After settling in at One Day Hostel and changing into shorts to deal with the heat that would be the joy (sarcasm) of my stay in Cartagena I decided to head out and search for a restaurant for dinner. I found a great place called Mar de Las Antillas that also happened to have some delicious ceviche. Clearly they eat late here, because there was only one other table occupied at the restaurant.
As the evening approached I met some other people from the hostel and we decided to try to catch the sunset from the wall. It wasn’t as spectacular as we had hoped, since there were clouds on the horizon.
To make things better we grabbed a beer ($1 USD) from a vendor and walked around. The first thing I learned in Colombia is that no one cares if you walk around with alcohol, so buy it in a store or from a vendor and go drink anywhere. I’d later find out if you go to a club you can just go outside and drink on the street for much less and then go back in.
The old town is so beautiful during the day, but also at night. There are so many streets to walk down with gorgeous old buildings that are very well illuminated. There were also so many lights just for Christmas.
December 7th is Little Candles Day. The tradition seems to vary from city to city in Colombia. In Cartagena for instance people generally got up at 3am to light candles. In other towns in Colombia they would light them in the evening. I met a group who were visiting from Bogotá and they pusuaded me to light a candle and add it to their collection. The next day you would see many steps and sidewalks with the remains of the wax from the candles lit the evening before.
For more pictures and videos from this day look at my album on Google Photos: Cartagena, Colombia Day 1
Michael's Journey 