Bocagrande, Cartagena

Bocagrande is one of Cartagena’s beach town locations that is southwest of downtown or El Central. However, little did I know, but I would come to love Bocagrande. I found a hostel that was fitting to my budget called Hotel ITACO (literally, I(eye) Taco). I stayed at the ITACO hotel for about three or four weeks.

During this time, by the way, I had made two attempts to get an apartment from two different ladies who were very helpful, but unfortunately, I was misled by both of them regarding my move into some apartments and I got burned twice.

The fact of the matter was, they were misled, therefore I was misled. I will not get into the details of what had happened, but let’s just say that you have to be very careful about how you conduct your business and who you involve. What is even worse is that those ladies were referred to me by someone I knew.

Regardless of what had happened, I had to move forward and figure things out. I wanted to get the police involved, but my mind was too fixated on the why’s and how’s that I had decided not to press charges. When bad things happen to you for the first time ever, it is like a shock to your system.

You may have heard stories about things happening to foreigners, but when they actually happen to you unexpectantly, it brings you back down to earth from a euphoric travel high.

The ITACO hotel was great because it had allowed me to make some good friends. The people that I made friends with were workers of the hotel who were there morning, noon, and night. Not only that, but the ITACO hotel was not far from the local grocery stores Olympica 24 Horas and Mega Tiendas. The stores would often have eateries or cafeterias that served the latest lunches.

Therefore, as you can imagine, the cafeterias were often packed out for lunch. Eating food at the cafeterias were always the best times of the day. The reason why I say this is because it had put me right in the middle of people. When you are an expat, as I was, you want to be in the midst of foreign conversations and people and just take it all in.  And yet, eating at the store's cafeterias were always something that I looked forward to around lunch time. Those luncheon occasions were some of the best of times.

If I ever needed a quick bite to eat, Olimpica was my go-to store. If I wanted fruit or a big jug of water, I would walk across the street to Mega.

Once, I remember a night when I could not sleep. I had decided to get up and go downstairs and talk to the staff. I would often sit on the couch and talk for an hour or two with the staff and watch the passers-by in the streets. Since Bocagrande was a vacation hotspot for many travels, it was a place that never slept.

Not only that, but it would fail me not to talk about the party buses that could be heard from a distance coming down the streets full of inebriated individuals who obviously had way too much to drink. The buses were always very loud with a whole lot of shouting.

Regardless, everyone on the buses were having fun and dancing at the same time. Just know that the loud speakers on the buses and the shouting can be very, very loud on Friday's and Saturday nights. I think that even if you were in a deep sleep, the noises would still awaken you. This would go on until one, two, and three in the morning every single day.

Eventually, I got to the point where I would say to myself, “Welcome to Cartagena or Welcome to Colombia” The loud party buses were just a part of the culture for those vacationers and it was something that I just had to deal with. The loud music to my surprise, was just the beginning of my Colombian experience.

La Rumba Buses

Watching those party goers had caused me to ask one of the staff members about certain noises that were taking place in the area. Whevenever I stood outside at night, I could hear another sound coming from the right of the hotel.

One night, a hotel staff member invited me to walk with him down the street to a place where the music was being played. It had to have been about 1:30 a.m. I wanted to know where that loud music was coming from. So he said to me in Spanish, “Ven conmigo. Es un club al final de la calle.” Or, “Come with me. It’s a club down the street.” So, out of curiosity, I went. It was about a block and a half from where we were staying. The music was so unbearably loud that I had to find out what was going on.

I really did not know what to expect. I could see a building that was so crowded that hardly anyone could get in. So, as I stood on the sidewalk and watched, the fellow that I was with went up to the entrance. He tried to get as close as he possibly could. He then shook his head and walked away.

We wound up going to a store nearby where he knew a bunch of people. He bought some chips and we both went back to the hotel. My curiosity had been satisfied. Whenever I had heard that music from then on, I knew it were people who were jammed in a door in the front of a building trying to get in.

Even if I never got a wink of sleep, I loved staying at the ITACO. I had made many friends. Restaurants were nearby. People were always coming and going in and out of the hotel. The employees were very friendly. They spoke to me in Spanish all the time, and I never understood a thing they said.

They knew it and I knew it. So I would talk and communicate with them in Spanish. Of course, at the time, my Spanish was not very accurate. I was using words that I thought were legitimate words.

Unfortunately, I later found out that some of the words that I was saying in Spanish applied to something else. I then thought to myself, well, no wonder why no one understands me. I had been using the same words over and over again assuming that my word usage was correct. It was not.

Bocagrande's walking path next to the Cartagena Bay