Colombia Day 7 & 8

Saturday morning we left Medellin just in time to avoid the Pope and all of the craziness that ensues. He arrived in Medellin at the other airport, so we were safe. Our plane was mysteriously delayed for over an hour and changed gates a few times though.  

The airport in Cartagena is very close to the old town, so within 10 minutes we were dropped at our hotel right in the middle of it all.  The only problem is that there are 2 Casa Blanca hotels! And of course, this one is way outside of our budget. They hailed us a taxi and sent us on our way.   The taxi driver only had to ask 4 different people where the hotel was (fruit sellers on the corner, a man sitting on his couch in his living room, etc). The taxi drivers in Colombia ask a lot of directions though.  We finally found it, but then our taxi driver got into an argument with another taxi driver about a one way street. So he parked around the corner and said that he would escort us to the hotel.  Now I am not sure if that was to ensure our safety or to yell at the hotel owner for not having a sign.  My vote is for the latter.  

We had no plans for the rest of the day, so we asked the hotel guy where to go eat lunch and it was like he was a mind reader who could read the depths of our souls. He suggested Hamburguesa de Patacones– a hamburger that utilizes large, smooshed, and fried plantains instead of a bun?  holy guacamole! That is what I am talking about! (I don’t even like guacamole, which is a pity because there are a plethora of avocados in this country– almost as many as there are hat vendors.) Needless to say, lunch was ah-maz-ing!

After lunch, we whipped out our handy little map and successfully navigated ourselves to the old town, which is the highlight of Cartagena, and a mecca for tourists. Anyone who knows thetwinsontour, knows they are directionally challenged and get lost everywhere they go. Quite the feat! Of course, there is no need to mention that we just had to go down the street and make a slight jog to the right to reach our destination.  No need to mention that at all. That will be our little secret. 

Unfortunately, it had started to rain.  Luckily, this time we were prepared with our rain coats!  Yeah! We actually used something we packed. We wandered around the old town, from gift shop to gift shop, but nothing caught our eye. Shocking, right?! How can thetwinsontour single handedly improve the economy of Colombia if they can’t find anything to buy? 

We did eventually find the gold museum. The best thing is that it was free! thetwinsontour love free stuff! But, you knew that already. There were some nice pre-colombian bits of good work. We tried reading about it, but the rain, our full bellys from lunch, and the early morning flight had us battling to stay awake on our feet. 

Right next door to the gold museum was the emerald museum– also free! It is like Cartagena speaks thetwinsontour language!! The emerald consists of 1 room, with a few examples of emeralds as they are found in the mines. Colombia is famous for emeralds, which you would know already if you have watched Romancing the Stone. The emerald museum is conveniently attached to an emerald jewelry store. Imagine that! It is not, however, the emerald shop named Romance In The Stone– that one is on another street. 

After all this aimless wandering in the drizzling rain, we successfully navigated ourselves back to our hotel and crashed. Deeply and completely. So we could refresh ourselves for our Sunday in Cartagena.  

This was not just any Sunday, though. This was Pope Sunday. The. Pope. In Cartagena. Where 92% of the population is Catholic. And they have had no papal visits since 1986. It’s kind of a big deal. And, I might have bought a souvenir shirt to prove it. We had originally thought to avoid all the craziness of the Pope, but we quickly realized that this wasn’t possible. Almost everything was closed. And there were crowds of Colombians in Pope shirts, wearing Pope baseball caps, and waving Pope flags. We couldn’t get across the street to the old town because the police had it blocked off for the Pope to drive down. This was quite the conundrum because we were looking for breakfast. We found a nice little street kiosk that wanted to sell us a solo cup full of shrimp and other seafood things, but that just isn’t breakfast food even if thetwinsontour liked seafood. Fortunately, they also served juice so we were able to get a glass of Lulo juice, sit at their tables, sip our beverages and watch the faithful gathering at the barriers to wait on the Pope. All this excitement and joy began to spread.  They told us the Pope should be passing by at any moment. We decided that we might as well wait and see the old guy. When in Rome, and all that Jazz. Except we weren’t in Rome, and neither was the Pope. We were in Colombia! We quickly realized we forgot the selfie stick in the hotel, and we would need to get decent pics since we were not on the front row. Fortunately, amongst all the people selling Pope shirts, hat’s, key chains, flags, posters, magnets, and statues, there was one man with selfie sticks for 10,000 pesos! What a deal! $3 bucks to add another selfie stick to our growing collection. 

We waited. And waited. Pretty sure the Pope must have stopped for a nap. And we waited. We thought for sure the people would be singing Ave Maria or reciting The Lord’s Prayer or something, but nothing. Just people waiting in eager anticipation. Then the helicopters started to fly overhead. The police started driving down the road. Then there was a random taxi. Then more police on motorcycles. And more police. And then the TV cameras for the 24 hour Pope coverage. Then there was a shout, and the crowd started to roar! El Papa! El Papa! The Pope was coming! And suddenly, there he was, standing up in the glass-enclosed Pope Mobile!  Pope Francis! And he was smiling and waving at me! And going way too fast. Within 10 seconds, he had flown past us and disappeared into the old town. I thought the Pope would drive at a more sedate speed. But all too soon it was over.  The crowds dispersed quickly, and the man selling Pope hats packed them up and replaced them with Cartagena caps.  But the men selling Pope shirts out of a suitcase were having a heyday selling up their shirts, $7,000 or 2 for $12,000. How can you pass up a deal like that? Thetwinsontour certainly couldn’t! And that’s how in our post Pope euphoria, we ended up with $2 Pope shirts that we will never wear, but that Pope fever sure is contagious! 

So we walked into the old town which was full of hopeful Pope- shirt -wearing people, and closed shops and restaurants.  We were so intent on finding a bathroom that we missed the Pope 2 times.  We knew that there was a bathroom in the Gold Museum (which we later found out was closed) so we tried to get there, but when we got to the church, the road was closed. We turned around to go another direction, but before we made it too far there was a cheer and an empty Popemobile. Then later, after we had found a bathroom we saw a crowd of people standing at a blocked off road. Again there was a cheer! The Popearrazzi, aka thetwinsontour went off at a run, I mean a slight jog, I mean a brisk walk. Alas he had already passed.  So close! 

We had decided that our cultural and sightseeing activity of the day was going to be to walk along the city walls because literally nearly everything else was closed.  So we walked along the wall, and there was only one spot where my mother would have said, “Girls that’s just not safe” because we were literally walking on top of a narrow part instead of the walkway beside the wall.  Then do you know what happened? We came to a bridge over the road, and it was roped off with police standing guard and a building crowd.  I asked the police, “cuando viene el Papa?” He said at 3pm which was just 18 minutes away! So guess what we did? That’s right, we found an open spot along the barriers and joined the Pope watch, again! Of course it was more than 18 minutes. It was so hot and humid, that I was literally melting. I could feel the sweat trickling down my back to my butt crack, but still I held my place with the selfie stick raised and ready to get a picture of the Pope. There were ice cream vendors everywhere, but we were afraid to turn around to buy one. Besides what would we do if we were eating a messy ice cream bar and the Pope came along? We would miss him. That’s how serious we were in our Pope watching. Everyone knows that thetwinsontour love ice cream, and don’t pass up that chance ever. Finally, there was a fleet of motorcycle police, and the television truck filming everything, but no Popemobile. He was sitting in the front seat of a small black Chevy. We almost missed him! But there he was, smiling and waving. And that my dear friends, is how we saw the Pope twice in one day.  So on that note I shall end because what could compare? 

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS Don’t worry! We promptly found an ice cream cart, and enjoyed an ice cream in the park.