Today Crystal was up at 04:15 and out of bed at 05:00, and Justin was up at 06:00.  For once, it was a lazy morning, until 06:45 when we started to get ready.  We had breakfast at 07:00, and we decided to sit outside, which was nice, but resulted in some mosquito bites.  At 08:00 we met our driver, but not Luisa.  We drove towards the dock (it would’ve been quicker/easier to walk), and the driver was messaging Luisa on the drive.  She met us at the dock right after we arrived.  Apparently she’d shown up at the hotel right after we left.  That kind of proves the point that it would’ve been just as easy to walk.

It was absolute chaos outside the dock, with vendors everywhere, trying to sell water, beer, towels, sunblock, bug spray, and seemingly everything else under the sun.  Once inside it was still chaos, but a bit different.  Inside there were about 15 different companies with their own boats and crews, and they seemingly were all trying to leave at the same time.  Our boat had space for about 40 people, and was mostly full.  We were traveling with Hotel San Pedro de Majagua.  The point of the day was to have a nice relaxing beach day.  We hoped once we arrived it would be a bit more relaxing than the start.

On the way out of Cartagena Bay we saw the two forts we'd visited yesterday, and then went past two more forts (Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica and Fuerte de San José) that protected the bay way back when.  Luisa had told us yesterday that there were close to a dozen forts still present in Cartagena - we’d now seen at least four of them.  Once past the forts and out on the open ocean (actually a sea, but whatever) the water was bumpier, but not bad at all.  We were sitting at the front of the boat, which should theoretically be drier but at the expense of more bumps.  It took about an hour to go from the dock in Cartagena to the hotel dock on El Pueblito, the largest of the Rosario Islands, and we had views of a ton of pelicans along the way.

At the Majagua hotel we all gathered around a gentleman (we assume the hotel manager or someone similar), who told us what options were available to us today.  We couldn’t hear a word of what he was saying, however, because there was a huge generator right next to us powering some sort of pump, maybe for removing sewage from the hotel.  Additionally, there was even more noise, from workers constructing a new building maybe 15-20 meters from where we were standing.  From what we could gather, there were two beaches at the hotel, a “quiet” beach right next to the generator and sewage pump, or a beach that was going to be playing loud music all day.

Crystal chose the beach with the loud music.  She read, she did some language tasks on her phone (there was wi-fi), and she had some white wine.  She also did her best to politely get the numerous vendors selling “local” (undoubtedly Chinese) jewelry and other items.  Justin chose to leave this nonsense and walk around the island instead.  He used the paths through the center of the island that the locals use, and he looked for wildlife and - perhaps - somewhere actually peaceful and relaxing.  He succeeded in finding wildlife, as there were falcons, vultures, loros, lizards, songbirds, and butterflies.  There were some really unique turquoise lizards along the path, but they kept scurrying away immediately.  He failed in finding peace and quiet, as there was a lot of trash and seemingly always noise coming from somewhere - one of the various resorts, party boats circling the island, or both.  

After Justin retraced his steps to Majagua, he drank some water, used the facilities, and then headed out again.  On his second walk he finally got a photo of the turquoise lizard, Gaige’s Rainbow Lizard.  He also found something resembling a village in the center of the island.  It wasn’t lunchtime yet, and the village was basically empty.  In the village he first heard, then saw, a large iguana.  He found a couple more resorts on his walk, a pier (presumably for stocking the village), and one or two tiny beaches that did seem like they might be peaceful if not for the numerous party boats offshore.  He got back around noon, and then swam in the ocean for 20 minutes or so.  While he was swimming, a guy on a canoe came up and asked if he wanted to buy some beer.  There is seemingly no escape from vendors anywhere in the vicinity of Cartagena.

We sat on the beach together for a bit, watching for pelicans (they were everywhere), good paddleboarders, and bad paddleboarders.  At the bay right next to ours, there was another resort, and we saw two young women paddle out on their knees.  When they started to stand up, Justin told Crystal “better than 50-50 they fall off” - it took all of 10 seconds for this to come to fruition.  We discussed how it would be hard enough for one person learning to paddleboard to balance himself/herself, but that two people would make things infinitely more difficult, as you don’t know what your partner is going to do.  To remedy this problem, they thought adding a third person would help (it didn’t), and then a fourth person (it really didn’t).  We waited for a fifth, but that never came.

So around 13:00 we went to lunch, which was included in the price of our tickets (the booze was not).  The table next to us had about a dozen Americans aged around 30 (plus the Mom of one of them).  They seemed to be quite wealthy, and one of them was loudly talking on the phone about a deal he wasn’t interested in if it was going to net him “only” $50k.  We commented to each other that Cartagena (in large due to its clientele) isn’t really our vibe.  The food was good, and we watched several of the stray dogs try to sneak food from tables after the patrons left.  Some staff members tried to shoo the dogs away, and others consciously looked the other way.  

We were ready to leave at 14:30 - when we were told to be ready to leave - but then we and the other guests sat there for 30 minutes.  No one said why we needed to wait, and/or why we’d been told 14:30 if that wasn’t the right time.  The staff could see us all just standing there by the pier, holding our gear, but they just walked around as if we were invisible.  The whole excursion was a bit of a bummer, neither peaceful nor relaxing.  On the boat we sat in the same seats, but there were more people this time, so two people sat in front of us…and one of them had a puppy.  That helped improve our mood a bunch.

Unlike this morning, the boat ride back to Cartagena was very bumpy and windy, so we got soaked.  Thankfully we were in the front, as the people in the back got it way worse.  Fortunately the puppy stayed dry, and seemed the most chill of everyone.  We got back just after 16:00.  Crystal immediately took a shower to get sand and seawater out of her hair; Justin had no such concerns so he walked around the Old Town taking photos before the sunset.  We met up to go to a rooftop bar at the Movich hotel for a nice view at sunset.  The view from up there was great, but the clientele was mostly wannabe IG models.  Justin’s Mai Tai was awful; Crystal’s Old Fashioned was fine.  We had our one drink, watched the sunset, then left.

From the Movich hotel we walked outside of the walled city, to the neighborhood to the southeast, Getsemani.  This is where El Arsenal is located, and we were hoping to have dinner at a restaurant nearby, one that Luisa had recommended the day before, Sierpe.  Inside Sierpe, we finally found some refuge from the vendors, the taxis, the noise, and we could actually just enjoy ourselves.  We split a bottle of Carmenere, six oxtail gyozas, and a large ribeye.  Everything was excellent, including the service.  The waiter commented that Justin’s Spanish was very good, but like Crystal in Budapest, Justin didn’t quite believe it to be true.

From Sierpe we walked back towards the hotel and went to Mondo Bar, just a couple doors down from Alquimico.  The difference between them was night and day.  The bar wasn’t quiet, but it wasn’t loud, if that makes sense.  We sat at the bar, and it was about half full.  For the first round we each got the same thing, an El Paraíso, with vodka, vanilla, mandarin, and a local fruit.  Crystal got a second, whilst Justin got an Alma Gemela with gin, basil, pineapple and bougainvillea.  Justin also got a third drink, this one having tequila, lulo, and ginger.  The drinks and the music were really good - the music was mostly 80s and 90s hip-hop.  We clapped along with an Ol’ Dirty Bastard song at one point, and realized that the other people at the bar were probably born after the song came out.  Crystal commented that, to these people, we were perhaps the annoying Americans.  Oof.  We got back to the hotel a little after 22:00.  Crystal went straight to sleep, and Justin checked out today’s photos for a bit before he went to sleep.