6 Days in beautiful Buenos Aires, living it up.

From the moment we set foot in South America I think we had both been looking forward to our last stop, Buenos Aires, quite a lot of the travellers we have bumped into on our way round have told us how great it is although I should counter this by saying that several other people told us it was their least favourite place in South America.

The city itself is fairly modern, especially in the centro area where many of the government buildings and shopping streets reside. At times the buildings could be anywhere in Europe and many of the buildings with their grey slate roof tops would not be out of place in the center of Paris.

The beautiful Cartagena

The first thing you notice about Cartagena is the beautiful streets, everywhere you turn in the old town could be a postcard. We really enjoyed walking round every street soaking in the atmosphere.

If, like us, you have been somewhere even slightly off the beaten track (like Taganga) the second thing you'll notice is the price. Everything is pretty much twice the price here (1.5 times the price in Bogota). This is because tourism has hit the area. Toronto is only a 5 hour flight away and America is even closer so several hotels in the upmarket beachfront Bocagrande area cater for the week long, all inclusive, crowd. We, on the other hand, were staying in the more wallet friendly backpacker district around Media Luna street (which is also the red light district!)

So this isn't the most unspoilt part of Colombia in tourism terms, but this has some advantages. The tourist cash means that most of the colonial architecture is well maintained in the old city and there is a good selection of museums (although some of these are mainly in Spanish).