In which Roz and Layla eat a lot of ice cream - and visit some mangroves

By Roz

After we were sufficiently sated with ice cream it was, of course time for dinner. Food in Colombia is not instinctively vegetarian-friendly which has meant that we are having a curious time of it including dining on cuisines from around the world (though rarely Colombian, alas). After mooching round several restaurants, we settled on a sushi place called Teriyaki which is on one of the prettiest squares in Cartagena, San Diego Plaza. On any other holiday, such a place would be stuffed full of European or English-speaking tourists and we would have been disdainful. Fortunately, not the case this time as we settled down to some nice, if slightly odd, vegetarian sushi. From there we headed to a bar in a former convent called Santa Clara. We whiled away a very lovely evening drinking wine and musing on Layla's dream career path, and having met some of our fellow Villa de Leyva tourists who had only got out today, under army escort - felt very glad we'd got out when we could (though jealous of the people who allegedly got out by army helicopter!). 

Next morning we hopped in a cab after breakfast (I was feeling lazy and unenthusiastic about hunting down a bus) to an small semi-shanty town called La Boquilla. Our ambition was to go in a canoe through mangrove swamps. This seemed a most unlikely proposition when we were deposited by the cab driver on the beach. We could see Caribbean sea (albeit slightly murky since the day was slightly grey) and fisherman but not a great deal else. But before we could take two steps we were approached by some local teenagers. They made clear through a combination of gestures and our bad Spanish) that we were in the right place for a mangrove experience and that they would make it happen. With no other obvious options we decided to follow them on what turned out to be quite a long walk along the beach. So long that when the boys saw a bus coming along the beach (yes, indeed, who knew buses went on beaches!) they signaled for it to stop and we all hopped on. We got off at another bit of beach reasonably similar to the first and then proceeded to negotiate a price for a mangrove tour (something of a pretense on our side, since we both felt of we could hardly desert our escorts). After we had agreed a price, it began to rain. Unfortunate. We suggested to the boys that it might be as well to wait until the rain had gone off, but they very persuasively told us that this was silly, and that the trip took us into a tunnel (the "roof" being overgrown mangrove trees). We decided to go with it, and gingerly hopped into the canoe which was in what appeared to be nothing more than a medium-sized pool of water. Our teenage boys hopped in after us (other than one who ran off at some speed to satisfy our enthusiasm for water to take with us) and we set off to the other side of the pool of water, which turned out to be linked to the swamps. We picked up the boy who had gone in search of water bottles and went into the swamp (with the boys only needing to get out once to force the canoe on due to shallow water!). We felt somewhat mad, sat in a canoe with rain falling on us. But very cheery. And it wasn't long before we were in the proper mangrove swamps (which on occasion did form a tunnel, but on other occasions did not!). It was really fun to pass the swamps, gazing at terrifying crabs (probably just terrifying to me), fishermen, jumping fish and the odd bird (I think the rest were deterred by the rain). We were somewhat surprised at how extensive the swamps turned out to be - every now and then we would find ourselves suddenly in what felt like a lake, which seemed most unlikely. Eventually we were through, and the boys suggested we hop out and have a drink / lunch. We ended up settled for beer and plantain fritters which were very pleasant if not absolutely lunch. The rain had gone off entirely by this time, so we passed a very pleasant hour or so reading (with Layla in a hammock, until it broke and unceremoniously deposited her on the ground, which I am afraid I found very funny). We then walked back along the beach (with only a bit of wading through water required), enjoying seeing children walking home from school. We saw a bus on the beach and were very pleased to catch it. 

The bus turned out to be very slow, stopping every two minutes to pick up locals. But it was fun to see a different slice of life, and this more or less made up for the unfortunateness of missing our stop. The walk back wasn't too long and - despite the fact that it was 4pm we were both very clear that a second lunch was called for after we'd had a quick shower at the hotel. Hoping for a reprise of our tomato soup lunch from a few days ago, we headed to a place we'd been to before to find out that tomato soup was no more and they only had chicken soup. So we shared a polenta gnocchi dish and read a little more before heading to our favourite ice cream shop (for coffee and, um, ice cream). We whiled away a little more time with our books and watching people. It may not cast us in a good light if I say that after that we headed to dinner! This time, we went to an Indian restaurant called Ganesha which gets very good reviews on tripadvisor but which was sadly lacking in other diners. The food was good and after that we headed to a bar to drink mohitos whilst looking down from a balcony at passing people (including some really excellent break-dancers who bizarrely didn't seem to be collecting money).

Next morning we packed after breakfast, and then headed out. We were surprised to find it felt like the heat had been turned up - almost Washington-esque - and swiftly decided to focus our day on coffee and museums. First stop, coffee. We then went in to the Cartagena History Museum. This proved to be small, and not that brilliant but in a jolly sort of way. It was fun meandering round, occasionally seeing a sign we could understand and looking at old maps and so forth. And pondering why so many of the portraits in the museum had the subject looking as though he was winking... We dodged the bits of the museum about Cartagena's torture practices in the past (being wusses) but otherwise had a very pleasant time and felt we had learned a little more about Cartagena. 

From there, we headed to lunch. We went to a nice place called Mulata which had a good mix of locals and tourists, and sort of enjoyed the vegetarian pasta dish they produced. And definitely enjoyed the brownie and ice cream dessert. After lunch we headed to the Gold Museum via a couple of shops. The Gold Museum fell into the same category as the History museum - a bit crap, but in a jolly way. And many of the pieces were really amazing (so naturally enjoyed deciding which ones we would have if we had the chance. And after that, it was a quick stop at the hotel and then a taxi to the airport. Next stop, Medellin!