We had been told that we would need to be at the airport 3 hours in advance of our flight so we got up early to get packed and find a cab. The cab was relatively easy to hail and we were able to negotiate the price down to $20 from $25 so we were happy. Once at the airport, we were so pleased to see American things- it's pretty hilarious. I ate a Quiznos sub at 10am just because I was so happy to have something I recognized, lol. We walked around and perused all of the nice stores. I looked for tennis shoes, but of course they were really expensive. I almost caved and bought some but they didn't even have them in my size. The flight was only an hour, so it was a pretty short endeavor but it still cost us $366.
Once we got into Colombia, customs was a breeze. We got a cab to take us to one of the hostels we had researched in the old town. Unfortunately that hostel had misrepresented their prices online and was way too expensive, so we went trekking through old town in search of a better deal. We looked at four hostels before settling on "Hostel Baluarte" in the Getsemani district. This hostel is really built more like a hotel, which we liked because it is quiet and they bring you new towels and clean your room every day. They did have rooms with a/c but it was so much more expensive that we chose no a/c and paid $68,000 pesos or $34USD for the room. I was pretty annoyed when they added a $500 tourism tax to our bill because even though it is $0.25, it is totally made up and that just pisses me off.
We decided to take a walk around the city to get a lay of the land. As you pass through the arches under the clock tower, you enter the old town which is sectioned off by a huge wall that was built long ago by the Spaniards to protect the city from invaders. We found "El Portal de Los Dulces" which is a street that only has homemade candy vendors. We tried some coconut candy which was really good.
We continued our walk to the other side of town where we had been told there was a mall. I was going to continue my hunt for tennis shoes and we needed a few other necessities as well. I had broken my sunglasses and after a month of travel, my flip flops looked disastrous so I allowed myself a few purchases. It's amazing that I now balk over a $15 sunglass purchase whereas in LA, I wouldn't have thought twice about such a thing- oh the life of a traveller! I was not successful in finding tennis shoes (apparently people in Colombia do not wear these often?) but we were thrilled to find a Target like store that we could walk around and peruse for a bit.
As we walked, it was interesting to see the stark differences between each side of town. You could definitely see the new, built up and clean side vs the run down, trash filled side.
As it grew darker, we decided to find a place for dinner. There are many restaurants but most of them serve Italian food. I really wanted something healthier so we walked the entire old town before coming across a place called "Crepes and Waffles". They did have crepes and waffles, but also delicious salads which is what I wanted. We got a Mediterranean salad and a ham, cheese and spinach crepe to share. Unfortunately this restaurant had horrible service and though we tried to be very patient, we spent a lot of time sitting and brooding. It seems common in this country for them not to bring you your drinks until after your food has been delivered, which I think is because they are lazy/forget not because of anything cultural. The food was great but the service was such a mess that it ruined the experience. However, so far I like Colombia a lot more than Panama!
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