tell the storyi might have said this before, but i almost got got at playa blanco! beautiful beach tho...
tell the story
doesn't surprise me. they told me it was less hassle at playa blanca but i guess not. the beach vendors were relentless and had to be rejected numerous times. not really a vacation when you are hassled every three minutes.me and my fam took a cab from cartagena to playa blanco. it was about an hour away. there is a dirt road from the street to the beach, about a mile long strip. so when we slowed down from the street to get onto this road, there were a group of youth, teenage-early twenties, that were trying to tax people going to the beach. when we pulled in, the cab driver told them to fuck off, and we kept it moving down this road.
a few moments later, the dudes the cabbie told to fuck off were on motorcycles, mopeds or whatever, driving along side the car, cussing and hiting the cab. shit was crazy. the driver was looking a little shook. me and my fam where in the back seat, just kinda laughing it off. we were high.
after we parked, the driver and the guys exhanged a few words, but everything seemed ok, but now we had a group of about 10 dudes walking behind us to the beach. and from the parking lot to the beach was a nice distance and it was downhill, like you had to go through a gully to get to the actual beach.
if you didnt already know, colombia has the worst beach hustlers in the world. every minute, someone is trying to sell you something. its on another level from DR, jamaica etc.
so we finally get to the beach and we are basically surrounded by this crew of dudes, like we all came to the beach together. they were like 10 yards or so behind us. we rented beach chairs from some over aggresive dude, the vibe didnt feel right. not long after we got there, he got into a heated argument with a european guy over the final price when the euro was ready to leave. i knew not to ask for shit or buy shit because everything was going to get taxed.
i wear a cuban link, i never take it off no matter where i go. the cab driver, who was with us, was mad shook when i took my shirt off. he told me i had to take it off. even tho i didnt want to, i did. you could just feel all the eyes on us.
anyways, i rambled long enough, but in summary, we didnt feel peace at that beach from the moment we got to the driveway. we couldnt chill at the beach and relax. heads had to stay on a swivel. everywhere we looked, eyes was on us.
it was even uneasy leaving, because we had that long walk back to the cab, up the hill, with dudes still following us. at the end of the day, it felt like shit could have went either way, good or bad. thankfully it went good.
and another time i actually did get got by some crooked cops in cartegena. they stopped our cab and shook us down. cop got me for all the money i had on me.
doesn't surprise me. they told me it was less hassle at playa blanca but i guess not. the beach vendors were relentless and had to be rejected numerous times. not really a vacation when you are hassled every three minutes.
i was at a bar in carta when about 10 cops showed up for a shakedown. i raised my phone above me as if to record and he jangled my pockets for a minute and then left. didn't get anything.
the hassling and police ruined my experience but besides that it was finei like cartagena tho. how did you like it?
me and my fam took a cab from cartagena to playa blanco. it was about an hour away. there is a dirt road from the street to the beach, about a mile long strip. so when we slowed down from the street to get onto this road, there were a group of youth, teenage-early twenties, that were trying to tax people going to the beach. when we pulled in, the cab driver told them to fuck off, and we kept it moving down this road.
a few moments later, the dudes the cabbie told to fuck off were on motorcycles, mopeds or whatever, driving along side the car, cussing and hiting the cab. shit was crazy. the driver was looking a little shook. me and my fam where in the back seat, just kinda laughing it off. we were high.
after we parked, the driver and the guys exhanged a few words, but everything seemed ok, but now we had a group of about 10 dudes walking behind us to the beach. and from the parking lot to the beach was a nice distance and it was downhill, like you had to go through a gully to get to the actual beach.
if you didnt already know, colombia has the worst beach hustlers in the world. every minute, someone is trying to sell you something. its on another level from DR, jamaica etc.
so we finally get to the beach and we are basically surrounded by this crew of dudes, like we all came to the beach together. they were like 10 yards or so behind us. we rented beach chairs from some over aggresive dude, the vibe didnt feel right. not long after we got there, he got into a heated argument with a european guy over the final price when the euro was ready to leave. i knew not to ask for shit or buy shit because everything was going to get taxed.
i wear a cuban link, i never take it off no matter where i go. the cab driver, who was with us, was mad shook when i took my shirt off. he told me i had to take it off. even tho i didnt want to, i did. you could just feel all the eyes on us.
anyways, i rambled long enough, but in summary, we didnt feel peace at that beach from the moment we got to the driveway. we couldnt chill at the beach and relax. heads had to stay on a swivel. everywhere we looked, eyes was on us.
it was even uneasy leaving, because we had that long walk back to the cab, up the hill, with dudes still following us. at the end of the day, it felt like shit could have went either way, good or bad. thankfully it went good.
and another time i actually did get got by some crooked cops in cartegena. they stopped our cab and shook us down. cop got me for all the money i had on me.
I been planning to go to Cartagena in July. I been there before with my boy and his wife who is Colombian. I had a good time before everyone showed me love. I wasn't tricking. They say crime hasn't got really bad because of covid and the bad economy.
now is not the time to travel there.
No need to post them here, but there are images of dead bodies all over Colombia.
Is this the way it looked during the Pablo Escobar/Narcos days?