Isla del Piratas!
Saturday August 26th - in the morning headed to the same dock the previous day's dinner cruise had departed from, at around 7:30. Many others were queueing up there to head to other hotels / resorts in the Rosarios either for the day or overnight (i think most just make day trips though). While waiting i was able to inspect the nearby barque Phantom, it's a steel hull ship with interior pretty well optimized for use as a party boat (which is to say lots of space blandly cleared to make open space for dancing).
Most of the trips to the Rosario Islands advertise that it will be via traditional vessel, which sounds exciting, especially for a fan of "traditional vessels." So it's kind of amusing to find the traditional vessel of transportation to the Rosario Islands is a long powerful fiberglass motorboat with two 250hp motors on the back, amd rows of seating for passengers. The captain often has a con raised up above the canopy over the passengers, though not in our case. I suppose heck if this is the kind of boat they've been using for the last fifty years it's not a lie to say it's traditional.
It took about an hour to get to the islands, i had expected we'd go out through the Caribbean but we actually went around through cartagena Bay for most of the journey.
Our hotel is actually on the easternmost (closest to cartagena) point of the Rosarios, except for two tiny islands just offshore from ours that appeared to have resort facilities built on them but not currently in use.
Pulled up to the dock and we all (about a dozen?) disembarked. Smallish welcome drinks of uncertain variety were provided. Tried to check in but were told we can't till 3. Somehow i don't remember this being such a problem on any previous vacation. But we could stow our bags behind the check in counter till then. Amd in the mean time we went swimming!
The tour-booking lady at our hotel in cartagena had tried to steer us away from this place because it "doesn't have a beach," amd while strictly speaking yes it doesn't have an expance of sand descending into the water, it is surrounded by ample shallow water simply reached by descending steps. Though there's sharp coral in places amd after three days (spoiler alert) I've got some cuts on my feet.
Of the others that got off the boat with us the one guy i briefly talked to, who was traveling with a few friends amd seemed to speak very fluent English, said he was from the Netherlands.
At lunch time the staff started bringing out identical plates of grilled fish amd i began to panic, but it turns out the "day people" all get the same thing and those few of us staying on get to order off the menu.
Cristina has liked the food, I'm still mildly suspicious portions of it (the fries amd vegetables) seem like standard sodexo (generic restaurant supplier) fare. But the main part of my every meal here has been good so i can't complain. I've had mostly various forms of grilled chicken (their menu doesn't lack for variety), while Cristina has been going through the seafood dishes. Though she usually gives me the calamari rings which honestly are a bit rubbery here amd not quite a joy to eat.
We pretty much spent the afternoon swimming. Around three the day people left and it suddenly felt a lot more tranquil. Our room is essentially half a very large hut, divided by a wall down the middle amd the other side having a door on the other end. Lying in bed we look up at a thatched roof, which i find charming but Cristina has a bit of a fear of a snake falling on her. Though i didn't say so, this sounded like a silly fear to me but she said it actually happened to a cousin once.
In the evening thunder rumbled in the distance amd later could be seen snaking horizontally across the sky, sometimes lasting long enough for one of us to say "look, lightning!" and the other to look up in time to see it still going.
Having been flummoxed at seeing the sunset from cartagena due to a building being right in the way we were eager to catch it here ... amd it turns out there's another small island RIGHT where the sun sets! Such sauce
Most of the trips to the Rosario Islands advertise that it will be via traditional vessel, which sounds exciting, especially for a fan of "traditional vessels." So it's kind of amusing to find the traditional vessel of transportation to the Rosario Islands is a long powerful fiberglass motorboat with two 250hp motors on the back, amd rows of seating for passengers. The captain often has a con raised up above the canopy over the passengers, though not in our case. I suppose heck if this is the kind of boat they've been using for the last fifty years it's not a lie to say it's traditional.
It took about an hour to get to the islands, i had expected we'd go out through the Caribbean but we actually went around through cartagena Bay for most of the journey.
Our hotel is actually on the easternmost (closest to cartagena) point of the Rosarios, except for two tiny islands just offshore from ours that appeared to have resort facilities built on them but not currently in use.
Pulled up to the dock and we all (about a dozen?) disembarked. Smallish welcome drinks of uncertain variety were provided. Tried to check in but were told we can't till 3. Somehow i don't remember this being such a problem on any previous vacation. But we could stow our bags behind the check in counter till then. Amd in the mean time we went swimming!
The tour-booking lady at our hotel in cartagena had tried to steer us away from this place because it "doesn't have a beach," amd while strictly speaking yes it doesn't have an expance of sand descending into the water, it is surrounded by ample shallow water simply reached by descending steps. Though there's sharp coral in places amd after three days (spoiler alert) I've got some cuts on my feet.
Of the others that got off the boat with us the one guy i briefly talked to, who was traveling with a few friends amd seemed to speak very fluent English, said he was from the Netherlands.
At lunch time the staff started bringing out identical plates of grilled fish amd i began to panic, but it turns out the "day people" all get the same thing and those few of us staying on get to order off the menu.
Cristina has liked the food, I'm still mildly suspicious portions of it (the fries amd vegetables) seem like standard sodexo (generic restaurant supplier) fare. But the main part of my every meal here has been good so i can't complain. I've had mostly various forms of grilled chicken (their menu doesn't lack for variety), while Cristina has been going through the seafood dishes. Though she usually gives me the calamari rings which honestly are a bit rubbery here amd not quite a joy to eat.
We pretty much spent the afternoon swimming. Around three the day people left and it suddenly felt a lot more tranquil. Our room is essentially half a very large hut, divided by a wall down the middle amd the other side having a door on the other end. Lying in bed we look up at a thatched roof, which i find charming but Cristina has a bit of a fear of a snake falling on her. Though i didn't say so, this sounded like a silly fear to me but she said it actually happened to a cousin once.
In the evening thunder rumbled in the distance amd later could be seen snaking horizontally across the sky, sometimes lasting long enough for one of us to say "look, lightning!" and the other to look up in time to see it still going.
Having been flummoxed at seeing the sunset from cartagena due to a building being right in the way we were eager to catch it here ... amd it turns out there's another small island RIGHT where the sun sets! Such sauce