The night before we had booked ourselves into a tour to
Islas del Rosario. The tour cost
COP$47,000 each which included the tour, lunch, the port tax and entrance into
the national park. Well it was more
along the lines of boat transport to the islands with a lunch provided and then
you could do your own thing which was fantastic! We went to the old port which
is called Muelle de los Pegasos, this port services fishing, cargo and tourists
boats and it is located just outside the old town’s southern walls. It was about a 10 to 15 minute walk from our
hostel. We were told to be there by 8am
for departure so we arrived about 7.50am.
Typical South American style, we departed at about 8.30am. As we were waiting we were just sitting in
the sun at the front of the boat. Just
before departure there was an announcement that we couldn’t understand, however
a young Colombian couple got up and gestured to us to come inside for a safety
briefing. Apparently we were not allowed
on the front of the boat until we had begun our trip. These two Colombians became our friends for
the day, they helped us out when they could, and they took some photos for us
and even let us share their shelter tent for us to store our gear at one of the
islands I will talk about later. It was
a friendship with no communication as we don’t know Spanish and they didn’t
know English!
As we pulled out of the dock, a swarm of people started
rushing towards the front of the boat, it must be time to head outside! Ann and
I were towards the rear of the pack, we were gutted because we thought we were
going to lose our prime seats. We were
wrong, the Colombian couple were one of the first on the front of the boat and
they had put their gear on the seats next to them and were saving the seats for
us. Very lovely people, as are the
majority of Colombians we have met so far.
I would say the Colombian people are the nicest and friendliest bunch so
far in South America. I think they are
just happy that tourists are able to see their country now and also the
Colombians themselves are able to see their country without having fear of
their personal safety.
As we make our way through the harbour we get fantastic
views of the new town, a modern city south of the old town. There are plenty of high rises here and the
view reminds us both of the Gold Coast, modern high rise buildings on the
beachfront. The boat ride took about two
hours, fantastic ride through the calm ocean with the sun on our backs, a
gentle breeze in the air and a few splashes of sea spray every now and then to
cool us down. Our first stop was an island
which is part of Islas del Rosario, a series of 27 small coral islands. This whole area has been protected as Parque
Nacional Corales del Rosario, hence the National Park entrance fee. This island was fantastic, well not so much
the island, the water surrounding the island.
Beautiful crystal clear and calm water, fantastic for snorkling, however
we only had an hour on this island. The
main point of coming here was because there is an aquarium on the island. Ann and I decided not to go to this aquarium
and spent the hour relaxing in the shade.
We then got back on the boat and had another hour until we got to the
island where we spent the majority of the day, Playa Blanca beach. This was situated on Isla de Baru and this
island was amazing, the beaches were hot golden sand, not hot enough so you
couldn’t walk on the sand but very nice.
The water was similar to the water at the previous island, crystal
clear, although it wasn’t as calm as before as there was quite a lot of boating
activity. When we got off the boat we
took our ticket to a wee window and were presented with our lunch, which was
fish and some sides. After lunch we went
to the beach and into the water which was incredibly warm. Overall we were at the beach for about 3
hours and I spent about 2 and a half of those hours in the water, the other
half an hour was lunch and getting ready to get back onto the boat. Our trip back to Cartagena was a bit rougher
as the wind had picked up a wee bit out in the ocean but it was fine. On the way back the ‘DJ’ which had been
pumping out the Caribbean music (mostly Bob Marley) throughout the boat rides
turned on some Michael Jackson and started dancing to his music. He also put some Caribbean music on and encouraged
the rest of the boat to sing along, which they obliged. Of course this music was in Spanish so Ann
and I couldn’t sing along. We got back
to Cartagena about 5pm. We hadn’t done
much during the day but we were pretty tired, I’m guessing when you are not
used to this heat it must take it out of you.
We went to the supermarket and bought some dinner, took it back to the
hostel, cooked it up and that was us for the day.
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