Paying everything with some Steemdollars earnings on this little getaway weekend was the most amazing thing!

Today I will be taking you on a quick journey through our magical city of Cartagena and the beautiful Caribbean coast. For those that have asked me if you can travel on BTC or any other Cryptocurrencies and would like to start exploring the world with your hard earned SBD, now you have another option on your list of things to do and countries to visit because it’s possible to travel through our country only spending digital cash and I’ll have you get an insight at the wonderful experiences I had.

“Palenquero/a (also palenque) is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Colombia. Palenquero is the only Spanish-based creole in Latin America.[4] The ethnic group which speaks this Creole consisted of only 3,000 people in 1998. Palenquero is spoken in Colombia, in the village of San Basilio de Palenque which is southeast of Cartagena, and in some neighborhoods of Barranquilla.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palenquero)

(Charming Palenqueras, the watermelon was delicious!)

The trip for me began in the city of Pereira with a 35 minute flight to the capital city of Bogota and then connected to Cartagena in an hour flight, for a maximum of a 4 hour trip total.

If you’re flying in from any other city in the world, you’re main stop will be in the El Dorado airport in Bogota and then connect to Cartagena or you can research if a known airline from your country makes part of the more or less 50 international flight frequencies that are direct to Cartagena.

(Flying out of Pereira with all its lush!)

The city of Cartagena founded on June 1st 1533, capital of the Bolivar state, known as the Heroic City; is now one of the most visited destinations in the Caribbean and it’s the number one destination in Colombia with the most foreigners visiting this part of the country.

(View of El Laguito, Cartagena from an air b&b apartment that my friends rented out for the weekend)

(Playa Castillo or Castle Beach, highly recommended since it is very calm and quiet)

Being declared in 1984 as a UNESCO world heritage site and the first city in Colombia to receive this award, it opened up the doors for the travelers of the world. It has always been known as the Heroic City because this was where the Spanish conquistadors arrived for the first time in Colombia and where the first Africans were introduced to our culture. During the Spanish colonization in the 1500’s the city was highly envied by pirates from Europe for being one of the main ports of America and was highly coveted for its wealth in gold.

"The Fort of San Fernando de Bocachica was built in a horseshoe shape on a high spot on the island of Carex (which means turtle in the Caribbean language). The island is now called Tierrabomba. The plans for the fort were drafted by the engineer Mac Evan and work on it began in 1753. At either end, bastions arise facing north. The vaults, meanwhile, were used as prisons." (http://www.colombia.travel/en/where-to-go/caribbean/cartagena-de-indias/activities/fort-san-fernando-de-bocachica)

(The two sides of the fort connected underwater with thick copper chains to prevent European pirate ships from entering Cartagena)

"This made the city become one of the most reinforced cities in the Caribbean and South America getting to be almost as impontantly reinforced as the Gulf of Mexico at the time. Today its architecture remains with its colonial essence.

As time has progressed, Cartagena has developed its urban area, preserving the historic downtown center and becoming one of the most important ports in Colombia, the Caribbean and the world as well as one of the most famous tourist destinations. Currently the total population of the header is around 970.000 inhabitants being the fifth largest city in our country. Its historic center, the "Walled City" was declared National Heritage of Colombia in 1959" (www.wikipedia.com)

(Colonial Architecture)

(Fresh fruit in every corner!)

(Santo Domingo Square)

So the reason I was here for the weekend was because one of my beloved cousins was getting married and I thought that this was a great opportunity to escape from the city.

First we arrived to this beautiful colonial boutique hotel inside of the historic center called Casa Pestagua known as “the most beautiful house in Cartagena”, which belonged during the XVII century to Conde Pestagua one of the richest and most influential man of this era. To our surprise as soon as we arrived and were received by a nice smiling staff, willing to serve and the first thing he said was “welcome, the hotel is exclusively for you and your family”.

(This was our room, picture from www.hotelboutiquecasapestagua.com)

(Everything ready for the wedding)

Now it was time to go out and explore the walled city a little more to get a sense of what that colonial time was back in the day and spend some SBD before the wedding.

Walking through brick floors, alongside beautiful color houses, absorbing all the special charm and essence you perceived from every corner you walked around was an amazing feeling (accompanied by a cold beer). Now it was time to head to look for some food and get back to the hotel to enjoy the installations and finish off the day with a beautiful rooftop Jacuzzi sunset.

(Payin for lunch in Subway with digital cash or transformer money as I call it! :D)

(Some relaxing time in the jaccuzzi)

(Beautiful Sunset!)

I’ve been to some nice places but the special vibe and energy I got from this place was just magical and now reality had struck me in a way that I’ve never experienced before. These places made me realize that these are the moments of truth we have to cherish and nurture for life.

Working in the tourism industry always gives me that high level of satisfaction when you help the local economy by buying fresh fruits; food in general, incentivizing local consumption of handmade crafts and seeing how people appreciate this, has no price tag. So for me to experience traveling and taking care of all my expenses from paying for food, beverages and even withdrawals just motivated me even more to keep promoting and expanding the use of digital cash in our country and keep helping the local markets and merchants improve their lives economically speaking.

(I only spent 160 USD because the exchange rate to COP tripled my money 1 USD = 3.050 COP)

What completely blew my mind was that I met people from different parts of the world like the United States, England, Greece, Italy and Philippines and had no idea about the usability and fortresses behind the use of digital money.

This made me completely understand that I’m truly blessed by having firsthand information about the Cryptoeconomy and I have to keep fulfilling the mission of educating everybody that doesn’t know about how powerful and highly beneficial this is for humanity.

So to all of those Steemians that have been working hard and want to treat themselves a little nice vacation and spend some SBD earnings to keep contributing with the spread and usability of crypto.

I totally recommend it because the satisfaction a human being experiences traveling; doesn’t receive it buying material things and when you work hard enough like a lot of us do, it’s only right to treat yourself and get away from the routine.