A few days in Cartagena
After a few busy days in Bogota, it was time to recharge the batteries. I had decided to spend a few days in Cartagena whilst I was in Colombia and had booked a cheap return flight on LATAM. I booked LATAM’s “Premium Economy” offering for £150 return but, to be honest, wasn’t expecting that much… and I was right!
After getting to the airport and checked in, I made my way through security to a bunch of gates where there was next to nothing to do apart from peruse the shops. I grabbed a few cans of beer and read my book until the gate was announced. Nice premium boarding experience offered at the bus date. All of Group 1 customers boarded a bus along with Group 2. Two more busses then pulled up in front of the bus that we were on so, of course, it made sense to the gate staff to make sure that they were full first before our bus was allowed to head off to the plane – last!
LA4012, BOG - CTG, CC-CQN, A320
On boarding, I took my sear in Row 1 and was welcomed by the crew member (who, quite understandably had difficulty with my Scottish surname!). She offered a small bottle of water and before long, we were on our way with a flight time of just over an hour.
Service was pretty basic. I was offered a bag of crisps along with a soft drink. Later, it transpired that she did have Heineken as well but I passed.
The rest of the flight was spent being transfixed by the scenery as we flew across central Colombia. All of the rivers and their tributaries in amongst the forest was absolutely stunning to see.
Before I knew it, we were approaching the coastal city of Cartagena with some more great views as we came in.
We hit the runway with an almighty thud. The engines then spooled up and were shot back up into the air again. After over 30 years of flying, that was my first time experiencing that. Announcements were made in Spanish so I had no clue what they were saying. What I was hoping they were saying was that we would be going around to land in Cartagena again in 10 mins. Thankfully, that is exactly what we did!
I hopped in a cab after collecting my case. My choice of outfit – jeans and jumper - was completely appropriate for Bogota. However, it was not appropriate for the 30 degree heat there was upon exiting the airport! I hopped in a cab and made my way to the hotel.
I booked the Nacar Hotel (which is part of the Curio Collection by Hilton) as it was located in the Old Town and seemed pretty central to most things. I also treated myself to one of their Penthouse Suites. I think that they deliberately keep photos of these rooms / Hilton app so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’ll let the photos do the talking…
On the roof of the room, I had my own private pool!
The room was absolutely stunning and I was glad that I had ‘splashed out’ a little bit more so that I could take full advantage of it over the next 3 nights. The room that I was in was around the corner from the main part of the hotel which was where the main pool and rooftop bar and restaurant were situated. My building still did have a small bar but with only a handful of rooms in my building, it was usually pretty quiet. After I freshened up, I headed to the rooftop bar to take in the sunset. Unfortunately, there was a private event with what looked like TV cameras so I was denied entry. Rude!
After a quick Google Map search, I found the Townhouse rooftop bar so headed there for a few beers and to take in the views.
It was a great spot to spend a few hours and the music was fantastic. I grabbed some bar nibbles so didn’t need dinner. Headed back to the hotel late evening, obviously used my private pool
and had a few poolside beers then promptly hit the sack!