Cartagena: The back-story

I recently returned from a week in Colombia. Not Columbia, SC; not Columbia University in NYC; Colombia, the South American country.

When I told people I was going to Cartagena, people either mentioned the movie “Romancing the Stone” or they asked me if I had kidnapping insurance.

When I was planning this vacation, Portugal was the original destination. I knew from research that the less commercial beaches are a 4+ hour bus ride outside of Lisbon (a bit of a schlep). An art director who’d been to Lisbon described it as “the Philadelphia of Barcelona” (not ideal). And then an editor told me it might still be a little cold there in May. That was the last straw.

While taking the train to visit Sarah in March, I read an article about Cartagena in a travel magazine. The city looked and sounded great. Sarah told me I could spend time Western Europe when I was older; it was better to do more adventurous travel now. She had a point.

So I found a travel buddy, booked the trip, and the rest is history…