Cartagena, Jewel of the Indies

Forget the FARC, your biggest problem in riding a bus in Colombia is definitely the possibility of getting frostbite while on board. I was glad to roll off the overnight coach into the steaming heat of Cartagena. I rethought that feeling an hour later while I was sweating even though showering in cold water...

Once you get over the sweltering heat, though, you fall in love with Cartagena. It's beautiful and fascinating and, for me, a little sad because it's as beautiful as Habana could have been if all the deterioration hadn't taken place over the past 50 years. From the walled in old cities with their Spanish architecture to some of the newer skyscrapers, all lining a beautiful coast, there are so many similarities. Yet in contrast to Habana's decayed glory, the majority of buildings in the Old City here have been well-preserved.



To make my acquaintance with the city, I left the hostel, walked to a small, lush park down the street, and from there headed for the Muralla (the wall around the city). After following this along the sunny coast, I eventually dove into the warren of old streets in Cartagena. The buildings are most often painted in bright colors from yellow to orange and blue, with lovingly crafted wooden railings on their second story balconies, and often brilliantly colored flowers creeping along the outer walls. It's cliche, but Cartagena's Old City really is a bit of a tropical paradise.

After walking around for some time, I came back to the hostel to meet a group of fine folks: Mario, a Mexican-American school teacher who was celebrating his birthday, Justin and Hayden, South African online casino designers, Joel, Karina, and Dan from Australia, and Peter from Ireland. We all sat around with some beers while watching the end of the Chile-Uruguay match, then went out for dinner and continued watching the Mexico-Peru match. We were also joined by Tatiana and Daniela from Germany, and Bilad from Spain.

On the way to dinner, we ran into Johnny, the King of Cartagena. Johnny is a man who the others had already met, and he is best described by saying that he has many irons in many fires. Johnny can get you anything you want, and due to the picture of a coca leaf on one guy´s shirt, Johnny assumed that we wanted some cocaine. He was also willing to take us to his cock fight, to which he was bringing ¨his chicks¨and to which he would arrive in ¨fucking 7 minutes¨- the whole time he was walking with us, he was also on the phone with someone, ostensibly at the cock fight. Anyway, thankfully he was easily convinced that we weren't interested, and we were left to eat dinner in peace. He departed saying, "If you don't like the food I´ll fucking pay for it"; he was certain he was leaving us at a good establishment. He was actually quite right. After dinner the real fun started. We went to a few different dance places and essentially salsa'ed the night away. It was a great first night in Cartagena with terrific people!

The following day, Saturday, started for me with a lazy morning, recovering from dancing and Skyping with the family. Once I finally got things together, I set out to take a certain tour. It's called the Cartagena of Garcia Marquez, and it's an audiotour of Cartagena which shares not only the history of the city itself but the importance of various points in the life and literature of famous Colombian author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He's the pioneer of magical realism and his books, whether in English or Spanish, are very entertaining to read. Books and history together? Count me in!

Of course, it wouldn't have been a proper visit if it hadn't started out with getting hustled. A Colombian gentleman in his 50s came up to me and wanted to know where I was from. He supposedly had children in the US, and told me he had been the tour guide of the year last year. He insisted that the Garcia Marquez tour would rip me off. He wanted me to go on a tour with him, then we'd get drinks, then he'd teach me to salsa. Tomorrow we would go to the beach. As great as this all sounded, I gave him a fake email address and bid him adieu. I should point out that things like this are pretty typical, and as there are lots of people around, and he wasn't menacing or anything, that it's not a concern, just a slight inconvenience. Part of the price of being a gringo.

My tour, which lasted almost hours, was really fun. It helped me get to know both the city and the author better. I loved learning about how the wall was built to defend against pirates, but the only successful breach of the walls was accomplished by the British. My other favorite fact was that when Garcia Marquez arrived in the city, he was supposed to spend his first night in essentially a hostel with friends. His friends hadn't gotten here yet, and he didn't have money, so he tried to sleep on a park bench but was arrested for breaking curfew. However, before he was put in jail, the officers took him to dinner because he was hungry. Pictured here is his old property in Cartagena, though he now lives in Mexico and rumor has it that the next owner of this house will be Julio Iglesias.

After the tour I was starved so I grabbed a salad at Crepes and Waffles, sister store of the one in Bogota. WHitney, your salad was so good that I basically tried to recreate it. THe other cool thing about this place, besides the food, is that it's a social project as well: all the women hired are single mothers.

I headed back to the hostel and took a much-needed shower, then a group of us set off to watch the sunset from the Cafe del Mar, a little restaurant/bar on the Muralla. The clouds obscured the setting sun quite a bit, but the clouds were beautiful and the atmospheric music added greatly to the night. A few drinks there, a few drinks elsewhere, and somehow it was midnight. Both Justin and I were extremely tired, so we said goodbye to Hayden and Tatiana and came home. Good thing, too, because Hayden didn't make it home till 6:30, and he was skipping the afterparty that Tatiana attended with other friends!

Yesterday was a calm day for me as well. I spent much time just enjoying the moments of life. There were two soccer games happening on fields down by the Muralla, so I sat on the wall enjoying the breeze and sun and just checking out the games. These kids have skills!! I also went to a place called Las Bovedas, which used to be jail cells but have been turned into a series of artesan stores. Perhaps this was where Garcia Marquez spent his first night...

My other main attraction was hitting up the Casa de San Pedro Claver. Pedro Claver was a monk back in the 1600s and he was one of the biggest defenders of slaves who had been beaten or mistreated. He ran infirmaries and taught them about Christianity and often intervened when their masters were too harsh. He was eventually made a saint by the Roman Catholic church. His house has now been turned into a museum of Afrocaribbean history, religion, and preColombian history. It was an esoteric blend and I was the only person in the museum at the time. I really thought the one statue was going to come alive and talk to me, but it may have been the heat and lack of food at that point...

After grabbing a delicious Pan de Mozarrella (think of it as a warm loaf of bread with a big hunk of mozarrella baked in) for fortification, I headed outside the Old City wall into the next neighborhood, called Getsemani. We had entered Getsemani during the nights to go dancing, but I hadn't seen it during the day. Sadly, being Sunday, many shops were closed, but I was able to walk along the water and scope out the bridge to Boca Grande, the highrise area of the city that reminds me of Miami, although I've never been there.

All the wandering warranted another shower, and by that point Peter (from adventures in Bogota) stopped by to say hello- he was in a hostel right down the street after having spent time surfing up north. We caught up on some of our adventures (he had also had some run-ins with Johnny!), and made plans to meet later. Tess, who was also supposed to arrive, was sidelined until Monday morning due to a sick stomach.

Justin, Hayden, Daniela and I went out for a delicious dinner. When you ask for a fried fish, that is literally what you get! And it was delectable. The rest of our night was spent drinking at Zorba's Whiskeria two blocks from our hostel, and exchanging travel stories. Irish Peter and then American Peter both joined us at points as well, and American Peter and I must have spent an hour solid sharing information about other areas of Colombia and some of the intriguing things we've done and seen. Late into the night, Justin, Hayden, and I walked Daniela back to her hostel then went to bed.

Today I decided to spend more time outside the walls, and took a new route into Getsemani. I passed by an old castle which several people had recommended that I see, and also got to experience the bustle of this part of the city now that it was a work day once again. They must not get many tourists in the area, because while in Cartagena's Old City you can't walk two steps without being offered a soda, candy, or fruit, barely a person said more to me than "Buenos dias". It was a nice change! I also passed by the area which allows you to walk to the Boca Grande beaches, then wound back through the Old City streets to the hostel. At this point I am awaiting Tess, and from here we'll make some plans about the rest of Cartagena and beyond. I'm entering my last week of time here, and am no more ready to come home than I was two weeks ago!

Update 2

Hi all,

I'm still in Cartagena and loving it. Have worked on a post for this location but the computer deleted it. In the meantime, go back and check out the photos I've added to some of my older posts to see the reality!