One more night in Cartagena

 

 

 

One more night in Cartagena.  Why not?  Feels like home now.  Even bought the t-shirt.  A nice bright pink tank top, Hecho en Colombia (pink seems to be very in here).  And you know what, it’s not so hot now all of a sudden.  The profuse sweating has stopped.  Hmmm, it’s all starting to become normal.  The Senora of the hotel just came by our “apartamento” to bring us a morning coffee.  Gotta love that.  It has been wonderful to spread out our gear, wash the salt out of everything, and most importantly, wash down the bikes, get rid of all the sand in the gears, and spray everything down with WD-40.  Yep, to our delight, Colombia has an ample supply of WD-40 which can be found just about everywhere.  Like giving someone a massage, we could feel the bikes thanking us for the pampering. 

 Missions for today include tracking down a copy of Guia de Rutas, a road map of Columbia put out by the government, which is supposed to be pretty good.  We don’t have a good “cycle-touring-scale” map, so that would be a bonus.  The problem with regular maps is that they are typically intended for people in vehicles.  One hour in a car is roughly equivalent to one day on a bike.  So, while a stretch of road 200-km long shown as a line without any details might be fine in a car, that’s two+ days of riding for us!  

 Another good reason to enjoy the comforts of Cartagena for another night is to allow Amy another day to recover from a previous night of "gastrointestinal issues" (use your imagination).  She’s on the mend now and we think it’s passed.  We both know this is unlikely to be our last struggle with that issue.  Hopefully it'll be kept to a minimum.  Ironically, the water seems to be really good here.  Almost everywhere we have stayed where they have plumbed-in water, it’s drinkable (at least that’s what they tell us).  In the words of the Senora: “El agua de Cartagena es bueno” (the water in Cartagena is good).  I’ve been drinking it and it seems fine to me...we’ll see how that goes.

 I promised a bit on food.  As mentioned, food here is pretty basic, yet tasty and filling.  Lots of starches (rice, potatoes, plantain) and meat.  Veggies?  Who needs ‘em.  One guy we asked about the lack veggies replied with “I am not a donkey”.  Amy thinks we’re going to die of scurvy.  Interestingly, there are lots of veggies in the markets.  They just don’t seem to make it into the street food or restaurants.  Although, there is a lot of fruit around, and fresh fruit juice for 25 to 50 cents a glass.

Breakfast is quick and easy with most Columbians picking up a small shot of “tinto” – strong black coffee with sugar – and an “arepa” which is a fried patty of corn flour mixed with cheese or other things, or an “empanada” which is a deep-fried turnover filled with meat and cheese, and other things.  They sell them for 75 cents on every corner.  My fav has become a thing I call “papas”, or potatoes, simply because I haven’t figured out what it’s called yet (but they understand what I’m pointing to).  It’s basically a big samosa stuffed with potatoes, onions, and herbs, and sometimes a boiled egg in the middle (“papas con huevo”, my fav). 

 

 

 Lunch is the big meal of day here.  The classic meal is a plate of rice, fried plantain, some kind of side garnishing (e.g., tomatoes with onions), and a slab of meat (pork, beef, chicken) or fish (the entire fish, head and all).  Every little place on every corner serves up a “plato” or “plato typico” or “plato del dia” (plate of the day), which is a plate as described along with a bowl of soup and a glass of fruit juice.  Prices vary but usually in the $3 range.  That’s been our go-to and main meal of the day too.  Interestingly, dinner is very low-key and just a snack like a cheese sandwich.  Basically they reverse our lunch-dinner scenario, which we have adopted (when in Rome....).  Street food rocks.  I love it.  Amy’s less excited about a diet of deep-fried plantain and cheese than I am, but I think we’ll survive just fine.

Alright, party’s over, time to get the road on the show.  Tomorrow we ride south into the Mountains!  The next major destination is Medellin.  By all accounts, that should take us a week or 10 days.  Not exactly sure what’s in store for us, but hey, that’s the fun part!  It could be a zona sin internet (no internet), so don’t panic if you don’t hear from us for a while.  We’ll post when we can.