Day 2 – Henric

Another puppy and a cat to start off day 2 on the right foot. Excellent. An early rise lead us to an early breakfast at a cute café called el Gato Negro. Here we shared huevos pericos (scrambled eggs with tomato and onion) and a gorgeous fruit salad (to Annalie’s fortune the fruit was all peeled, so no worrying about dying from contaminated water…)

As we sipped on our icy pineapple juice and hot chocolate (another local delicacy) we could hear the rustle and bustle of the street market setting up outside; it felt as though the locals were chanting for us to join them, so we did. With a skip and a hop we made our way to the Old Town of Cartagena where Annalie made a great effort of mingling with the locals.So much so, we actually made a friend –  Henric. A lovely chap with a great chat who somehow spotted we were tourists and tried to rope us in by giving us the low down on Cartagena’s history. It worked. We strolled around with him (ie: paid for him to stroll with us) for a good hour and learned lots of interesting nuggets about the place, the inquisition, the colonial times, famous icons, buildings’ history etc. With him we also tasted a yummy slush puppy made of red cola and topped with condensed milk (not sure the ice came from bottled water but don’t tell Annalie…)  

Here’s Henric and Annalie at Cartagena’s University posing in front of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ashes. You’ll then see Henric and the mobile slush puppy vendor. And Cartagena’s Old Town wall coasting the ocean.  

Fearing the sun would melt us to the ground we decided to take shelter, breathe in some air-conditioning and get some food in our bellies. We stopped at a small lunch stop which looked middle-of-the-road, but the food was far from it. Had no idea what we ordered but it was delicious (apart from the red cola covered plantain, still not used to eating warm fruit salad with my chicken) 

Cooled down and re-energised, it must be time to put our explorer hats back on. Wrong. It’s time for a dip in the pool and a nice cold beer. And that’s how our day 2 ended, jet lag / sun stroke kicked in and we were forced back to our airconditioned room for a little nap which again turned into a 10h sleep. 

Ciao for now! X