Continued from Cartagena Day 4 Part 2.

Last full day here in Cartagena, let’s make it count. Without fail, our two housekeepers show up in the morning and make us an amazing breakfast.

After an unhurried start this morning, we are going to split into boys and girls groups. The girls are going shopping, the boys are going to…walk around then find a bar.

Cute.

Passing through the same square we’ve passed through several times now.

Getting close to Plaza de los Coches, where we saw the Christmas Tree display two nights ago. It’s much more touristy and rowdy feeling over here. I’m so glad we are on the quieter side of town.

RL would love the patina on this building. And that its yellow and green.

Pedro de Heredia, the founder of Cartagena. Spanish conquistador, not exactly a friendly guy to the local natives.

Monumento Torre del Reloj.

Setting up celebration for 2026.

We looked at a shop selling knock off soccer jerseys. The knocks offs here look and feel like knock offs. We did not buy anything.

We are now outside the Old City. Going to walk to another neighborhood, Getsemani. Used to be a poor rough neighborhood, but now getting gentrified. Think East Austin.

That’s a pretty nice fake facade to hide construction.

Entering Getsmani.

Flag street…because it has…flags.

Definitely a little edgier and rougher here. Not to the point where it’s unsafe, just not as much traveled by most tourists.

Pedro Romero statue in Plaza de la Trinidad. I think he led one of the uprising against Spanish rule for an independent Colombia.

Love these vibrant colors. Come on, use your muscles and push yourself up.

There you go. We are taking a short break to see if we can find a spot where he can get something cold to drink and something cold to drink for the adults too.

Plaza de la Trinidad from another angle.

My phone has been doing weird things. I can’t get on the fast data network and even when I’m on 3G it keeps on dropping all service. Sigh. I guess we’ll resort to the old school travel way or just walking around and following our eyes and nose to find where to get a drink.

Their ice cream machine was broken, so we decided to go somewhere else. It’s late morning, but a lot of restaurants/cafes are still not open. Things in Cartagena just open late.

I bet this area will be super gentrified in about 10 years. I mean, it’s already getting pretty gentrified.

It’s hot, restaurants are open, let’s just duck into some bar here for a drink. I guess Little KL will just have water for the time being.

I planned ahead and brought his iPad with us. Otherwise any down time will just be one or both of us entertaining him for the whole time while he says he’s bored.

This is one of the brewpub beers. It was alright, nothing too special if I’m honest.

Smile. The adults are happy with our beers, LKL is happy with his iPad time. With that said, he’s getting hungry, we are all getting hungry. Let’s go look for some food.

Street canopy decor seems to be a theme here in Getesmani.

Alright, let’s make our way back to Old Town and try to find some lunch there.

This area between Getsemani and Old Town seems to be where actual residents of Cartagena actually do their shopping and living.

LKL has been complaining about hunger. Oh look, a bakery.

They ran out of chocolate breads but they did have this fresh bun. It was delicious according to LKL.

Back in Old Town.

Lunch spot.

Yes, you can use your iPad while we wait for the food to come out.

Another cerviche place. Yum.

While the boys were having lunch, the girls were having their own adventures.

The girls visited the same spots that we did, Plaza de los Coches.

Remember this square with the gingerbread church? The girls walked by here too.

They even got ice cream!

As the girls were having their ice cream, the boys were too. These photos between the two groups were both taken at around the same time stamp. How funny.

We all made it back to the Airbnb after lunch and ice cream. Time for some pool time.

RL got a little ball for the pool. The game is kids in middle, RL and BH at the ends. Dodge the balls thrown at you…yes, that’s it. It was kinda like Wack-a-mole. The kids had to duck under the water before the ball hit them.

The kids really enjoyed it.

Then it’s nap time, and early dinner, then packing our luggage.

We all enjoyed our first dinner spot on the night we got to Cartagena, we decided to come back here. It was also nice that we got to sit in the same large table as last time. This is kind of like our family Christmas dinner since it’s just 3 days away, and we won’t actually all be in the same city by then. Kinda cool.

In a better mood tonight than the first night…just a bit.

Ordered some new dishes.

And some old dishes. Everything was delicious again!! It wasn’t a fluke, this place is just really good.

After dinner, some of us went to the grocery store to look for snack or breakfast items for the kids tomorrow morning. Since we are leaving early, the ladies will not be there to make breakfast so we need some things to feed the kids. The other group took the kids back to Airbnb to start packing. They’ve got milk in cartons not in the fridge here. I wish they would do this in the US too.

WWWOOAAhhh. Kit Kat cereal! I’m getting it, and bringing it back to Austin.

Alright, time to head back and start packing. Our flight is at 8am, and our driver will be picking us up early at 5am…that’s early. But after the 2am wake up 5 nights ago in Austin to get here, 5am pick up time seems reasonable.

As I’m opening the door to into our Airbnb, next door there was a very poor local picking through and eating the leftover food from trash bags set out to be picked up by the trash truck. My first thought was maybe I should get him some of our leftover food from our fridge? Then I thought maybe he would be upset with me if I did that…somehow that’s what I thought about. Then I thought about how I would get sick from eating the old thrown out food that he’s eating. Then I went into the Airbnb and got distracted by helping the kids pack and didn’t remember this photo until now. I felt like I should have done something to help…

To be continued at Home, Sweet Home.