We started off the day at a relaxing pace with everyone meeting at the pool in the morning to get our last day started in the sun and got two new members of the group, Sarah and Krishna. So for just a few excing hours Seven Girls in Columbia turned into Eight Girls and Krishna...how about those Manderson odds? The group split up when Krishna and Sarah came over from there home to hang out at the Hilton with JPeng and Vivian, Rachel, Katie, Kat, Lauren and I went and explore the San Felipe Fort and the Old Town. The Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas located about 20 minutes from Old Town was the greatest fortress ever built by the spaniards in their colonies. We walked through the different levels of the fort through the tunnels that were constructed to move people and provisions. The tunnels were also constructed in such a way as to make it possible to hear footsteps of the approaching enemy. After the Fort we went to the Old Town to take a walking tour. We saw the Puerta del Reloj, Plaza de la Yerba where the slave trade was held, Convento and Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, Plaza de Bloivar, Palacio e la Inquisicion where the Punishment Tribunal of the Hold Office was from 1610, Catedral, Iglesia de Santo Domingo, and the Iglesia de Santo Toribio de Mangrovejo. After our walking tour we met up with Krishna, Sarah, and JPeng at the Sofitel hotel and had drinks to escape from the heat of the day and looked around the beautiful hotel constructed within the walls of a monastery. After our break we went back out into the sun to see Las Bovedas the old dungeons that have been converted to little souvenir shops.
While we were taking our self guided tour around the Old City and the San Felipe Fort - Sarah, JLoco and Krishna hung out at the pool. As you can see from the picture Krishna became one with the waterslide and reverted back to his elementary school days. All Sarah wanted to do was lounge, relax, and do nothing which was working great until a bird pooped on her! If it only happened yesterday then she could have bought a lotto jackpot ticket and won big money ... What would be the first thing you would buy if you won the lottery?? For Krishna, it would be a jet to come back to Cartagena whenever he wanted!
We split up again when Lauren and I had to leave earlier than the rest of the group to head to an early dinner and then to the airport to get to NYC to see all Lauren's friend and my friend Oprah. Lauren and I returned to our favorite restaurant from the trip the Cevicheria (one of Anthony Bourdain's picked from he show in Cartagena). After dinner we walked through the streets of old town and got caught up in a wedding march through the streets.
Krishna kept up the blog on what everyone was doing in Cartagena the extra night and filled in his concluding thoughts on our last spring break.
Tonight, we said goodbye to two lovely ladies, Beth and Lauren, who are off to NYC to hangout with Oprah!! It will be a once in a lifetime experience for both of them and well worth the trip. The good news is that they have been replaced with two crazy kids who skipped finals week to climb Machu Picchu in Peru before coming to Columbia. After saying goodbye to Dinesh, Sireenah, Kevin, Georgie, and our wonderful butler, Jovi aka Alfred, Sarah and I moved into the Hilton or as the Columbians say "il-Ton". After we "hugged" Lauren and Beth goodbye we sat down to a very mellow dinner where Vivian ate everyone's fried plantains, Kat ate all my potatoes and JLoco devoured a humongous fried fish. Tomorrow most of us depart back to Estados Unidos for the start of our last quarter of business school... worst case of the "Mundays"!
While the past two weeks may have had its ups and downs with the language barrier, confusing cab drivers, pesky street peddlers, rain, and food sicknesses, we have had an amazing time exploring Colmbia and I think when we reflect back, it will be pretty memorable Spring Break vacation. Columbia is an amazing country that is rich in history and culture as well as interesting people, so I think I can speak for everyone when I say we will be back! Our international adventure was filled with new exciting experiences, fun unique arts, catchy music, lots of food and most importantly GREAT friends. All good things must come to an end, but I will leave you with something my best friend taught me a very long time ago: "It's not where or what you are doing, but who you're with that matters."
Until the next adventure,
Krishna aka Jairo Romera
Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas from afar
Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas - Kat, Vivian, and Katie inside the fort
Old Town Cartagena
The wedding parade the Lauren and I got caught up in -
so fun watching the dancers lead the procession
As promised - Mud Volcano pictures (ie this is the mud volcano)
Vivian, Lauren, Rachel, Kat, Sireenah, Katie, Georgie, and I inside the mud volcano - for some reason I just look paler inside the mud volcano than usual
Krishna living up is youth on the waterslide
Jenn, Sarah, Rachel, Katie, Vivian, Kat and Krishna at dinner on their last night in Cartagena
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