Colombia Day 12-13: las Islas del Rosario

 After a good nights sleep in my tiny hotel room I’m getting ready to go to my diving adventure. The meeting point is 15 minutes away from my hotel, so I decided to walk. After a couple of minutes I started to regret. I’m carrying 2 backpacks and a handbag and it’s already nearly 30 degrees at 7:30am. But it’s a beautiful way through the sleepy colonial style old city center of Cartagena. Arriving at the docks I’m so glad that I had transportation organized via my dive center. Due to the Easter weekend it’s absolute chaos at the pier. My meeting point is past the main area and I soon arrive. It was a warm welcome and after a short waiting time we all go on the boat to the island. I wanted to leave my big backpack, but my hotel would have charged 10€ for that and the dive center would be closed on my return. So all my luggage went on the boat. Luckily it went into the hold of the boat as it was quite windy and I got a bit soaked on the way. When leaving the harbor we got stopped by the police. They checked the captains papers and a guy from immigration wanted to see everyone’s passport. Strange, it didn’t seem a normal thing. But after everyone was checked, we continued the trip. 

Once on the island, the standard procedure happens. You get all your equipment and get ready for the first dive. The dive center was on a nice hotel ground and we were allowed to use all amenities like the pool. When I wandered around to have a look, guess whom I bump into? Heine, the Dutch guy I had met in Bogota :-) so funny. Unfortunately I had to get going and we quickly said goodbye again. 

That day I did two dives. It enjoyed it a lot to dive just with a shorty. Many people even just dived in their swimming suits. On the first dive I didn’t have enough weights, which stressed me out a bit. But for the rest it was nice. Around the islands there’s nice reefs with a lot of corals and smaller things. We saw parrot fish, angel fish, a cow fish (a box fish with devil horns) and some shrimp and others. After the second dive we had lunch at the hotel and then a boat brought us to the hotels we’ve booked. I stayed at the Hamaquero, which was a reasonably priced hostel. It was at a lovely spot, directly at the water. After check in, I found a hammock and enjoyed the views and read my book. 

At 6pm I got picked up for my night dive. While waiting for my boat, I was watching a stunning sunset. They say my hostel is the best spot to watch sunset on the whole island. It was amazing and people were hanging out on the beach or in the water to watch. 

When the boat finally picked me up, I realized that we won’t go to the dive center first, but go directly to the dive spot. Well, I didn’t have a shorty on the boat! Luckily the Dutch girl was wearing a long sleeve and a body warmer and gave me the latter. Otherwise I think I would have struggled. The night dive was cool, it was my first night dive in 7 years! We saw many crabs, banded shrimps and a lobster. At the end of the dive we all turned off the light to see the bioluminescence. First I didn’t see it, but when you moved water with your hands you could see it very nicely. 

After I returned to the hostel I had dinner and one cocktail and it was time for me to go to bed :-) The next morning started quite late for me: pickup was at 9:15 only. So I got up, packed my little bag and had some phone calls with home for Easter. Day two was similar to day one: get picked up, get kitted up and go diving. The spot we went for the first dive was special though: they don’t often go to this spot as it’s a bit further out and conditions need to be right for it. I have to admit it was a bit wavier and we all struggled a bit while waiting to go in. But once we were, it was great. A very different landscape with more soft corals. 

After the second dive most people went to lunch, but as it wasn’t included in my package I decided to rather jump in the pool. It was a nice refresher and great to get the salt water off before my transfer back to Cartagena. 

Back on the boat they informed us that the conditions have worsened and they need to take a longer, but safer route. And supposedly more beautiful. I really enjoyed it. We stayed closer to the islands, so we saw the full coastline. And then we went through a little river - it was a little challenge for the captain as there were some quite shallow parts. But I really enjoyed it, it was beautiful!

Back on land me and Lisette, the Dutch girl, walked together towards our hostels. We agreed to meet later for dinner and exchanged numbers. For my last 2 nights I’ve booked the Selina hostel. I’ve heard very different things about them. Some were super excited, some not impressed. I guess it depends as well on the location. After check in I opened my big bag - that I had left overnight at the dive center on the island - and was surprised by an army of little ants. So annoying! So for the next 45 minutes I unpacked everything and killed hundreds of ants. I hope I got them all - or I guess latest in the plane hold they’ll hopefully die. 

Once that’s finally done and I’m showered I went up to the rooftop for the welcome drink. The Selina hostel has two buildings with two rooftops, each with a bar/restaurant and a pool. And obviously first I went to the wrong one… It was a lovely view on the marina from the rooftop. Shorty after Lisette texted me that she’s on her way so I went to meet her. It turned out more difficult than expected due to the Easter festival in the city. When we finally met we decided to keep it simple and took a restaurant close to my hostel. It was good food, but western prices. We had a nice evening, until the band right next to us started and we couldn’t talk anymore. As we were both tired from diving we soon went back to our hostels and called it a night.