Listo!

At six in the morning we were all in Amsterdam to catch our flight. With a transfer in Madrid and a 12 hour layover in Medelline, the most trendy city in Colombia, we had a long trip. We are writing this blog during our first hours in Cartagena.

When arriving in Cartagenas’ beautiful airport, it was as we expected. Crowdy and very hot, like 35 degrees, but it gives us a nice first impression. Moreover, now we know what it feels like to be millionaire. The currency exchange is so low that 1 euro equals 3300 Colombian pesos. We already knew that the apartment would be very nice and nothing was exaggerated about that. With a swimming pool, a fitness area and squash court and view of the skyline of the entire city, it is really too luxurious for us poor students.

The long flight and night exhausted us, so we decided to stay at the pool for an hour before exploring the Bocagrande area. The area where we live in, is very touristic. With a lot of high-rise buildings, tourist shops and restaurants, it is a bubbly area.

Even more interesting for our project, we experienced the first heavy rainfall. After only 10 minutes the mainstreet was completely covered with a 10 centimetre layer of water. When the rain stopped it took a while before all the streets were back to normal again. The view from our apartment gave a look at the current state of the coast of Bocagrande. In the picture you can see that the sea is very near to the buildings and main roads.

Monday is an extra day off because of a national holiday, but Tuesday we will finally meet our supervisor Dalia Moreno at the University of Cartagena. Then the work will finally start. So in the next blog post we will tell you more about our first week in Colombia.