Cartagena, not to be confused with GINA

Cartagena, not to be confused with GINA

[FinalTilesGallery id=”3″]Airport
When flying into Cartagena the airport code is CTG. Once you land you have to deplane right on the tarmac then walk into the building. It doesn’t matter rain or shine, you’ll be walking. Remember to pack your patience because once you walk into the building then you have to pass immigration, and that line can be pretty long, especially if other flights have landed around the same time as yours. When it’s time to fly out back home you’ll have to do that same long walk out out to the plane, rain or shine so be prepared.

Taxi vs Uber
Although Cartagena, Colombia is Uber friendly you might do better catching a cab or taxi from the airport or wherever you have to go.

Lodging
There are quite a few hotels on the peninsula called Boca Grande. They also have some casinos too. In terms of classism, Boca Grande is considered a level 6 community, which by Colombian standards it’s the wealthy or well off crowd.

If you want a more authentic Colombian experience you will do better staying at a hotel or Airbnb inside the walled city. Most hotels are boutique hotels, ranging anywhere from $100 USD a night up to $399 a night. You can always do an Airbnb for a fraction of the hotel costs.

Currency
The currency used in Cartagena is the Colombian peso. Exchange rates of course vary, but right now 1 USD = 3038 COP (Colombian Pesos)

Culture
Colombians are some of the most beautiful people. You’ll find a wide mixture of people, from the traditional Latin Colombian culture to a huge population of Afro-Colombians. Cartagena is made of different classes ranging from level 1 up to level 6. To give you an idea, a level 1 community has no running water. They have houses that are pretty much made up of anything the family can find and use. From there you have the level 2 and 3 communities that have running water and houses are a lot better in terms of how they are made. From there you have level 4 and 5, which consists of a lot of the tourist areas and are highly populated.

One thing to note about Colombian people, they are very rich in pride and always appear to be very happy. This can definitely be noticed on Sundays. Every Sunday people in neighborhoods bring their stereo speakers outside and blast their music, while sitting around playing cards, dominos, or just watching the tourist roll by. This is clearly evident if you take a ride up to La Popa, which is the monastery sitting atop the mountain. You can see out across all of Cartagena and you can hear the sounds of Cartagena as well. Music is so loud from the communities below it sounds like the entire city is having a parade.

Food
Cartagena has a local street market that puts you in the mind of street markets in Southeast Asia. You can walk up on anyone selling fruit, empanadas, dried goods and even freshly cooked fish and seafood. Now, we were warned by one of the locals to not eat seafood off the street so that made out food choices easy while walking around.

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