Harvard Business School

We arrived in Colombia about a week ago and spent several days exploring Cartagena. It has a long and interesting history, but it's hot and the kids still don't do all that well in the heat (and, to be fair, neither do we Bay-Area dwelling adults). We had already decided to visit some islands off the coast of Cartagena, and narrowed our search to the main island (for cost reasons) of the Islas del Rosario.

Getting to the island was a little chaotic at the tourist port in Cartagena. The speed boats hold about 30 people and leave from the center of town rather than the cruise ship port, so we had an easy walk over there about 8:30 in the morning, but there were a thousand (more?) people waiting for boats, it was not at all obvious which boat was meant to be ours, and eventually we just sat there until someone yelled at us and pointed at a particular boat.

Anyway, after a pleasant 75-minute ride, we arrived at our small, boutique, 15-room hotel. Becca had done her usual thorough research and found a relatively cheap place that works for us, but this time in a beautiful setting. We got off the boat, stumbled onto the beach....and discovered several hundred young-ish looking people speaking English and Spanish, with a DJ blasting music, beer flowing, etc. It turns out that Harvard Business School had an event on our beach on our arrival day. Apparently this week is Spring Break at Harvard and the HBS students go a little further afield than Florida or Cancun.

The students weren't staying on the island--they had come out early in the morning from Cartagena and planned to spend the whole day--but they totally overwhelmed our little hotel. By the late afternoon, the toilets were clogged, there was no bottled water, and getting food involved finding a particular waiter who was still trying to take care of "guests."

And at 3 o'clock, they all left. Got on boats (a bunch of boats) and went back to Cartagena. So we somewhat suddenly found ourselves, where a few minutes before you could hardly walk due to the crowd, alone on a spectacular tropical beach.

Harvard-less beach.

Luke and Alex playing in the surf.

Alex needs two goggles, I guess?

We plan to stay for three days, snorkeling, checking out the bioluminescent plankton, reading on the beach. And if it's good enough for the HBS kids then I suppose it is good enough for us. Especially when there is no one else here!