Top 5 Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #4: Casa del Arzobispado Hotel, Cartagena, Colombia

The job of the Archbishop in Cartagena, Colombia, must've been a cushy gig, because I stayed at his house and it was awesome.

The Casa del Arzobispado (House of the Archbishop) was a small boutique hotel within the Old City walls of Cartagena, which, if you are going to stay overnight or three in Colombia's #1 international tourism destination, you really ought to stay in the Old City (rather than the high rise corridors of the Miami Beach knock-off Bocagrande neighborhood) (your other option). It doesn't look like much from the outside:

But inside those doors:

The hotel is a two-story, with only a few rooms, all around a central plaza with large pool:

The room also was quite large and quite comfortable:

I'm obsessive about picking the right hotel when I travel internationally (much less so domestically, when I'm more price-driven). I pick a neighborhood. Then I look for a hotel at a fair price in that neighborhood. I avoid American chains (again, the polar opposite of my domestic hotel search which is very chain-driven) (I love you, La Quinta). Boy did I luck out here. Great location. Spotlessly clean. Delicious breakfast. Reasonable price.

And if you climbed the ladder to the roof, the view was awesome (given that there are no high rises within the Old City walls):

I don't see me going back to Cartagena. I enjoyed the place, but it's a little too "romantic" for my tastes. And it's a Caribbean city. It's not South American in personality. But if I circumstances steer my toward Cartagena in the future, the first I will do is see if the Archbishop has a spare room available for me.

Phot-o' the Day: Boy in a Turret, Cartagena, Colombia

A boy. In a turret. In Cartagena, Colombia.

This is from inside the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas complex, the massive hilltop fortress overlooking the old port area of Cartagena, Colombia. While touring the fortress, I wanted to go inside one of the turrets to see what I could see. But the I chose was occupied. And he was having more fun inside that turret than I would have had, so it was his.

Visited May 2015.

Phot-o' the Day: Horse-Drawn Carriage, Parked, Cartagena, Colombia

Horsin' around, once again, on a Saturday. Today's Phot-o' the Day is a horse-drawn carriage parked on the streets of Cartagena, Colombia. From my visit in May 2015.

These horse-drawn carriages are all over the Old Walled City section of Cartagena. Apparently, it's a romantic thing to do, for people into that sort of thing. Speaking of the "sort of thing" that I am "into," please note the food cart on the far right of the pictures, selling "arepas con queso," arepa with cheese, on the streets of Cartagena. Cheesy arepas are just about the best street food in all of Colombia.

Phot-o' the day: Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, Cartagena, Colombia

This is the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, in Cartagena, Colombia.  I visited in May 2015.

This was the fort built to protect the harbor in Cartagena during the Spanish era.  Which did the harbor need to be protected by such a big, impenetrable fort?  This was the main port in the New World for shipping all that Incan gold back to Spain.  Peru, being on the Pacific side, was somewhat impractical for purposes of providing a shipping port for such a valuable commodity.