Playa Blanca, Colombia, March 2020

Cartagena (continued)

Our last day in Colombia was on the beach. We wanted to dip into the Caribbean before going home to our landlocked Colorado.

It took a while to find the right tour. In the end, out of all available beach trips, we chose to go to Playa Blanca. It was for a day trip, included lunch on the beach and cost 100 000 pesos (~ $32) for two of us.

There were two ways of getting to Playa Blanca – by boat and by bus. We decided to take the bus. The boat was a little more expensive but the main reason for going by bus was the rough sea. It was storming all the time while we were in Cartagena and I did not want to get seasick.

Our bus finally departed at 9 am after collecting all passengers. We were the only people on the bus who did not speak Spanish. Others largely ignored us except for one lady from Argentina who was an English teacher and therefore was able to communicate with us. All announcements on the bus were in Spanish. We did not understand them until thankfully one young man took it upon himself to briefly explain what they were about.

The road to Playa Blanca took 1.5 hours. The bus passed through Cartagena’s congested streets, then drove through a rather bare landscape and a bird sanctuary, Aviario Nacional de Colombia. It did not rain for a while. The trees on both sides of the road were covered with a thick layer of dust.

On the beach, we learned that an umbrella and loungers were not included in the tour price. They cost extra 70 000 pesos (~ $22) which we of course paid. The sun was beating down on us unmercifully.

Guidebooks warned not to go to Playa Blanca on a weekend. We waited until Monday to avoid crowds on the beach. Apparently, it is always crowded.

There was no place to change. I was taken to a shack with beach gear where I put on a swimsuit. After that, I realized that the others came prepared and already wore swimsuits under their clothes.

It was hardly possible to sit in peace under the umbrella. Every now and then, someone offered to buy a snack, water, something else and even grabbed my shoulder insisting on giving me massage.

We took turns to escape into the water. Everyone stayed near the shore because a little farther it was like a highway for motorboats, water scooters and lots of other floating things. When a boat passed it filled the air with the smell of gasoline. On the other hand, it was fun to jump in the waves that these boats created.

My husband swam up to a snorkeling group nearby where he was told to bugger off because he did not pay for viewing the corals.

Lunch was brought at noon and it was pretty good. Soon after that, it was time to leave.

We did enjoy our half a day on the beach. I do not want to sound like a high-maintenance woman. Playa Blanca was not really bad but it was a far cry from a beach paradise with turquoise waters as the tour operators advertised it.

Back at the hotel, we noticed how red our skin was. The sunburn was extensive that astonished me. We were under the umbrella all the time and exposed to the sun only when swimming. My sunburned skin itched and ached all night keeping me awake.

The flights back to Denver were as scheduled; we did not experience any issues and now I can say that we did not catch the coronavirus on the way home.

While the news from Europe and Asia were disturbing, nobody in Colombia was worried about getting sick when we were there. The outbreak of COVID-19 was not yet a pandemic. The WHO declared the pandemic on March, 11, the next day after we got home. Colombia is now under the lockdown that is brutally reinforced. Migrants are forced to leave the country.

I am glad that we took this spontaneous trip which, I fear, could be my only trip in 2020. The plans to travel in Europe from April till the end of July got cancelled. Well, I am going to use this time at home to write about my past trips taken before I started this blog. There is a lot to tell. Stay healthy and stay tuned!