Sunday October 8, 2017
Boulder, Colorado
Sunny, Windy, Warm
After spending a busy 1.5 days in Bogota, it was time to leave for Cartagena – an approximately one hour flight from Bogota. My first impression – its a big city! For some reason after reading Love in the Time of Cholera, I thought it was going to be a quaint city. Wrong! Once we landed in 80 degree weather, not only did I feel like I was in a big city but also a different country. Cartagena is on the Caribbean and is a major port city of Latin America. Given its in the tropics its a vibrant and colorful city whereas Bogota which is in the mountains, had a sophisticated and cool feel to it.
As we were able to check in early at the Intercontinental Hotel which is located in Boca Grande – A new area of Cartagena dotted with sprawling skyscrapers and new hotels. We got upgraded to a suite with a great view of the Caribbean Sea. After settling in our room, it was time for us to venture to the "walled city" – the Unesco World Heritage Site to meet our guide for a walking tour of the walled city. But since we had some time before our appointment, we had a delicious lunch at Restaurant Carmen.
We started with a tropical salad
Followed by local fish with a coconut rice risotto
and ended with delicious mango ice cream
We then headed to our meeting place to meet our guide. Our guide (whose name I cannot remember) was a student of history and languages and had very deep knowledge of the town and history. We walked the entire old town for about 4 hours. One can see and feel the Spanish influence in the architecture and colors. We learned that the more floors a building has, the richer the tenant. And we loved the colorful doors! Below are some photos I took of Cartagena.
Coconut stands everywhere – something we did not see in Bogota
I love the doors
La Bovidas – was a warehouse for ammunitions but now is home to shops which sell souvenirs
View from the wall that surrounds the city. Its a walled city as the location was a critical port during the colonial years and was always attacked from Spain's enemies.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's home: His family still lives here.
This is a women's prison. It also houses a restaurant where the prisoners work. All proceeds go into helping the women.
One of the oldest churches in Cartagena and the only one with air conditioning. Apparently, a famous person had a wedding here and thus installed air conditioning
Cute bakery making local bread.
The bakery
Its a bit run down now but this is where the rich used to live (thus they are more than 2 stories)
Playhouse
View of St Catherine of Alexandria – one of the oldest churches in the Americas
I got suckered into paying her for picture
Dancing in the square
We also ran into high school students putting on a dancing show. They were fabulous!
A Magnificent Baroque style Church
The next day, based on the recommendation of our guide, we decided to explore the "real" old town of Cartagena – Getsemani. While the Spaniards lived in the old city, the locals lived here. We followed the advice of our guide and just got lost and walked around.
The "town" was quaint and quiet. For lunch we went back to the "walled city" and went to La Cervicheria – which became famous when Anthony Bourdain visited and highlighted the restaurant in his show. We started with a special salad and I had the famous paella while Sandra had the ceviche.
The next day we were o go on a boat trip to an island but because of weather it was cancelled (it poured in the morning). So instead we had a lazy day where we hung out by the pool and decided to get some exercise by walking to Getsemani for a late lunch at a highly rated restaurant – Cocina de Pepina. It did not dissapoint.
While walking we got a good view of the famous entrance to the "walled city"
This is what we had a Cocina de Pepina: an eggplant dish, a local dumplings made of yuca, potato, etc, I had a coconut based stew and Sandra had the local cheese based stew. Delicious!
The next day and our last day in Cartagena, we were finally able to take the one hour boat ride to an island to enjoy a beach on the Carribean Sea. Cartagena, surprisingly has no beaches so one must go to an island. We basically just read and swam in the warm seas of the Caribbean.
Lunch was a whole fried fish with coconut rice and plantains
After enjoying our last sunset in the Caribbean, it was time to head to the airport and head off to our last destination – Medellin.