce and expresso for a fixe prixe of 24,000 pessos I fell in love. MORE LATER JIM C
