Today’s plan primarily includes a visit to some hidden beach in a small island, and have a late lunch/early dinner in Celele by Proyecto Caribe Lab at 3pm. My alarm woke me up at 7:30am, I laid there till just after 8am, I could have slept a little more, because I got a heartburn in the middle of the night, and had to get out of bed to find Tum, Tum, Tum, Tum, Tum… I definitely ate more than I should have last night. Lesson learned, don’t let my eyes grown bigger than my stomach.
I got out of bed, brushed teeth, ventured out to find some coffee and some quick bites. The sky was very overcast, I know it is not really a good beach day, but oh well, it is my last in town, the beach was one of the things I have not done. I can touch the Pacific Ocean for Christ’s Sake. I thought I’d go anyway. Before that, I must have my coffee fix. I got my Flat White (coffee) and some Colombian breakfast - Carimañolas de Queso - it is a fried yucca cakes filled with cheese in Epoca café again. It is really good I like it. The external appearance looked very much like a Chinese dim sum to me, but tasted definitely very different.
Daniel sent me off on a cab to the other end of Bocagrande (the newer part of Cartagena I supposed), where there would be a line of water taxi waiting, I would take them to an offshore small island where I would find a beach. The beach belonged to Amare Beach Club, they have a whole page on Instagram showing pictures, how much the water taxi should cost, and which water taxi driver in specific I should look for: William, Orley, Anderson, Eduardo or Joandi… and so on. This Chinese guy who had absolutely no clue what these guys look like. I approached the water taxis, people were all busy talking to each other, bargaining or whatever they were talking about… Omicron? Anyway, I found a chance to talk to someone, I was like ‘Quien William?’ I think I was missing an ‘es’ in the middle. I was too nervous, I swallowed that word. So, I kept asking one guy after another, ‘Quien William?’, ‘Quien William?’. Finally, someone pointed me to who this big William of Cartagena is. I asked him, ‘a Amare en Playa Linda?’, I showed the Instagram, he said something, a word I definitely heard before, but I had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but by his gesture, I think he meant the Amare is closed right now, maybe he said come back another day, or another time. But it really doesn’t matter, because I have absolutely no idea what he was saying. So, I was ‘oh, ok, ok’ and walked off.
I was already at a beach, just not the one I was planned to go. Another beach, Playa de Bocagrande, supposed to be bigger is just 10 mins walk away, so I started heading that direction. Playa de Bocagrande is right next to some huge mall, and had a lot more umbrella and people, and the beach was very long, it almost went all the way back to the old walled city. I found a spot and started sitting down putting sunscreen on. What I noticed was that the men in the beach were very conservative, wearing mostly those knee length beach shorts, basically what American would wear at beach, no speedo, no Brazilian type of short short or bikini... a big fat yawn, if I may say so. I did have a speedo on underneath my shorts, but then I was intimidated and I just laid there with my shorts on. We were really cloud bathing anyway. I stayed for about an hour. It was ok, there were too many people trying to sell you stuff that it was not really peaceful beach experience I was envisioning. I’ll go back to Carson Beach in Boston next summer. After I left the beach, I walked all the way back to my Airbnb, which was probably about 1.5 miles or so of walking. Took a quick shower, and then I went back to Epoca for a 2nd flat white and another Colombian snack thing – Arepitas de Queso Fundido – corn cakes filled with melted cheese and fine herbs butter. Yum!
I only had a very very light lunch because my Airbnb host Daniel managed to squeeze me in for a reservation at Celele at 3pm. There were absolutely no availability I could find on their website until after I leave on Wednesday. But Daniel’s friend worked as a chef there so he must have twisted his arms. Celele was said to have been picked as one of the top 50 restaurants in Latin America in 2020. So, even though eating at the odd hour, I want to experience that. And I was not disappointed. For starter, I had a Prawn Tartare with coconut mayonnaise, mamey's chutney, green papaya pickles, chives, flowers, cilantro oil, and fried breadfruit on the side. For main course, I originally order the Mompox Style Duck Stew - sour orange juice and coconut milk based, sauté green beans, babaganoush (eggplants puree), yam soup and homemade cured duck breast over cassava bread. But that was out, so they recommended me to try the Celele Style Pork with pork confit terrine, dried bananas puree, roasted sweet peppers, Caribbean beans medley topped with chives and kale salad, over pork consommé. This pork dish totally blew my mind. The presentation was totally misleading, the pork was completed covered by the green, it did not even look like a pork dish, but when you dig in, the pork fell apart immediately, so tender, and there were at least 8 or 9 type of beans with all kind of textures, some soft, some more al dente. It is just a flavor and texture explosion in the month, one after another bite. Very very interesting dish. For dessert, I had Celele Style Merengón with crispy vanilla and bougainvillea wafer, creamy sour guava and rosewater ice-cream. Beautifully presented, unique, refreshing. Now my heart is full after this meal.
I better start packing here, need to get up at 5am-ish for an 8:17am flight, airport is only 12 mins away, but I need to find a taxi. Better start early.
All other photos from Day 6 are here.
