Cartagena with the Gang

Being an adult is weird.

In college, you see your friends at least a few times a week. You might even live together for a few years. Then you graduate. And everyone scatters. For some of my friends, thats meant Denver, Cincinnati, The Bay, Fort Lauderdale, Ann Arbor, or wherever I happen to be. Seeing people four times a week turns into four times a year. Some maybe once. But that just means you gotta enjoy the moments together that much more.

In 2019, some friends and I went on a trip to Los Angeles. Befitting the location, it was a movie. We decided to take a trip every year. The pandemic fucked up that timeline, but last year we got back on it and had an amazing trip to Barbados. By the end of that trip, we were all wondering— “where we going next?”.

Then someone had an incredible idea. A PowerPoint party. Everybody picks a location and makes some slides to pitch it. Fast forward a few months and we actually made it happen. We hopped on Zoom and everybody presented where the group chat should go next.

The options were all over the place. London. New Orleans. Costa Rica. Hawaii. Different timelines, different budgets, different vibes. Seeing the effort everybody put into the plans was amazing. My presentation was on Cartagena, Colombia. I pitched the group on the culture, history, food, and natural beauty of the city and surrounding area.

You already read the title, so you know how that vote went…. (shoutout to your boy).

We locked in dates a little later and we were set. Well almost set. We still had to plan the trip.

And there are a ton of different ways to plan a trip. In Barbados for example, my friends Karina and Jhelan had put together an incredible itinerary and booked everything. I just needed to send the bread and show up. Smooth.

But like I said, there are a lot of ways to plan a trip.

Over the past few years, I’ve been traveling a lot. One of the most fun parts of travel for me is spontaneity. I like to get a general idea of what to try and do, but not preset or prepay for anything. Just let the days flow.

I’ve also found that a lot of excursions are more expensive online. Especially when you book ahead of time. So I try to wait until I’m there in person. When I can bargain a little and ask people where the best price is.

But part of traveling in a big group is understanding that not everyone operates the same way. Uncertainty can create stress. And for some not having a set plan creates uncertainty. Then you mix in that if you’re taking one, maybe two big trips a year, it’s worth the extra money to have plans locked in. Better than paying all that money to get somewhere just to not do anything.

For me that was difficult. Over the last few years, I’ve gone on trips or moved around to different cities every couple of months. Keeping expenses low on each trip has been important. Of course I try to balance that with not being a cheapskate. Nobody likes planning shit with a cheapskate. But on this particular trip, some of the pre-booking prices seemed particularly outrageous.

A day trip to Palenque for $125 USD. A catamaran near the Rosario Islands for $85 USD. If you’ve ever been to Colombia, you’ll know these are absurd. So despite how much I hated doing it, I had to be a cheapskate and bicker with my friends about pricing.

But imagine, one of my friends had EXHAUSTIVELY planned this trip out. Like down to the hour. Down to which dinner we could color coordinate for a flick (came out 🔥). So you could see how frustrating it was for her when I was talking about fuck that, let’s book stuff for cheaper, but with no actual alternatives. She was pissed. Rightfully so.

Whole time, I’m saying relax. We’ll be good. But I never thought about it from my friend’s perspective. For her, this is her big trip for the year so me risking not doing the excursion at all to save a couple of hundred bucks sounds like bullshit. Again, fair perspective.

But I knew we’d be good. A friend of mine had given me a contact for a guy that books boat trips in Cartagena. The problem was that he didn’t have much urgency. This worried my friends, but after living in Colombia for a few months, I knew it wasn’t a red flag. More of a cultural difference. Saying that didn’t make my friends feel more secure.

But this was going to be island hopping on a private speed boat for $150 total ($21 each). So to me, it made sense to let it play out.

And when I say lack of urgency, I mean despite reaching out a week and a half before we didn’t have any details confirmed until the day before the excursion. The first day of our trip.

But it was locked in!

So when we arrived in Cartagena February 25th, the energy was lit. The gangs back.

“We’re really together out here in Colombia!”

The next day, we got up early to buy drinks and headed to the dock. From there we loaded up the cooler and we were off. The drinks were flowing and our breakfast was insufficient. Perfect combo for a boat trip. More efficient.

The captain of the boat gave us the aux and everything. Since I got to Colombia I had mostly been listening to music in Spanish, so I was geeked when Ricky started throwing on rap. Didn’t even realize I missed it.

You have to go do this trip, just to see how Young Thug hits when you’re drunk at 10:30 am on the open water.

“Fwnfljernlwej justtt to liveee this here lifestyleeeee.”

We stopped a few times to swim, eat lunch at one of the islands, anchor around a bunch of other boats, and enjoy a beach. Incredible day.

The next day we went to Palenque, the first free African colony in the Americas. It was founded by a group of slaves who had escaped from Cartagena. They formed a community and were able to avoid and fend off attacks by Spanish colonizers.

For Palenque, planning wasn’t as clear-cut. I knew $125 was crazy, but I didn’t have any leads for how to get there cheaper. Everything online seemed overpriced. My friends had conceded to let me figure out how to get there, but the night before we were supposed to go we still had nothing booked. I could tell some of my friends were a little frustrated, but we had rum and cards so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I still felt bad though. Had to make something shake.

So the next morning, I got up before everybody and went to go find a way to get to Palenque. I stepped outside the BnB and there was a taxi about 40 feet away. I went up to him and asked him if he could drive to Palenque for the day. Shoutout the Spanish classes. The ride is about 1 hour and the tour is about 4 hours. I told him we had 7 people. He said yes with the quickness.

He called his friend who drives a taxi too and works in tourism. He came in less than 5 minutes and called his friend who organizes tours in Palenque. In less than 10 minutes of stepping outside the BnB the plans were secure and only cost us about $21 each.

Definitely good luck in there. But more than that, I think if you know something is going to work out, it always works out. Rigorous planning has its place. But so do loose ideas and relying on strangers.

In Palenque, we learned about how the town grew and developed its own language, culture, and traditions based on African roots with Spanish and Catholic influence. The town has a rich Afro-Colombian culture.

It was our tour guide's birthday so we got to experience even more of their culture that day, sharing shots and listening to drums to celebrate before the tour got underway.

At various stops, we learned about life in the town. The first was to the workshop of a woman who made traditional snacks. We assisted in making some and got to try some finished ones. The village doctor was there as well. He showed us some of the natural medicine practices people in the village use. He and the woman making snacks were old. Old old. Plus he had 4 wives. That natural medicine has to be the truth.

We continued on to Palenque’s boxing gym. A town of ~3500 people, Palenque has produced 3 boxing world champions. With incredibly basic facilities at that. That is mind-blowing. The people in the town have always maintained a fighting spirit stemming from the importance of protecting themselves against the threat of colonization. Almost everyone there learns to box. And we got to take a boxing lesson.

Next, we learned about the music of Palenque. The town produces everything from champeta to traditional drums and percussion. They have even have bands that produce rap with African rhythms and influence, one of which we got to see—Kombilesa Mí. They combine Caribbean rhythms with lyrics in the Palenquero dialect. Their music is filled with references to their African roots, the strength of Afro-women, Palenque traditions, and ending racial discrimination. We had the privilege of seeing a woman in the group freestyle while my friends played the drums.

And the best part? The food. This fish and coconut rice was probably the best costeño food I had. And it came on a palm leaf. The flavors were absolutely delicious. A great cap to an amazing visit to a special town.

After we got back to the city we went on a sunset boat ride on a giant catamaran. We got to take in the sunset over the city. Sublime.

The next day we took a bike tour. They had us everywhere. The streets of the old city in Cartagena are beautiful. As we pedaled through the narrow streets, the colors and architecture of the colonial buildings enveloped us in their warmth. The sun cast its golden glow on the pastel walls.

As we rode, the sounds of the city surrounded us. The chatter of locals going about their day, tourists gawking at the views, the distant hum of music from a nearby bar, and the not-so-distant hum of music blasting from speakers as we passed by. It was a symphony.

At every turn, there was something new to discover. A colorful building, a street vendor selling fresh fruit, a group of old-heads playing a game in the street. And as we rode through the streets, there was a certain bliss to taking everything in.

The next day we hit the mud volcano. It’s basically a huge pit, filled with thick mud that is good for your skin. It’s warm too and you float in it without effort. There are people there who massage the mud into your skin, which is supposedly great for exfoliation. After the massage, we cleaned off in a nearby lake.

Later, we head to a cooking class. But on the way, we made a pit stop. We had tossed around the idea of getting a group tattoo together, but it hadn’t gained much traction. Everyone was “with it, just find the shop”, but no one had looked into shops. So walking by one on the way to the cooking class, Ricky said we should pop in to see how much it would be. It turned out to be really cheap and they said they could do it that day after the cooking class.

We head over to the class and it was a dope experience. We learned how to make patacones, coconut rice, and baked fish. The chef teaching the class was hilarious. He had a really informal vibe which made the class really fun. It also made the class take longer than expected so my friends started taking turns heading over for the tattoos. A couple hours later we were feasting and everybody had their new tat. Last day of the trip, we got it done. Wavey.

The next day was for catch you laters. Again, queue in the weird part of being an adult. An incredible week together and then you might not see each other for a MINUTE. But such is being an adult.

When everybody else had left, Mike and I went to a coffee shop our bike guide told us was famous (he had a later flight). In a small world moment, my friend David who I had been taking Spanish classes with in Medellin happened to be at the cafe with some friends he had met traveling. This was insane to me as I thought the next time I’d see him was whenever I found myself in Switzerland. We caught up and he told me about some plans to go on a sunset boat later that day. The more you travel the smaller the world gets.

Later that day I met up with them and we got on the sunset boat. Unlimited Cuba libres. We got LIT. Reggaeton, Bachata, and Merengue blasted through the speakers. The whole boat was dancing. Even the baby on board was waving her hands (they come out the womb dancing out here). We took in the views of the city and enjoyed the moment.

What. A. Trip.

Note:

A little stress planning a big trip isn’t a bad thing. And it’s definitely way better than getting there and twiddling your thumbs trying to figure out some shit to do.

The plan my friend made for the trip was incredible. We ate delicious food and got to share amazing experiences.

The reason I shared the aside about the difficulty in planning a group trip and the bickering over a few excursions is just to say that it can be a balance. The next time you’re planning a trip maybe leave some room for random stuff to work out right. Figure out what you want to do for sure, but leave some room for where/when/how you’re gonna do it.

Oh and a minor detail, I got my tattoo in Medellin because I was staying on the coast and wanted to be able to be in the sun and water. Half spontaneity points on that one lol.

To my friends FAMILY, thank you for the memories and the moments. I love yall. Pictured left to right: Ricky, Karina, Diante, Mike, Jhelan, and Serena. Cleanest pic of 2023? We know.