We don't do the wedding. We do the day around it
Straight up: we don't host weddings. Probably not, unless you're good friends with the owners. What we're genuinely good at is the day before and the day after, when thirty or eighty people have flown into Cartagena, they half know each other, and somebody has to give them something to do.
A boat and a long lunch by the sea does that job better than a third dinner in the old town. Nobody can leave early, which sounds like a threat and is actually the point.
Why the boat is the useful part
The crossing from Muelle de la Bodeguita takes 25 minutes. Twenty five minutes is exactly long enough for your cousin from Bogota and your friend from university to run out of small talk and start an actual conversation. By the time they're stepping off the boat onto sand, the group has mixed itself without anyone organising an icebreaker.
Our scheduled boats leave the dock at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. For a wedding group we'll plan the crossings with you properly rather than hoping everyone catches the same one.
The numbers you need before you plan anything
For daytime events we take groups of up to 250 people. Overnight is much smaller: 11 rooms, and up to 30 people sleeping on the property. So the usual shape is the couple and the immediate family staying the night, everyone else coming for the day and heading back into the city on an afternoon boat.
From 13 people up, you book through us rather than online. We take payment in advance and agree a set menu with you beforehand. That isn't us being rigid: it's a kitchen on an island where everything arrives by boat, and a set menu is how eighty plates come out hot instead of staggered across two hours.
Over 70 people, we require privatisation. The whole place is yours and yours alone, no day visitors wandering into your photographs.
What the food looks like
Our kitchen is run by Executive Chef Pedro Mosqueda, and it's built around what the islands and the coast actually produce rather than what a resort menu usually pretends they do. For a group, we'll work the set menu out with you in advance. Tell us about the vegetarians, the vegans and the gluten intolerant at the same time. We have a decent offering for all three, and it's much easier to plan for than to improvise.
Bringing your own bottles
Only on a full privatisation, and there's a corkage fee. For smaller groups the answer is no. If somebody's uncle has carried a special bottle of rum across an ocean for the toast, tell us in advance and we'll be reasonable about it.
Bachelor and bachelorette groups
Welcome, with one condition: tell us in advance what kind of group you are. We love a well-behaved one, and knowing whether we're hosting eight people who want a quiet lunch or eighteen who want music lets us put you in the right part of the property. The groups that go badly are always the ones that arrive unannounced.
Worth knowing: we're quiet during the week and livelier at the weekend. If your welcome party wants energy, aim for a Saturday. If it wants long conversations at a table, come on a Tuesday.
How to start
Send us a WhatsApp with your dates, your headcount and roughly what you're imagining. We reply to reservations enquiries between 9am and 9pm, and we'll come back to you before the day is out. Bring the numbers as early as you can, because eleven rooms go quickly in wedding season.
See you on the boat.