Colombia - Barranquilla

The drive from Cartagena to Barranquilla was enjoyable, probably even more so as we had been static for a while. We thought we were going the coastal road, which is the main one, and we did, but as roads never go along the coast we didn't see much water.

We had a snack at a really nice place with plantain con queso baked in the oven, and some good coffee. We shared the place with half a dozen police officers - just as well we are not very scared of them anymore!

Arriving was good, and we stopped by an old castle called El Castillo de Salgar. There was a man managing the entrance and he told us that due to a lot of rain the cliff was unstable and we needed to be careful. Climate change is wrecking havoc.

Barranquilla is a much more commercial city than Cartagena, and it feels more modern and active. It has a couple of million inhabitants, and as you can see from the photos plenty of high rise buildings (the ones in the photos are only those we can see from the breakfast restaurant on the 18th floor of the hotel). We suspect they are empty, but when we asked a taxi driver who was taking us on a tour he said they are built to house visitors for conferences. We also learned from the locals that out of the three famous places on the Atlantic coast, Barranquilla is the safest and best organised, Cartagena has nothing but mess outside El Centro Historico, and Santa Marta is lacking of good infrastructure.

Shakira was born in Barranquilla and there is a huge statue of her on the waterfront walk. She owns the penthouse in the tallest building. We have seen the cute church (La Parroquia Inmaculada Concepción) where a narco was getting married some years ago, and the oldest hotel El Prado. The river, Magdalena, is pretty. The shopping mall is impressive. And the food is cheap and tasty. Every February there is a famous and very popular carnival. It is a typical big city, and we like it!