Walking around

Today is my second whole day in Cartagena and I finally got off my lazy arse and moved hotel. I was all packed and ready to do it yesterday but then I got sucked into looking around the city and before I knew what had happened I had missed the checkout time. So I spent another night in my cell like room. It was OK but I have now finished all of my books in English. I failed yet again to find a room in the local backpacker place so went for the second option in the book. It is the same price as the other place but I have my own bathroom! Bonus!

And today I got harrassed within an inch of my life by men trying to sell me gold and emeralds- don't know which part of my backpacker outfit made them think that I could afford them, whether it is the tatty friendship bracelets, the bead necklace or my 'Te quiero Colombia' bag, I am not sure. But then again I was walking around the emerald part of town.

Then another guy came up to me and started to talk to me and didn't seem to want to sell me anything. Weird. Turns out he was after my phone number. We settled on exchanging email addresses- finally I have been hit on by someone under forty!

And so to celebrate... photos!



prrof that I am somewhere sunny- this was on the beach at Parque Tayrona. The first place that we stayed in, El Pairaso (or something like that), wasn{t not suitable for swimming as the tides are a little too strong. The waves too as Mark found out when he posed for the next photo



neither of us were quite expecting that though



Beach! And this was what was fringing the beach



We walked through a bit of that and a bit of beach to get to the next place where we spent the next night



that space that you can see between hammocks is where our two got strung



Nothing quite beats a palm trees at sunset shot!



this was on the walk the next day to Pueblito and this is what we saw there





And this was near the end of the walk



Now onto Cartagena. This is the Pegasus wall, for obvious reason, and between the two you can see the clock tower on the city walls



The city walls and the new part of town in the background





one of a series of statues near the church of San Pedro Claver, one of the first saints of the New World



and this is his church. He gained his sainthood from his work with the slaves here in Cartagena. He was known as the Slave of the Slaves

Whenever I am out in the parks of London with my students they always get a little excited when they see a squirrel and refuse to take any notice when I point out that they are not even English. I have no idea what would cause them to be so excited when I saw three of these just wandering around the local park today



and each one was at least three feeet long!

And that is all for today.