CJK Framingham Run & Travel

March 2023. We flew in to Cartagena and were greeted by a 60-minute wait to get through customs. I stupidly hadn't brought my COVID-19 vaccination card, but we were able to talk our way through. Outside the airport, the warm, humid air felt good coming from March in New England. After a 15-minute Uber ride, we were at the Hotel Dorado Plaza on the Getsemaní side of the Clock Tower. It proved to be a great location, giving us access to everywhere we wanted to go.

We stayed in Cartagena for three nights. One of the nice things about Cartagena is that the main activity is just wandering the streets and taking in the sights. The walled city deserves its reputation as a great place to visit. It reminded me of the Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo and Old Havana, but the Walled City seemed better organized and better maintained. Narrow, walkable streets open into wide squares with churches, tourist shops, coffee shops, and upscale restaurants. The original walls stretched for about 7 miles (around 11 kilometers), leaving plenty of space to explore. There are even ramps leading from the inside up to the top of the walls, offering fantastic views of the sea.

One place I would not recommend is the Palacio de la Inquisición. It's a museum in a beautifully restored old building, but it's almost empty of display items. You read your way from room to room.

Getsemaní is an up-and-coming area outside the walled city that is equally fun to walk around. There are less upscale restaurants, more art shops, and some great street graffiti. At night, Getsemaní is very lively—beers for under $1, mojitos for $2, and street musicians everywhere. Families run informal street-bars by setting up plastic tables and chairs in the alley, which is a lot of fun. The Plaza de la Trinidad is where the locals gather for a big party right in front of the church, where street vendors sell grilled pork sandwiches and every kind of arepa.

One day, my daughter and I took a trip to the Rosario Islands. They fill up speedboats with 20 or 30 people and zoom you out to a small island chain on a 50-minute boat ride. Some of the passengers opted to go to an aquarium, while the rest of us spent time pseudo-snorkeling. It was like snorkeling for people afraid to swim: goggles without air tubes, no flippers, and wading, walking, or swimming in groups to see colorful fish. The least capable swimmers held a rope and were pulled along by the guides. From there, we zoomed back to Isla Barú and Cartagena's most famous beach, Playa Blanca. It's a nice natural beach fully saturated with restaurants and vendors. A few tried to scam us, and we saw a kid try to steal someone's belongings from the beach while they were in the water. It was unpleasant having to keep such a close eye on your stuff, but when it's a perfect, sunny 85-degree day on a beautiful sandy beach with 85-cent cold beers and abundant cheap snacks, it's really not so bad! After a few hours on the beach, our speedboat zoomed us back to the city.

Another day, we took a short cab ride from the walled city to Castillo San Felipe. It's a massive stone fort built to protect the ancient city from pirate attacks. It's like other forts, only bigger, with great views of the city from the top. You can imagine firing cannons—though I'm not sure about their exact range or aim back then. One fun thing to do is walk through the tunnels connecting the different parts of the fort. They were likely used to supply the soldiers on the wall with provisions, and they were engineered so that noise would echo along them, alerting troops if another part of the fort came under attack. From the fort, we could see the modern side of Cartagena—a big city with 20- to 25-story office buildings and apartment towers that you can't see from inside the walled city. Afterward, we descended from the fort to a nearby air-conditioned mall complete with modern stores and a food court; upper-class Colombians live well.

I think Cartagena would be a very livable city, possibly even a nice place to retire. My daughter and I ate our breakfasts at the hotel, which had a great buffet included with our stay. Lunch and dinner were mostly in small, casual restaurants in Getsemaní. Colombian food is pretty good!

One night, we wandered across Getsemaní to an area along the water designated for dining, featuring a central bar area and several seemingly permanent food-truck kitchens. We enjoyed harborside dining with a wide selection of casual food, a waitress, and cold beverages. I feasted on arepas with Águila beer—good stuff!

One screwup was that I had booked, but not been confirmed for, a flight from Cartagena to Medellín. I'd lost my phone in a taxi the day we went to the Rosario Islands, so I didn't think to look for the confirmation until the day before we were supposed to fly. As a result, we wasted two hours finding out we didn't have a flight and then rebooking. Oh well! We flew from Cartagena to Medellín. We found domestic air travel in Colombia to be relatively cheap and easy—security is more relaxed than for international travel, and flights between major cities are plentiful.

Medellín is set in a long, narrow mountain valley. Flying in, the hills looked bright green, and when we exited the airport, we felt the cooler air. Our Uber ride took nearly 60 minutes and took us through the longest tunnel I've ever been in (Túnel de Oriente). We stayed at the Hotel Greenview Medellín in the El Poblado area, an upscale neighborhood. We were a bit away from the main drag, but taxis and Uber rides in Colombia are cheap and efficient.

Since rain was expected, we checked out the Museo Casa de la Memoria, where we learned about the horrors of the drug wars caused by the Medellín cartel and Pablo Escobar. It helped us appreciate how far the city has come. We walked through the super busy El Centro area and visited the Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Uribe Uribe—a decent museum in a really cool building. Next, we were in Plaza Botero, where we saw a dozen statues of fat naked people, followed by paintings of the same in the Museo de Antioquia. I guess I'm not a fan of Medellín's favorite son.

We found good restaurants on Calle 10 back in El Poblado. The Bandeja Paisa will satisfy the hungriest appetite—it's a lot of food! As in Cartagena, our Medellín hotel provided a nice breakfast. Colombia is known for having great coffee, so I made sure to enjoy that every morning.

We visited Comuna 13. It's an interesting concept: a local guide leads you up a series of outdoor escalators through what was once one of Medellín's roughest barrios. It's advertised as a graffiti tour, and there is quality art to be sure, but it's really an eye-opening look at how thousands of families live in small cement houses clinging to the side of a mountain. They have only footpaths and sidewalks—no roads—and until the escalators were built, residents needed to trek up and down hundreds of stairs every day just to connect with the rest of the city.

We took one of the Medellín Metrocable routes across several hilltops in another direction and got more great views of the city. We ate lunch at a local spot that I'm guessing doesn't see a lot of Americans, but fried chicken is good anywhere! Then we tried the Medellín Metro—it's clean, efficient, and inexpensive. Each of these transit options was designed to connect parts of the city that were previously underserved. Because it's a large city set in a narrow valley with steep hillsides, roads can't reach everywhere, and traffic along the valley floor moves slowly.

We wrapped up our day at the Jardín Botánico. Though it was raining lightly, we enjoyed the park with its assortment of trees and flowers. We saw plants we'd never seen before and some funny-looking South American ducks! Medellín is a mountain metropolis: in the hills of El Poblado, we saw beautiful suburban homes; along Calle 10, a busy thoroughfare with thriving businesses; in El Centro, a noisy, dense, crazy city center; and in Comuna 13 and La Aurora, we saw bare, third-world poverty. It's a fascinating city with so much to do. We only experienced a fraction of it, and we definitely needed more time to really get to know the place.

We flew direct from Medellín to Santa Marta. Colombian domestic flights are efficient, no-fuss affairs—almost like taking a bus, except that the airports aren't in the city centers. From the Santa Marta airport, we grabbed a cab to take us to Minca. We quickly noticed the temperature changes: Medellín was cool and damp in the morning; Santa Marta was already hot by 11:00 AM; and Minca was pleasantly cool again.

Minca is a small mountain town in the hills outside Santa Marta. The road was paved only 10 or 12 years ago, and it's becoming a popular spot for backpackers because of its mountains, rivers, and waterfalls. Hostels and small restaurants are already springing up everywhere.

Our hotel was about two miles outside the little town. Our room had a wonderful balcony that put us at treetop level with the jungle sloping down to the river. My daughter and I enjoyed a quick hike down to Cascada Escondida, which was right behind our hotel. It's a pretty waterfall that isn't as well-known as others in town. After a short, steep descent, we crossed a river, followed an easy trail a short distance, and came to the oasis. Best of all, we had it entirely to ourselves! Pure mountain water cascading off the rocks above into a cool, natural 30x30 pool about 8 to 10 feet deep. What a perfect place to relax!

Meals were at the hostel next door to our hotel—cheap, simple Colombian meals on a veranda overlooking the jungle. We could see how the river wound through the hills, with birds soaring above and small farms on the hillsides that looked nearly impossible to reach. It was a very relaxing place.

In the morning, my daughter and I did a relatively short hike to Cascadas Pozo Azul. It was about a 30-minute walk from our hotel along a dirt road—80 degrees and sunny. A few locals had set up roadside stands to sell coffee, drinks, and snacks. Pozo Azul is a little bigger and easier to reach than Cascada Escondida. The water felt surprisingly cold, but the swimming area is larger, with vendors on each side of the river. Since it was a Saturday morning, more people were arriving before we left, mostly Colombians prepared to spend the whole day relaxing by the river.

We stayed at our hotel for only one night, then walked into town—all downhill—carrying our small bags. From town, my daughter and I took mototaxis (motorcycle taxis) to the well-known Cascadas de Marinka. These are the biggest falls in the area, though a bit more commercialized. There are three significant falls with swimming pools at the bottom of each. A large wooden deck and set of stairs wrap around the main middle pool, which measures roughly 50 by 100 feet. It's a great place to take a dip! On the hill above, there were giant nets and hammocks that could accommodate 8 or 10 people, along with a 50-seat restaurant and bar under construction.

We took mototaxis back to town—perhaps a 10-minute ride over a rough dirt road—and ate lunch at a comedor. I suspect Minca will continue to grow. It's easy to reach from Santa Marta and offers something totally different from the coastal beaches. The same backpackers and tourists—both domestic and foreign—who are attracted to Tayrona will naturally be drawn to the emerald-green hills, cooler air, pristine rivers, and waterfalls of Minca.

The colectivo (shared bus) from Minca down to Santa Marta was filled with backpackers: a few Americans, but mostly Europeans. It dropped us at the market in the center of town. We were anxious to get to the beach, so we took a cab straight to our hotel in El Rodadero, about five miles from the city center. A couple of the hotels we booked through Booking.com had asked us to rebook via WhatsApp—presumably to avoid commission fees. Since we never messaged them back, we arrived at Apartamentos Peñón Del Rodadero only to find our reservation had been canceled! No matter—they quickly found us another apartment at the same rate. It was on the fourth floor (of 13): a two-story, two-bath studio apartment with a sensational balcony overlooking the sea for three nights. Honestly, I think I could live in a place like this!

Our hotel was right on the edge of Playa Salguero, a super nice, sandy, one-mile-long, 100-meter-wide stretch of Caribbean beach. It's pretty much always 85 to 95 degrees and sunny. We never saw a wave higher than two feet in three days. It's easily one of the most popular beach destinations for Colombians, complete with a beautiful boardwalk running the length of the shore, while the surrounding Rodadero area is packed with hotels, bars, and restaurants.

The beach is packed with vendors. It's not quite as intense as Playa Blanca on Isla Barú in Cartagena, but you still need to watch your stuff. Vendors were selling ice-cold beer, mixed drinks, snacks, and full meals delivered right from the nearby restaurants. There was even a fleet of 40-foot speedboats acting as water buses to ferry people to nearby beaches and Tayrona National Park. At night, Rodadero comes alive with lots of Colombians on vacation having fun—the streets are crowded, restaurants are busy, drinks are flowing, and the malecón is full of vendors and street performers. It's a great place to walk around.

The highlight of our stay in Santa Marta was our visit to Tayrona National Park. It's a massive national park along the coast east of Santa Marta known for its biodiversity, blue-water coves, white-sand beaches, crystalline lagoons, and tropical jungles. You can get there either by road combined with a hike, or by sea. My daughter and I joined a tour out of Santa Marta: they picked us up in a bus outside our hotel, handled our park passes, and led us on a two-hour jungle hike to various beaches and viewpoints, culminating at the spectacular Cabo San Juan del Guía beach.

Our hike took us along a rough trail that at times passed over boulders and footbridges before flattening out a bit. It isn't an especially challenging hike, but the sun is always hot and it's a fairly long walk. The shoreline is mostly rocky with intermittent sandy beaches. The surf is too rough to swim comfortably at many of them, but the views are fantastic—blue sea, fine white sand, swaying palm trees, crashing surf, and randomly strewn, school-bus-sized boulders. Photos will never do this place justice! We spent a few hours at the beach, ate a nice lunch, and then headed back. Though Tayrona is famous for its biodiversity, we had mostly seen plants and birds during the day—until the very end of the trail leading back to the road, when high in the treetops we spotted monkeys swinging from branch to branch. Tayrona was an all-day adventure that we will remember for a lifetime.