Cartagena and first impressions of Medellín

Cartagena was absolutely killer. The old city is amazing. As usual, you can check out the photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/tunafishandgrits/Colombia. I spent a full day and a half just walking around the old city and taking photos. It looks even better at night when they have the city walls and all the churches and squares lit up.

In addition to the ambience, the food situation was pumping on all cylinders there, too. This is where wealthy Colombians go to vacation, so there are tons of upscale and tasty restaurants. The highlights included a traditional turtle stew, some octopus and grouper carpaccios, an obatala beef stew (an traditional costeña dish). Just about everything here is served with coconut rice, which tastes fantastic. They must be putting something else other than just coconut in there as it comes out brown and has the taste of sweet spices like cloves. In addition, many of the restaurants were in 400 year old colonial homes or buildings. They were definitely more expensive than those in Cali, but still a steal by US standards. The fanciest and most expensive meal that I had was at this mod little place that would fit right in on South Beach, where I had the octopus carpaccio, oxtail braised in red wine with potato puree, and a couple glasses of Rioja, which came to a grand total of about $55.

On the first night here I met another new friend. We were eating at the same restaurant and started chatting, after which we hit a couple bars. We were also supposed to catch up for lunch the next day before left, but unfortunately we were unable to connect prior to her flight from Bogota. She's actually a Colombian pop singer. You can check out here music here: http://www.hannalatina.com

On the second full day in town I went to a giant mud volcano (don't ask me about the geology behind this, I have no idea). It's not too hot so you can get right in and swim (wallow) around. It was great fun, although I did somewhat regret my decision to dunk my whole head into it.

After the volcano, I was able to hit the beach for a short while. Beaches bore me a bit, so I didn't stick around too long. Just took a couple photos, went for a swim, got a little workout and stretch in on the sand, and headed out.

I just got into Medellín and am finishing this post while I'm waiting for the hostel to clean up my room. This is a great place--very stylish and upscale. It looks more like a modern upscale boutique hotel than a hostel. From what little I've seen, the city is absolutely amazing, too. The entire city is surrounded by lush green mountains, which you have to drive over when you come in from the airport. The taxi turned a bend at the top of one of the mountains, as which point you're looking straight down at what appeared to be a full kilometer at this huge city of 2.5 million people filled with skyscrapers. My jaw nearly hit the floor of the taxi. What little I've seen inside the city so far looks great, too. The neighborhood I'm in is covered with trees, has several parks with modern sculpture, and is filled with trendy-looking restaurants and boutiques (not to mention a fair number of Colombian hotties I spied walking the streets). I'm pretty glad I had planned to spend 4 full days here, as it appears I won’t have any problems filling the time.