On Monday Victoria and I went for a two day trip to Playa Blanca which is about 20 km south-west from Cartagena. We took a combination of Taxi (8,000 COP), Bus (1,700 COP), Boat and Taxi (10,000 COP including the ferry) again to get there the cheap way. The normal route would be to take a boat directly from Cartagena (35,000 COP one way), however the price was pretty steep. When we got there we were greeted by crowds of people in the water and on the beach. As this was a bank holiday in Colombia, we weren’t too surprised.
As we were facing the beach, we started walking to the right and eventually we found a nice and spacious place to stay in a cabin on stilts. It was located near some trees and was right in-front of the beach, run by a guy called Alex. We managed to haggle him down to 35,000 COP (€14) from 40,000 (€16) for the cabin that was a very basic hut with a small balcony, two chairs and two single mattresses on the floor. This was a chill spot and it certainly felt that way. People were relaxed, the sun was shining and few hours later, a lot of people started to leave on boats back to Cartagena. Once all the boats had left, it looked a lot different; Even more chilled and a bit more special. The clouds rolled in and there was a few rain drops, but for the rest of the evening it was dry and warm, with a cool breeze to set the perfect temperature, nothing more than a pair of pants required!
It was really nice to escape Cartagena and just do nothing for a while. We really appreciated that and after the hard work and shock of getting up so early during the week, it felt like a well deserved weekend break. In the evening we went down to a restaurant nearby to have a tasty, candle-lit dinner at Hugo’s place. It was a bit on the pricey side to what we were used to (13,000 COP for chicken and 15,000 for fish), but it was well worth it as is tasted great and came with a friendly service and a can of beer, naturally ;)
After the meal we went back to our cabin and we were greeted by loud salsa coming from the bar next door. Victoria asked the owner Alex what time they normally turn it off, just afterwards realising that it was only 20:00. We felt like old people, complaining about the noise, perhaps were are just getting old :(
The next day was quite an early start as grandma and granddad felt so knackered the day before, that they went to bed early. It was a nice start to the day and the beach was basically deserted, the water quiet and a perfect time to do some snorkeling. We did some snorkeling right in front of the cabin, however the coral was pretty much destroyed, so the owner Alex – who kindly lent us the gear – recommended that we head straight to the far left end of the beach where the caves are and start there. It was actually quite good, but the coral was also not that incredible, but the many fish were interesting and fun to see.
We only had until about 15:00 that day on the beach until the boats departed for Cartagena, so we strolled to the other end of the beach to find basically nobody there apart from a few stray campers and a bike that was converted into a blending machine, nice. I really wish we took our tent, but in this weather all you need is a mosquito net, if that. We were also sleeping without nets in the cabin and I didn’t notice any significant bites.
On the way back we paid 15,000 COP each to treat ourselves in a fast boat returning to Cartagena. We heard that it is possible to get a fast boat (Negra Elizabeth) returning for 10,000 COP, but unfortunately we didn’t find it and later we found out that it was not running today. All in all, it was a great getaway from Cartagena and the not so nice beaches you find around the airport and Bocagrande.
