Day 4 -- Caribe Plaza

One of the best things about this vacation was that Carlos and I allowed ourselves to take it easy and relax throughout the trip. We never felt rushed into seeing everything in a short amount of time -- there was plenty to see in Cartagena and we were able to experience it all at a very leisurely pace.

On that note, we took a taxi from the Puerta del Reloj to the neighborhood of Manga to visit Caribe Plaza -- a new large mall that recently opened in Cartagena. Carlos and I each needed to find some more vacation clothes (we didn’t bring much since we wear field clothes mostly in Costa Rica) so we browsed the stores in the mall looking for shirts and pants which we both eventually found -- at prices much cheaper than what we see in Costa Rica!

In the food court I found one of the most amazing things ever: Yogen Früz. This is a frozen yoghurt store that is pretty unique: they offer a variety of frozen fruits on display (e.g. kiwi, raspberry, guava, guanabana, agraz berries, feijoa, cherries) which you choose and then get to smoosh with vanilla frozen yoghurt. There is a special machine used to combine the ingredients and the result is a well-combined mixture of yoghurt and fruit! I was enthralled with this place and ended up eating a medium (it was pretty huge) kiwi frozen yoghurt for my lunch. They definitely need to import Yogen Früz to the states!

We returned to the walled city and spent the remainder of the day taking it easy and walking around the city walls, taking in the sights, and visiting the beautiful parks and plazas. For dinner, we took a low-key approach and bought a few items at the local grocery store Exito to make sandwiches. Sometimes it is fun to take it easy and relax while on vacation -- especially in the Caribbean!