Day 8: Arrive in Cartagena, Which is Pronounced Carta-hay-nuh, not Carta-hay-n’ya
Today we bid Bogota adios and set off for warmer Cartagena, just a one-hour flight away. We were sad to say goodbye to such a great city and such a great week.
We wonder even if Bogota has set the bar too high for the rest of our trip. Stunning Airbnb, super affordable city, easy to live like locals, good friends, amazing food. Gah!
Anyway, the kids were great in transit – at the airport James did math and counting games while Willa wrote a playground review and drew a still life of our backpacks.
On the plane they watched Netflix shows on their iPads. I was sitting in front of James and could hear him snorting laughing behind me at some cartoon. This was the view:
The heat felt amazing after beautiful but brisk Bogota.
The old walled city of Cartagena is 20 min max from the airport. We’re staying in a small hotel called Ananda.
The kids were fascinated by the herb-scented hand towel handed to them upon arrival. You mean you just wash yourself here in the lobby with your clothes on?
Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived so we had a lunch in the hotel courtyard — ceviche, grilled shrimp and some empanitas. James seemed dazed but bounced back when we got our swimsuits on.
Our hotel room is two floors – the kids are on cots “downstairs” and we’re in a lofted king. The stairs are those floating steps with no railing and we spent a lot of time talking about staircase rules for our stay (jesus).
The pool is a small plunge in an ancient courtyard. If its crumbly walls could talk I’m not sure I’d want to hear what kind of haunted, terrifying things they’ve seen.
Cartagena — so picturesque and charming — but has a seriously sinister history. Very curious to learn more over the next few days.
We found a little terrace on the third floor of our hotel overlooking the pool and the four of us just hung out for an hour — something we almost never do. Neither parent had a phone, no one had anywhere to be. Teddy dozed while Willa, James and I played “try not to laugh” and took turns trying to get the others to crack up. Needless to say, lots of “this pillow is my new hat”-type jokes and bathroom humor ensue.
We did a quick and early kid-friendly Italian dinner before getting the kids asleep by 730. Think James is still feeling his high-altitude scootering from yesterday…
Plan is to take it sort of easy the next few days before a pretty intense two weeks in Peru.
Heading to bed with the sound of horses outside our window every 10 minutes.
PS – Why do Americans call this city Cartagen’ya? There’s no ya. It’s just Carta-hay-nuh. Learning!
