Celebrating Craig´s birthday in Cartagena

We spent yesterday celebrating Craig´s 22nd (?) Birthday with lots of "coctels" in a beautiful Cafe del Mar bar on top of the old city walls of Cartagena. Very relaxing, the mojitos were excellent and the heat was bearable thanks to a merciful breeze coming off the sea. I even had Craig serenaded by a 3 man combo over our Cuban dinner.... hee hee. It was too dark to see if he blushed but I think he might have???

Unfortunately, our bank account has been frozen for some reason and we ran out of money half way through our drinks... apparently all the Colombian transactions seemed suspicous to our bank manager?? Luckily we managed to sort the confusion out - I had a bit of a panic attack! What about my shopping!!!?!?!?

Cartagena is a really beautiful city and the old town feels like the last 200 years did not really happen. It is really colourful and carefully maintained, beautiful shady plazas with lots of music, interesting museums, nice shops and lots of happy and helpful people. I love it! And Craig loves all the forts and cannons and fortification walls and the pirate stories... It is fascinating how long the Spanish managed to hide out in this city - usually the attacking ships could not endure a seige long enough because they fell ill with tropical deseases just in time.

We are now planning our trip along the coast to the Tayrona National Park for some days on Carribean beaches, sleeping in a hammock, snorkelling in the day and just hanging out. I hope the nasty sandflies have mercy!