Our next destination was the costal town of Cartagena. Arriving at our hostel we quickly changed and headed to the old town to explore, Its a beautiful enclosed city full of people and lots of street sellers, selling... Well I guess the same crap they sell everywhere else, but I think the old-ness of the city just makes it feel more authentic. We left the walls of the old town to look for what so many people had told us Cartagena was perfect for...their beaches. When I think of a Colombian beach I imagine white sand, palm trees and hammocks. So far the only beach me a Jord had managed to find was on the side of a Main Street where two homeless people were washing. It wasn't exactly my idea of paradise.

The next day we decided to make a last minute booking to a hostel right on the beach front a little further up from where we were staying. We jumped in a taxi and headed towards the new hostel. It was only in the taxi we realised that the hostel we had booked, wasn't actually part of the mainland, no, it was a whole different island. At first we didn't know how the bloody hell we were going to get there. Luckily the hostel described a red and white boat that comes to the mainland once every hour

When we arrived, the beach was completely packed full. Can you imagine the whitest people in town stupidly wheeling a suitcase with a built in backpack across sand to the sea front. (When I say people, I mean person, and by that person, what I actually mean is mean me). Jord was clever enough to put his on his back. Have you ever tried to wheel a suitcase on sand? It consists of those awkward moments you have, when it flips the other way after pulling it down a curb, but not just once, the whole time! We got to the shore and were then bombarded with guys trying to take us to the island for a rip of price of 40,000 mil. We told them we already had transport coming, Ah easy we thought, we just have to look for the red and white boat...

No joke, nearly every single boat was red and white!! Well, we didn't have a clue what to do. we hauled all our stuff for 15 minutes whilst sweating buckets to the closest hotel, found out the name of the boat and emailed the staff to tell them we were on the beach, then hauled our stuff all the way back. we sat on the beach to wait for the boat to come. 20 minutes passed, 1 hour passed, 2 hours passed..... 3 fucking hours we waited and still no boat! Jord really started to get his knickers in a twist so in the end we paid one of the other guys 20,000 to get us there. 

Just our fucking luck! Halfway across to the island, what do we see. The bastard boat that we'd just spent the majority of our afternoon waiting for whilst everyone on the beach laughed at us. Arghhhh I was fuming ! Absolutely raging !!!! I couldn't wait to give the hostel a piece of my mind, I hadn't even got their and I hated the place. 

We stepped of the boat and Instantly all of my anger disappeared. We were literally in paradise. Andreas carried our ridiculously heavy bags to our room, he was definitely one member of staff that made our trip to the hostel such a good one. That evening we headed down to the beach bar and met up with the owner and her family who all work and help out there. The night was spent drinking beer, sitting round a bonfire and talking about how Mitzi (the owner) had spent the last 6 months developing the hostel from nothing and the projects she was doing to help the community, such as teaching local kids English and her beach clean with the help of the navy. We also later found out that our booking had gone through on the wrong day, so the issue with the boat turned out to be a mistake, although my grudge was long gone by now. Retiring for the night we were very confused when we were woken up at 2am to some sort of loud breathing sound under our bed. Jord was pretty convinced that their was a monster lurking under us and to be fair so was I, until I realised the island was home to a lot of stray dogs and one had snuck in for some shelter.

Sorry mum... Self confession coming up right now. All Iv wanted to do since being in Colombia is sit on a hammock in front of the ocean with a big fat doobie. So after some guy pulled up to speak to his friends with a joint we thought this was the perfect opportunity. My Spanish isn't shit but it's also not great, so we explained to the guy we wanted a bag of weed, gave him the money and off he Toddled on his bike. Well that's a tenner were not going to see again was the first though that crossed my mind. 20 minutes later back he comes and chucks a bag in Jordan's lap. HAHAHA! well I couldn't control myself with laughter. Jord picked up the bag to reveal that no, it was not weed but instead we had bought a bag of Cocaine! Well, we though fuck it and took the whole bag there and then.

No I'm joking mum and dad I promise, we didn't. We gave it him back and he explained that when I used the word 'bolsa' which means bag,  he thought we meant a cheeky bag of sniff. Anyway after it was all sorted, we then spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach sat in a hammock drinking from a coconut and watching the sun set. Not only is this the perfect beach resort but the view is accompanied by a panoramic view of Cartagena city and when your sat their chilling at night with a glowing city in the distance it really does leave you speechless. Beach hostel Cartagena really couldn't be described as anything but paradise. And if you do decide to go then wait for the boat...because it will come.