Black Girl Solo Travel in Cartagena, Colombia

Greetings Daizies,

My vacation to Colombia was my first international trip since Cuba in April. I had seen dozens of black women traveling solo to Cartagena and was mesmerized by the images of the afrocentric murals around the city and couldn’t wait to go!

Planning

My planning starts with a note in my phone listing all the things I hope to do each day of my trip and then I move things around as needed.

Keeping a go-to packing list is super helpful when it comes to going on trips. I made a list a while back which pretty much works for any trip whether for a few days or a whole week. It’s a list I have saved in my notes of things to pack, things to buy, and helpful items that make my life easier. One thing to add to the common things to bring is an umbrella. I’m telling you an umbrella makes all the difference when you travel to a hot an humid location. The first day when the sun was out felt unbearable but with the constant shade of an umbrella I felt way more comfortable and energized.

I chose to carry cash to get me around the city and then use my travel debit card for places that accepted card. I went to the bank to get Colombian pesos and found out that they carried increments of $160. I didn’t think I would need $320 so I just brought $160 with me. I didn’t have a reason to get money out of the ATM until my second to last day there when I wanted to go shopping. There’s an ATM in Old City where you can withdraw cash if needed. I would’ve taken out at least $60 more to do some more shopping.

All together $220 is a good amount of cash to bring for food, taxis, and other activities but you could get by on less with the supplement of a credit/debit card.

Logistics

I stayed in an Airbnb in the Manga neighborhood. Pretty much all of my activities were in Gestemani neighborhood so if I were to go again that’s where I would stay. But for price consciousness I stayed in Manga and walked across the bridge to Old Town which took about 14 minutes.

This trip was a little wacky with housing and I did learn some lessons when it comes to booking Airbnb’s! I will now be asking for the square feet of the location before booking as well as size of the bed lol. What I thought would be an “entire apartment” turned out to be a one room place with a bathroom. It was a motel style room where you walk up to the door and boom there’s your place to stay. I could maybe charge that one to the game but where I drew the line, wasn’t the bed that was slanted but was the 2 giant cockroaches I found in the bathroom after killing one the previous day. I packed up my belongings SO fast. I was on the phone with customer service like this:

I ended up switching about halfway through to a different location just a few blocks from my initial airbnb.

Besides all of that, my stay in the Manga neighborhood was overall pleasant. I could find the intersections when walking to and from my apartment fairly easily. Google Offline maps is another helpful thing to have when traveling. By downloading a map of a certain area you’re able to see the locations when wifi isn’t available.

I was surprised to find out that the sun set at 6pm in late August. This did alter my timeline a bit considering being in the dark limits the activities I partake in when I’m traveling alone. With this in mind I booked my tours in the morning and made sure I was in familiar areas when it was close to sunset.

Activities

Walking Tours

Free walking tours are a great way to get a lay of the land when traveling. I booked a walking tour through Beyond Colombia for a tour of the Old Town Colombia. If you’re traveling solo this is a good opportunity to meet people and have people to take your pictures!

Palenque Tour in San Basillo, Colombia

I for sure knew I wanted to go on this tour because I was interested in learning about a different part of the African diaspora and learn about the first free town in the Americas. Since the 1600s black people have preserved their language, music, and way of living in the town of Palenque. It was also declared by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site in 2005.

I booked this tour with Juan Balleno Colombia tours for $50. There’s tons of sites to book for tours but this one I found was for the best value. The tour guides communicate with you through Whatsapp so make sure you have space on your phone to download the app! This was super helpful when trying to figure out directions to the meet-up point.

El Tutomo Mud Volcano

This was my favorite activity since I got to get a little dirty! The mud was very cooling and fun to float inside of. I booked this with Juan Balleno again and enjoyed the mud volcano experience as well as the cleaning afterwards. You can pay 5 pesos for a 5 minute massage (wouldn’t recommend it) and 5 pesos to have ladies help clean you in the lake (would recommend). Both are equivalent to a dollar so it doesn’t hurt to try both. I just expected like a therapeutic massage when I should’ve have lol.

What I liked about this tour was the break we had afterwards to just chill at a beach and eat lunch. Being by the water is so peaceful. I loved every minute of swimming in the water and being in deep thought on a hammock.

Rosario Islands

This gave me all of the faraway island vibes. On my last day I took I day trip to the Rosario Islands for a relaxing afternoon on one of the nearby islands. This trip I booked from a local tour stand. The total cost was about $53 USD, which was the lowest price I’d seen for a trip to the islands. Other options typically started at $80.

I ended up meeting another solo traveller from Argentina. We eat lunch together and got to know each other through my limited Spanish and her limited English lol.

You get your own little cabana to lay on and a welcome drink. Then there’s about 5 hours to just chill and do whatever you want.The beaches were so beautiful and serene. I think I took a nice little nap after reading for a bit.

I for sure recommend this day trip. I know Playa Blanca is another popular option but I opted for this one instead because it was more private and lowkey which was the vibe I was going for.

Food

I thought the food was great for a healthy diet. There was plenty of fish, chicken, rice and plantain. I did find myself in Subway a few times but that’s because I crave chocolate chip cookies often and of course sandwiches are my favorite food. But surprisingly my favorite meal was from a woman selling dinners outside of the Clock Tower area. It was so savory and well seasoned.

Towards the end of my trip I fell hard for their freshly baked cheesy bread from the bakery in the grocery store called Carillo. All of their baked goods definitely tasted like it was baked fresh that morning.

Culture

I was even more determined to become fluent in Spanish when I went to Cartagena because I felt really proud of myself that I could speak and understand conversationally. I feel like if I really practice and make a strong effort I’ll just get bette and better and become proficient. Going to Spanish speaking countries does so much for increasing my understanding of the language. In just 7 days I feel like I got so much great practice.

People wise, I had overall positive experiences. I did feel like I stood out as a black woman. I think I thought I would see more black people like I did in Cuba. It wasn’t until I saw a protest that I saw more than a few black people at a time that looked like me. You’ll see in my vlog what I’m talking about but it was interesting to me that that was the only time I saw black people and it had to do with them trying to get justice for those killed. Seems like everywhere in the world, black people have an uphill battle to be seen as equal in their countries.

Black pride

This was just a quick summary of my week in Cartagena. There are some other cities you can visit in Colombia like Bogota or Medellin. I do think a good 5 days in Cartagena would’ve sufficed lol but I spent the additional time going to the spa and chilling at the beach. Always remember to stay hydrated and go with the flow when you can.