We woke up before our 05:20 alarm.  It didn’t take long to get ready, and we left the hotel just before 06:00.  On the drive to the airport, Danna thanked us for actually knowing something about where we were - half of her clients seemingly know nothing about Medellín or Colombia generally.  We asked how this was/is possible, and it turns out many people just book pre-arranged trips and don’t do much (if any) research prior to landing at the airport.  We thanked her for the kind words, and we bid adieu at the airport.  

Inside the airport, it was fairly small, but then again we were in the domestic terminal.  Almost all the flights were going to either Cartagena or Bogotá.  There was an Avianca lounge, and there were about 6 people inside.  There was no plane at the gate when we arrived, but we theoretically weren’t late.  Eventually the plane arrived, and we departed maybe 10 minutes late.  The flight was short and sweet.  When we arrived, it was hot, but not quite as hot as Danna thought we would feel.  To our surprise, no one was there to greet us.  Justin pinged the travel agency, but before we even heard anything substantive back, our guide Luisa showed up.

Apparently there was a strike by taxi people, and so the roads were screwed up.  We had to walk a bit to get picked up, but it was no problem since we had just backpacks.  Once inside the car, we went straight to the hotel (Ananda Boutique Hotel) to check in and drop our bags, but our room wasn’t ready yet.  So we just left the bags and got back in the vehicle, and we went over to Fuerte San Felipe de Barajas, the largest of the many fortresses around Cartagena.

The fort took about 100 years for its complete construction, and was designed more to protect the city from inland invaders as opposed to those coming from the sea.  The fort is triangle shaped, sort of like the hats of the time.  Luisa pointed out lots of false passageways and other defensive tactics intended to trick potential invaders.  She also pointed out blocks made out of coral rock, which help the fortress deal with humidity, and also aren’t as likely to blow up if hit by a cannonball.

After visiting the big fort, we went to a smaller one nearby, right on Cartagena Bay.  On the drive we chatted about our kids - she showed us her dog first, then her son.  We understood.  She gave us several restaurant recommendations, and also gave us input on the restaurants that we’d found during our research.  Moreover, she gave us specific drink recommendations at Alquimico and El Arsenal, where we were planning to go tonight.  The second fort, Fuerte de San Sebastián del Pastetillo, was tiny by comparison, and Luisa told us that it is now owned by a restaurant.  The view of Bocagrande was incredible, however.  The skyline reminded us of Miami, albeit with the massive caveat that we haven’t actually been to Miami.

We got out of the vehicle inside Cartagena’s walled city.  Our afternoon excursion was to walk around inside the walls, in Cartagena’s Old Town.  We started by the Aduana, which we knew from Tenerife to be the customs house.  From there we walked a couple blocks to Santuario de San Pedro Claver.  Pedro Claver was a Jesuit missionary who wanted to end slavery, or at least greatly alleviate the suffering of the slaves.  He was unfortunately about a century too early, but his works were still very positive.  He got some of the slaves to convert, which scored him some points with the government officials.  About 100 years after his death, his virtues were declared heroic by the Catholic Church.

Whilst sitting within the sanctuary bearing his name, Luisa told us a bit about the La Candelaria festival.  Way back when, people would try to have their slaves “outperform” others, whether in terms of cooking or dancing or whatever.  The celebration is still held every January-February, which sounded a bit cringeworthy (to us).  We had about 15 minutes or so on our own to walk around the sanctuary, and we saw the church and some of the paintings and stained glass artwork of Pedro Claver from centuries ago.

Next we walked through the square next to the Aduana, eventually making our way over to the gold museum.  At the museum, in addition to the gold, we watched a couple videos.  The first was about the habitat near Mompox (south of Cartagena on the Magdalena river), and the second video was about jewelry making and hat making.  The craftsmanship was really impressive, and the hats looked incredibly intricate.  We had thought of going to Mompox when we booked the trip, but it required a multi-day cruise that we didn’t really have time for.  We asked Luisa about Mompox, and she raved, saying it was her favorite place in Colombia.

After leaving the museum, we went to a square (Plaza de Bolivar) that reminded us of Jackson Square in New Orleans.  We wrapped up our tour at the hotel around 15:00.  We checked into our room, which was two levels high.  There were bathrooms on both levels, but the toilet on the first floor didn’t work.  Also, both bathrooms had windows open to the outdoors, so we had more zancudos.  We made sure to keep the bathroom doors shut so that they couldn’t get into the main living areas.

It was an odd time to eat, between lunch and dinner, so we looked for places open around 16:00.  We decided to eat at Porthos, just a couple blocks down the street.  It was supposed to be a steakhouse, but it was a “steakhouse” in the sense of Outback.  The food was nevertheless good, but that may have had more to do with our hunger.  On the TV, La Palma (the team from Gran Canaria) was playing fútbol.  When that game went to halftime, they changed the channel, and St Pauli (whom we’d learned about at a bar in Vienna in December) was playing, so apparently it was our day.

After leaving the restaurant, we stopped at a local store to get some water and sunblock.  Back at the hotel, someone fixed the toilet in short order.  We killed some time in the room drinking a bunch of water and lounging around for a bit.  Then Justin went to try to find the tower that could be climbed (theoretically at or by the Claver Sanctuary), but there was no evidence of that being possible, so he just came back.  On the walk he passed by a church that was hosting a wedding, and also more singing and dancing at Plaza Bolívar.

At 17:40 we walked over towards El Arsenal, where our travel agency had kindly booked a private rum tasting for us.  Luisa was supposed to walk us there, but because we started our tour early today, we ended early, and so we told her it was unnecessary for her to come back a few hours later just to walk with us, as it was just a short walk.  The agency wasn’t too thrilled with her, but it was about a 10 minute walk, and we had Google Maps, plus a good sense of direction, and we wanted her to enjoy her Friday afternoon.

On the walk there were a ton of people out dancing in the streets, and there was music everywhere.  The Old Town reminds us of New Orleans, sort of.  Like New Orleans, there is a weird eclectic mix of people and a lot of history.  Unlike New Orleans, no local people appear to live in the Old Town.  Moreover, it is literally impossible to look at anything for more than half a second before someone comes over and tries to sell you something, or urges you to come inside their shop, or whatever.  There are also taxi drivers everywhere, constantly honking their horns at anyone who isn’t walking full speed in a specific direction.  Basically, it’s exhausting just trying to enjoy Cartagena.

At El Arsenal, the person doing the tasting for us was late, so they gave us a cocktail at the bar while we waited for a bit.  About halfway through our drink they mentioned they were ready, and so we took our martini glasses with us on the streets of Cartagena for about half a block, into some random door and up a set of stairs, where there was a good-sized room set up for private tasting events.  Wes and Chelsea (Coco) took care of us - and it was only us.  We started with Baluarte Añejo, then a Baluarte XO cocktail with cinnamon and vermouth and cinnamon syrup, then Aguardiente Antioqueño, then Mil Demonios, then Ron Viejo de Caldas 8, then PX (made with Pedro Ximenez casks) [Justin’s favorite], then La Hechicera [Crystal’s favorite], and finally Dictador Seductivo (made for the Austrian market, go figure).

We really liked Wes and Coco, and they seemed to be fans of ours as well.  We got the impression that we were (a bit) less drunk than the usual guests, and also more knowledgeable about what we were drinking.  They seemed a bit surprised at how not drunk we were after all the drinks - we aren’t sure if we should be happy or sad about that.  They also seemed surprised, but also not surprised, that our plan after the rum tasting was to go to Alquimico, a local bar.

Alquimico is (currently as of March 2025) listed as the 8th best bar in the world.  We tried to go to Sips (ranked #3) a few months ago, but we couldn’t get in.  So the top bar we’ve been to is Paradiso (#10), Cambridge Public House (#19), La Sala de Laura (#44, which we visited in Bogotá), Florería Atlántico (#46), Little Red Door (#59), Mirror Bar (#62), Wax On (#73), and Nouvelle Vague (#95).  The list changes once or twice a year, so some that used to be listed we’ve been to (like Bar High Five and Two Schmucks), and others (like Nouvelle Vague and Mirror Bar) weren’t listed when we went there.  [Relatedly, a week after returning from Colombia, we went to London for our anniversary and in one night visited Tayer + Elementary (#4), Connaught Bar (#13), Satan's Whiskers (#29), Kwant Mayfair (#52), Amaro (#90), and Viajante87 (#99).]

We liked Alquimico, but we couldn’t really understand why it was listed so high.  Crystal got a drink with smoky mezcal, and Justin got one with mango.  Crystal was really tired, so she headed back after one drink.  Justin had two more, the first a bit too sweet, the second with albahaca (basil) was much better.  The vibe in the bar was really impacted, in a negative way, by all the drunk and rude Americans nearby, including a group next to him ordering vodka shots.  Other people at the bar were miffed as well.  Back at the hotel, Crystal was still up, but we went to sleep around 22:30.