Colombiana Mamas — Ready.Slay.Vacay

Oct 19

Oct 19 Colombiana Mamas

Back again with another vacay Slayersss! This time I went to Cartagena, Colombia with my girls Tess, Anna and Whitney for my Anna’s birthday. It was my first visit to South America and it was such a cultural experience.

Anna and I flew from NYC to Miami where we met up with our friends from Virginia before we all flew to Cartagena together. It was a Saturday when we landed in the airport and there was a 2 hour wait to get through immigration. We had scheduled transportation who unfortunately had to wait that whole time for us. Once we got through we hit up Duty Free to get some bottles before heading to our hotel.

It rained before we got there so the streets by our hotel were a bit flooded. Our driver told us that it rains just about just about everyday which explained the streets. We stayed in a two bedroom suite at the Hyatt Regency Cartagena which was a beautiful hotel. During check in we opted to include the daily breakfast buffet for an additional $16/person. Since we checked in so late we put our stuff away then headed to the mall next door to exchange some money and get some quick eats. I will tell you this, the exchange rate changes daily and I’m not sure if it is just Western Union, but be mindful that they don’t take USD with rips or tears in it.

Once we got the money exchanged, we headed to the upper level of the mall and found a chicken spot called Frisbys. We each got our own chicken meals and headed back to our suite to eat. Once done we got ready to head out to the walled city for the night.

The walled city has a ton of restaurants and nightlife. We headed to a rooftop called Mirador Gastro Bar to get some drinks. I really recommend a reservation because it was packed, we got lucky that there was a table for us. We had to climb a ton of steps to get up there, but once at the top they had good music playing, dancing and the drinks were good. After we spent some time there we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday we booked the Totuma Mud Volcano tour with Experience Cartagena a black owned tour group in Colombia. We headed out at around 8 AM with our tour guide Vicki. She was so personable and made us feel comfortable. We ended up being the first group to get to the mud volcano that day which was great for us to avoid the crowds. The volcano is run by the local people of the town, so we made sure to tip them well. What Vicki suggested was that we give her the money to share out at the end of the activity so that there wasn’t any confusion. The mud volcano itself is 2,000 meters deep but can hold up to 3 times your body mass. Once inside you can get massaged and/or just float along until your time is up.

When you are done in the mud you head back down the steep set of stairs and walk over to the water to be washed clean by some of the local women. When I say cleaned, I mean cleaned. They will get every nook and cranny cleaned of the mud for you. Once we got loaded back onto the bus, Vicki took care of the tip and we headed over to see the Pink Sea.

Vicki explained the story of the Pink Sea which unfortunately wasn’t pink that day due to the rain that came down previously. After taking some pics we got back in the van and drove over to the beach where we were having lunch at La Perla Negra. Earlier in the day Vicki took our lunch orders, we each ordered fried fish and the food was so good! The meal came with rice, plantains and salad 😋. After eating, we chilled for a bit before being taken back to our hotel. I just want to mention that this was probably the earliest I’ve ever returned to my hotel after an excursion and it felt really good being able to lounge for a bit before we headed out that evening. Once we got back to the room y’all will never guess what we saw! When we looked out on our balcony, there was a vulture sitting on the rail and it was HUGE! It eventually flew away before we got bored and decided to head down to the pool for a bit before having lunch at the hotel.

After relaxing we got all dressed up and decided we were going to head to the Sky Bar rooftop across the street from us, but it was pouring rain outside and the rooftop was closed. A bunch of other nightlife spots were closing soon after as well due to it being Sunday, so we just ended up coming back in for the night and ordering room service.

Monday morning came about and we were scheduled to head to Palenque with Vicki four tour guide from the day before. Palenque is known as the first free town of formally enslaved Africans. We got picked up at 8:30 AM and Vicki let us know that we had a bit of a drive. We also had another participant who was on a solo vacation who joined us. During the drive Vicki made sure to explain some of the history of Palenque and Afro Colombian culture.

Our first stop was the I Love Palenque sign. We got out of the van and took some pictures in front of the sign before boarding the bus and picking up another guide to join us who spoke the town’s old language as well as English. While he climbed on we also saw the rapper Afroneto from Palenque. He came on the bus to greet us and even rapped something for us really quickly. We drove over to the town center before we got off and walked around a bit. First we ended up in the courtyard by the statue of Benkos Bioho, the founder of the town before heading over to the insta famous Black Lives Matter mural. We then loaded back up on the bus to drive over to watch a performance.

The dancers were amazing and it was a very interactive performance. They danced with us and let us play some instruments. It is customary that when tipping you dance up to the tip basket which made for a cute moment. Once done, we got back on the bus to head further into the town. We got off by some women crushing corn to make corn soup. I got a chance to crush some corn while the customary song was sung. Then we headed to the home of a local woman who makes and sells sweets. She welcomed us in and let us help mix some of her sweets. We also got to try some cake as well as a cup of what they call Happiness because they say it makes you happy all day.

After spending some time there, we got back on the bus which took us to the ‘I Love Being Black’ Mural where we took pics with women in beautiful dresses and baskets before tipping them to thank them for posing with us. Afterwards we headed to Vicki’s neighborhood to have lunch at the only restaurant in town. Once again we got our orders taken ahead of time and this time I got pork chops while my friends got chicken. With the meal came beans, rice, plantains and salad. This whole trip I had been cleaning my plate and I never can finish my food, that’s how good it was. After eating we got back in the van and got dropped back to our hotel.

We ended up booking a ride on the Chiva for later that evening, so we relaxed before getting ready for pickup. The Chiva is an open air party bus that drives around the city while playing music so you can dance, sing and have fun. We were being picked up at 9 PM so we took some shots, grabbed our bottle of Pure White Henny and headed to the lobby. We were then approached by our guide for the night, Jesús (nicknamed Zuz) who was sent by Experience Cartagena. He had some sodas for us to chase our alcohol. We had to climb up on a ladder to get on the bus when it arrived (talk about exercise lol), but the bus was turned up and took us around Cartagena. When we finally got off the bus for the evening, Zuz took us to a lounge in the walled city that played American Music (that’s actually what the sign said on the front lol) and he even got us our own section inside.

They brought out hookah, drinks, a fish and shrimp platter with fries as well as a chicken and fries platter. When i tell you the fish and shrimp was like heaven Oh My God!! I would go back there again just for that. I was also lit, so that could’ve been a part of it lol. After bringing in Anna’s birthday, we danced a little bit longer then Zuz put us in a cab to take us back to our hotel.

Tuesday was our last full day in Cartagena and we had one last activity booked. We got on the bus with Zuz who took us to our boat ride. Now usually we get on a catamaran, so I was not expecting this ride to be on a speed boat chileeee lmao. The wind was blowing every which way I couldn’t even get any good videos until we slowed down when nearing our first stop. It was definitely a new experience though. Our first stop was a spot for snorkeling before we were taken over to the bar in the water. We had hookah and some drinks before heading over to a beachfront restaurant for lunch. I was so hungry that I ate my food so quickly and I didn’t even get a picture. The girls went into the ocean for a bit while I relaxed in the shade. When our time was up, the boat took us back to the dock and we went back to our hotel for some relaxation before we had to get ready for the Anna’s birthday dinner later that night.

For dinner we headed to Candé in the walled city where they have a live band and dancers perform while you dine. At first the waiter was a bit rude, but we quickly realized he was like that with everybody in the restaurant so we didn’t take offense. He did drop the tude during the service, thank God. Since we had been eating so much on the trip, I ended up getting a lighter meal of grilled fish with salad and plantains. They brought out cake and ice cream while we sang happy birthday to Anna. After dinner, we ended up meeting up with Zuz again who took us to another Gastro Bar. I felt really safe having him with us at night walking around the walled city especially since it seemed that everybody knew him. We got to the bar where we had another section set aside for us and it even had a Happy Birthday sign up on the wall. We drank, had some hookah and danced our last night away. Once we called it a night Zuz once again walked us to a cab and we said our final goodbyes to him before tipping him for taking care of us the last two days.

We went to breakfast for our last morning before heading to our suite to finish packing. Our transportation was picking us up to take us back to the airport at 12:30 PM and hotel checkout was at 12 PM. Once we checked out we waited in the lobby for our ride. I just want to say that Cartagena airport does not play. They don’t even let you in the door of the airport unless you show your passport and your boarding pass. Once we got through immigration we went to Duty Free where I got a bottle of Pure White Henny to take home (of course) before we sat down in the big waiting area for our flight to Miami to board. Bye Bye Cartagena 👋🏾!

A few things to note:

Before arriving and departing Cartagena you have to fill out an immigration form online.
If you are exchanging money in the country they may not accept USD with rips or tears in them.
Try not to be flashy, you may just want to skip wearing your jewelry.
During some activities they might charge you to use the restroom. They charged us 2,000 COP to use the restroom during the Chiva ride and it wasn’t the best bathroom either.
Google translate can be your best friend if you run into somebody who does not understand English like our driver to and from the airport.

I am including links to some of my outfits below. Let me know what you think about my trip to Cartagena and if you have any questions leave them below!