Cartagena New Year's? Don't mind if I do.

With New Year's Eve approaching and remembering that Christmas Eve was painfully boring despite the fact we were told that there normally are a lot of fun parties, many of us wanted to take a trip. A few fellow volunteers and I decided to go to Cartagena for New Year's Eve, which is about a two hour bus ride from Barranquilla and is known for being more touristy. Staying true to my procrastinator roots, we only started looking for a hostel two days before we were going to leave. I searched for about an hour with no luck until I stumbled across the Makako Chill Out Hostel, which had just enough beds for us and only cost 20,000 Colombian pesos (about $10 US) per night. We lucked out big time.

We were inside the historic walled part of the city. Cartagena used to be a Spanish stronghold, so there is a large portion that is surrounded by a giant wall that even has cannons on top. This area is the most popular spot for tourists to visit. The buildings were beautiful and surprisingly well-maintained. The streets were very narrow, just wide enough for one car to pass, which made me think that driving around in this area is maddening at the very least.

The first day we were there, we visited the beach near our hostel. Many of the beaches in that area were actually turned into bays of sorts because there were jetties made of rocks, however, this made the water very shallow and you couldn't go past water up to your waist without getting too close to the rocks and having a lifeguard whistle. That part I didn't understand. There were multiple lifeguards patrolling a mellow body of water and constantly whistling at people to move or come in, while where I come from, there are infrequent lifeguards in an area with surfable waves. 

The next morning we decided to skip going out for breakfast and I cooked everyone some scrambled eggs and bacon using what limited resources the hostel kitchen had to offer. Everything was going smoothly until I barely nudged the skillet with the bacon, which by the way had way too heavy a handle to balance well, and it started to fall. I catch the pan by the handle, but before I can pat myself on the back for having the grace of a swan with the hands of Jerry Rice, the bacon grease in the skillet sloshes over the edge and spills on the floor. I try first to wipe it up with napkins. Not even close. It just smears it more. So I find a mop and essentially just smear it around more with soapy water. Realistically, this is isn't clean, but in Colombia it is. Moral of the story, food was delicious and the bacon brought a tear to my eye, reminding me of 'merica.

New Year's Eve night started off with a shindig in the hostel that included a dinner of pizza, chicken, and a whole lotta coconut rice. A bit before midnight, we went in search of other festivities. We came upon some major fireworks that seemed incredibly close to where all the spectators were standing. In fact, it probably would have been illegal in the U.S. to have people be that close to the fireworks, but that just made them that much more awesome.

After that we started scouring the area for festivities. We came upon many parties in the streets with live bands playing traditional Colombian music. Overall, it was a long, fun night and I'm glad I was able to get out of Barranquilla for a while.