Atlanta to Cartagena

Atlanta, GA

We woke up early in order to get to the Atlanta airport in time for our 9:50am Delta flight directly to Cartagena. The recommendation was to arrive at the airport 2 hours before flight time in order to check our bags, get through the crazy security lines, and make it to our gate on time. Turns out, we didn’t even need a fraction of that time. The check-in process and security lines are so much more efficient at the International terminal – as soon as Emma dropped us off, we walked into the departures area, were greeted by a Delta agent who helped us check in and print our boarding passes, then walked straight to the front of the security line. Since we had TSA Pre-Check, even that was a piece of cake. We had plenty of time to hang out in the Delta Sky Lounge before boarding our plane which gave Matthew a chance to deal with some last-minute emails and me a chance to post a couple of pre-travel pics to Instagram. 🙂

We were served a so-so lunch on the plane and spent most of the 3.5 hour flight watching a variety of movies.

Once we arrived at the Cartagena airport, we made our way to the Customs area where we were met with a long line of fellow travelers. It took a good hour to get through Customs, but it wasn’t an unpleasant wait. After we were cleared, we picked up our luggage, exchanged some dollars for Colombian pesos, and got a cab to our hotel. Turns out, we had left our Schwab ATM card back in Atlanta which was a bummer since it would’ve allowed us free ATM transactions and the most favorable exchange rates. But, after making several phone inquiries, Matthew figured out we could use our Visa card at the ATMs for a small fee, so it was fine.

The check-in process at the Radisson was relatively easy even though our Spanish is limited as is the English of most of the hotel staff. We asked to see a variety of rooms before finally settling on a Queen room with a balcony (Room 913 – which was great, by the way!). After unpacking, we headed down to the beach for a walk along the water and a stop for a cold beer at a beach-front open-air restaurant. The beach was busy but not over-crowded by any means. We did see lots of people wind surfing which was really fun to watch (but not something either of us wanted to try!).

After our walk, we headed back to the hotel to ask for a recommendation for dinner. We walked about a half-mile along the road to Blas el Teso, a delicious beach-front restaurant. We were the only patrons, and our waiter made suggestions as to what to order. We were both shocked at how big the portions were – neither of us were able to finish our meal!

We walked back to our hotel then decided to call it a night.