Colombia January 2016 | Another day in Cartagena

It was another tough day. Our Duran Durán (!) guide arrived this morning at 830 to take us to the dock, and by 9:00 we were aboard a vessel with 50 or so others headed for Isla Encanta for a day at the beach. It's  about an hour offshore.  As quickly as we could settle in to loungers we were ordering drinks—a cocoloco for Margaret and a mojito for me—and then we read, and then we ordered another drink.  Or two. Lunch was served at two separate times, so we ate on one ticket, and an hour later, we ate on the other ticket. Finally we got our money's worth out of a buffet! We dipped a toe in the Caribbean Sea, for the first time. And we had another drink. Is that four? If it is, it's twice as many as either of us drinks in a month. But of course, the rum is cheap and the ice melts quickly when it's 35 degrees, so count most of that as water.

Margaret, testing the waters

Given high winds in the afternoon, our boat took a longer, but we are told, safer, route into town by way of the Magdalena River. The Magdalena begins high in the  Andes, and travels over 1500 km (roughly 950 miles) through the western part of Colombia to the Caribbean Sea here at Cartagena.  When we first met her up near San Agustín, she was a mountain stream in a deep gorge between the western (Occidental) and Central cordilleras. Here at the mouth, she is a major transportation route through a massive delta lined with mangroves, farms, fishing villages and shipping logistical sites. It made for a much more interesting ride, although Margaret spent most of it getting wet from the spray. 

And then we slept. And ate at an outdoor cafe. And here we are again, in bed, at 930. We've been swapping my Sandra Brown paper backs for Margaret's collection of Janet Evanovich on her Kobo. Tonight, I get the Kobo.