After our wedding reception ended, Magnolia Dude and I head over to Hotel Charleston, for a very romantic wedding night…. we were both exhausted and could not wait to start our honeymoon next day.

Our honeymoon was a present from my brother and his wife and we will forever be grateful, it was the best present we had ever received in our lives. With the help of my mom they had found a hotel on a remote private island in Cartagena, called Isla Palma.

At 11:30am we went to the port and got on a speed boat that went over 60 miles per hour for 2 hours, in the middle of the ocean, until we arrived to this very pretty island, welcomed by singing and dancing hotel crew.

“Isla Palma is an exclusive private island located in the Natural National Park of Islas del Rosario and the San Bernardo Archipelago, just two hours from Cartagena. The hotel is surrounded by exotic coral reef beaches, swamps, and mangroves; where a rich variety of continental and marine fauna and flora abound.”

Being on a remote island, in the middle of nowhere, was exactly what we needed after a year of planning, and 5 days of partying. From day 1 we felt as if we were re-encountering ourselves. The hotel crew was nothing but nice and accommodating and we enjoyed free drinks 24/7. We sipped on Pina Coladas, Coco Locos, Coco Cherry, and a bunch of other drinks the bartenders would make for us. There was also all-you-can eat buffets for breakfast lunch and dinner! Amazingly, we both lost weight instead of gaining because it is so hot and humid we sweated it all!

Magnolia Dude and I took walks on the beach and went on an ecological walk around the island. There is a small zoo on the other side of the island, an aquarium, birds, and all sorts of interesting animals to see.

The hotel has a spa, with the most amazing masseuses I’ve ever encountered. We decided to have a massage the first day, only about $25US for a whole hour, and it was so amazing and relaxing we couldn’t help but to have one on a daily basis from then on. These girls have the best hands in the world!

On day 3, we had what I will call the most magical experience of my life… swimming with dolphins. The hotel has a natural pool, right next to our pool, with two local dolphins, Camila and Fiona…. we were allowed to go close and touch them but we really wanted to go in the water with them. Since they knew it was our honeymoon they decided to give us some private time with them. I’m in love with dolphins, being in the water with them feels so peaceful… they got really close to us, gave us kisses, and pulled us around in the water. I never wanted to come out!

Magnolia Dude and I also did something else we had never done before, we went scuba diving…. at first it was scary, it is hard to breath through your mouth all the time… but they gave us a small mini course on the beach, also by hotel crew, showed us how to use the oxygen, how to breath, what to do, etc…. after about 20 minutes of training we head out on a boat to the middle of the ocean where we jumped right in. I have to say that I handled it much better than Magnolia Dude I was able to swim all the way to the bottom a few times… it was a great experience and now I want to continue doing it whenever I get a chance.

This honeymoon was the most romantic, best spent time I’ve ever had with my honey. It could not have been planned any better… we forgot about civilization, computers, phones… we only had time to spend with each other, relax, experience things we had never done before, be surrounded by nature and good people. We fell asleep on a hammock in front of our room, facing the ocean and watching the sunset every night…. we are thinking of celebrating at least one of our anniversaries back at this island in the near future