Drumming and Dancing in Cartagena/La Boquilla

There aren't enough words to describe what a wonderful time we had with Marelvy. She was extremely interesting and knowledgeable about Cartagena. The tour was full of surprises and beautiful sights. Cartagena is indeed a beautiful city. I had booked her for 4 hours and an offer to take her to lunch. That we did at Celele (excellent restaurant! I will review separately). We were fortunate enough to spend an additional 4 hours with her. It was right up there with one of the very best tours I have ever had. She is indeed a treasure. (A side note we did not do the Drumming and Dancing Tour but a walking tour instead but it isn't listed on the options)

We thoroughly enjoyed our private historical walking tour with Marelvy. She’s wonderfully friendly and knowledgeable, and we had great conversation the entire time. Definitely take a tour with Marelvy if you’re interested in pirates because she’s written a history book on piracy in the Cartagena area. Conversation also covered architecture, history, food, the various convents and monasteries, battles and more. She also took us through some really neat neighborhoods outside of the old city walls that we would have never known about without her. There are other group tours available, but hanging out with Marelvy was a great experience.

Cruising with 10 friends, we like to organise our own tours with independent local agents. How pleased were we to come across Tour in Cartagena with Marelvy! From the outset communications were timely and professional, and Marelvy's rep was there to meet us at the quayside, despite some confusion over our arrival time. We had a really nice bus to ourselves, and made our way to the fishing village on the outskirts of Cartagena. Our trip started with a tour of the mangrove swamp in a dugout canoe, propelled by a local fishermen with a pole. We were taught how to cast nets to amass some bait, which our boatman then prepared and put into crab traps, which were then dropped into the river. 15 minutes later, lo and behold, we had 11 crabs. We then proceeded to a very local restaurant where we were served a delicious lunch of local fish with plantain and rice, all cooked over an open fire in the kitchen corner of the restaurant. The icing on the cake at the end of the meal was a plateful of the crabs we had caught, beautifully cooked and dressed. After a walk round the rest of the village, we had time to spend an hour in the old part of Cartagena before being returned to the port in plenty of time for the departure of our ship. Marelvy's 2 sons joined us on the trip, and made a video montage of our day, which she kindly sent us today, so we have a wonderful record of our time there. I cannot recommend this company highly enough! Marelvy herself was charming, friendly, funny and very knowledgeable. She made sure that we followed our own agenda rather than have one imposed on us. All in all, we had a fantastic day!