A day enjoying Playa Blanca

As we hadn't exactly been blown away by what the beaches in Cartagena had up on offer, we decided to give Playa Blanca a go. You can either reach Playa Blanca by land and ferries which takes a few hours, or you can take one boat from town and it takes about 35 minutes. We decided for the easy option of taking the single boat, although after reading a few blogs (as I do), it also didn't sound quite as simple as you would think to catch a boat, especially with our crappy Spanish (yea it's still crappy even after 2.5 months).

Basically the drill is, you are supposedly meant to arrive between 7 and 8am and then negotiate a price with one of the tour companies that wait for you at the wharf. We had been told by the Colombian girl we met in Cali to only purchase a one way ticket and pay for the other half when you return as when you try to come back your guy will be nowhere to be found at the beach. We tried in vain to negotiate this with our sales lady but talk about lost in translation! Eventually a guy who could speak English stepped in to translate and told us we couldn't do that so we reluctantly handed over the full fare and crossed our fingers we would be able to find our boat that afternoon. The blogs had also advised to not bother with the lunch and tour of the Rosario Islands, instead just ask for solo Playa Blanca. Thankfully that wasn't lost in translation so we were able to get a cheaper price than the full island tour that we would have paid had we not known to ask for that option. 

After a 1.5 hour wait (getting there between 7 and 8 is not necessary, 8:30 would be much more advisable), and me getting nervous as almost 100% of the people at the wharf were going to the ferry, not waiting for the smaller boats, we finally we got called to our boat and headed on our way. Our tour guide "Chocolate" spoke only español so we could just get the gist of what he was saying but it wasn't hard to spot the massive naval fleet along the way, including two huge submarines. Jim and I had a good laugh at our lifebuoy for the boat. An inflatable angry birds ring. Only in South America. Oh and we found the 'Eco Petrol' sign at the wharf pretty amusing too. Oxymoron much?

When we arrived at Playa Blanca we were one of only a few that hopped off, most of the boat staying onboard for the full tour. We were pretty excited to be hopping off though as the beach certainly was living up to its photos with beautiful clear blue water and white sands stretching along for miles. I had read about the hawkers hassling you a lot here so we decided to walk down the beach a bit to be not so in the thick of it. After about 5 minutes of walking a guy offered us a shade for 10,000 pesos which was 5,000 cheaper than the start so we decided we would go for it. 

That was pretty much us from then on. Swim, sunbathe, read and then repeat. The hawkers weren't as bad as we had expected either so we managed to do our rinse repeat routine in peace most of the time. By 2:30pm we had had our sun and sea fix so were happy to call it a day and head back down the beach to wait for our boat that said it'd be there at 3pm. We were hoping like hell it would be there as we didn't have enough money left to buy another boat ticket. Thankfully we spotted some others we recognized from the way over and sure enough our boat pulled in at 3:30pm.

The boat ride back was a little more exciting as the wind had picked up, meaning there was quite a swell going. All the girls up front were screaming as we went down the face of each swell at pace. We were enjoying the ride up the back too but I think Jimmy was happy to reach land again as he was getting a bit green around the gills. 

As we hadn't eaten much all day we decided to stick around in town for a bit and revist the cevicheria we had gone to for lunch the day before. It turned out to be a good decision as we got to see a lot more of the beautiful colourful streets of Cartagena as we walked through the town to the restaurant. Jimmy even made his first purchase, a Colombian football shirt! A nice momento of our trip and all the World Cup games we watched while we were here. On the way I couldn't resist us stopping off at a cute little ice cream shop, La Palaterria, I had spotted which had delicious mango yoghurt ice cream. I loved how they had all the ice creams lined up on sticks for you to choose from. Very cute idea.

 

After a scrumptious coconut and lime ceviche with more hot sauce at La Cevicheria, it was time to head back to the hotel for some air conditioning and our homemade dinner. Wraps with avocado, tomato, mango, coriander and lime juice. Delish! We did manage to go via our old hostel while in town to book in our bus for tomorrow to our next stop Santa Marta which is 4 hours north east of here. I'm excited for a new beach to explore and there is meant to be cheap diving up there too so more good times ahead!