Night out in Cartagena

I met a few travelers at the hostel (Casa Vienna), and we decided to check the night life on Wednesday night en the old City of Cartagena, some guy talked us into checking his club, which was completely empty, except for a couple of hookers, we left the place and went to some plaza, were there are a lot of cafes, and one can sit outside and have a drink, the drinks were quite expensive, and after one beer we moved on to another bar, this time at the Plaza de Coches, where the beer was much cheaper, a couple of hookers were sitting at the bar, lets just say that after a few experiences in Colombia, I am beginning to develop the skill to tell who is a hooker and who isn't, after a beer, we headed out and decided just to sit outside in the Plaza, as the weather is quite pleasant during the night here, we bought a bottle of Rom to drink, there were five of us, three guys and two girls, me, Jason from Alaska, an Argentinean girl (Carmen), a black American girl, a guy from Alaska and another Argentinean guy, immediately we were surrounded by some kids asking us for money, another guy approached us, Emileo Rafael was his name, a half Colombian half Chilean, who was just got here, because he was deported from Panama !, anyway he was quite alright, and told us about the Cartagena underground, which clubs are purely hooker clubs and which are mixed, about the kids in the street, and that they are asking for money just to buy drugs, we then asked one of those kids what drugs he takes, his answer was anything that comes by him, marijuana, pills, crack (the crude kind), he was no older than 14, Jason the Alaskan guy went to take a piss, he disappeared for a while, and when he came back he was with a policeman, who then pointed to the Argentinian guy to go with him around the corner, Jason told us that he had just been strip searched by the cop, probably looking for drug, the Argentinean guy was probably going through the same process at that moment, the cop and the Argentinean guy came back, and I was thinking it's my turn next, but I decided to play it a bit hard, I looked at the cop and he made some hesitated gesture with his hand, maybe asking me to come with him, but I just ignored him, and he went away, maybe after searching two he figured out that there is not much chance he is going to find something with us, and decided I was not worth the effort, he was not going to find anything anyway, since we had nothing.

After this we decided to go into one of the clubs at the plaza which seemed rather full and lively, the club was not bad and we stayed there for a couple of hours, the we left, and as we were walking though the plaza, a man was having an argument with one of those kids in the plaza, and he suddenly pulled out a gun, we hurried our steps trying to get away from the scene fast, our hostel was just five minutes walking distance, and I just suggested we walk it back, it would have been wiser just to take a taxi, that kid we meet earlier in the plaza followed us all the way, asking us for money, it was not funny anymore, he would not leave us alone despite our threats, one block from the hostel, two cops on motorbikes blocks our path, and told us something in Spanish, I think they said that they were going to search us, they were probably thinking : "Five gringos walking during the night in Cartagena, they must have some drugs on them", the game goes like this, if they search a gringo and find some drugs, he would have to give them all his cash saying something like "here is all I have on me, please leave me alone", and they will let him go, however, we were fed up by now, and I pointed at the kid and told the cops, "why don't you check that", the Argentinean guys joined my defiant stand, and told them about the kid
and maybe about the previous searches, I don't know what it was, the fact that we spoke Spanish, or that I look like a native, or our sincere tone, but the cops let us go, the kid meanwhile fled the scene as fast as he could, this has to be one of the strangest nights out I ever had.

The night after I went out again this time just with the two girls, we passed by a restaurant that does local specialties, and we decided to try it out, it served mostly fish dishes, but excellently cooked and delicious, so were the juices and the dessert (I had sea bass in sea fruits sauce with coconut flavored rice, Mandarin juice, and coconut pie), then we decided to take another walk in the old city, but not stay around too late, it was a very nice walk under the moon light, we were back to the hostel by midnight, this time without any dodgy experiences, we had enough of those the night before.