Cartagena No 2

Cartagena Part 2. Now this is in fact ‘Cartaheyna’ as the Columbian’s pronounce it. Cartagena is on the Caribbean Coast, an old port location for the Spanish for exporting (after plundering it) gold to Europe.(Columbia is the only S. American country with a Pacific and Caribben Coastline).  It was a strategic location fought over by both the Spanish and the English (Francis Drake, who arrived with 186 galleons to conquer the city – unsuccessfully!)) along with others. There is a high hill which houses an old monastery (with an amazing almost 360 degree view), a VERY impressive fortress and a completely walled old city – the latter two build by the Spanish to provide security for the stores of gold waiting to be transported to Europe. Columbia is also rich with Emeralds. (Not a lot of gold was left after the Spanish). Cartagena has a distinct Caribbean and West Indian influence and the music we heard last night was dominated by the bongo drumming. The old walled city is still to be explored extensively by foot for us but the’ cobbled alleys, enormous balconies shrouded in bougainvillea and massive churches casting their shadows across leafy plazas’ (quote from Lonely Planet but soooo appropriate!) are a picture paradise. It’s just so hot to wander too far for too long! We are going to try late this afternoon. Right now tropical rain is falling so it should cool things down a bit.

The Time Share we are staying in is dominated by South American tourists and any English speakers usually originate from North America. I heard some English being spoken for the first time in 48 hours today. Our Spanish is very basic but we can make ourselves understood and people are very helpful if they speak any English they will help out. New Zealand is not automatically recognised as a country. We link the position to Australia and then basically ‘are’ part of Australia. They seem to know about Kangaroos (not the lesser known kiwi bird!) We are on level 9 of a 25 story tower fronting the Caribbean Sea. The whole area is very pretty.

I feel like I have completely recovered from the boat trip and can now look back on the positive points of the trip – mainly that I survived!  You cannot travel from Panama to Columbia (they were once ‘one’ country) by road as one simply doesn’t exist. The land in between is the Darian Gap and pretty dangerous to travel into. The choices were flying (and at the time that seemed too unexciting) or by boat (a challenge not to be missed, so I thought!!).

We have until Sunday here, then fly to Bogota (capital of Columbia) for a few days before heading across to the coffee highlands to the west where we are staying with a Columbian family (contact through an old flatmate of mine that now lives in Canada). Really looking forward to that experience.