Last day in Cartagena

Cartagena No 3

We have now been able to explore the old city of Cartagena by foot and admire the architecture of the buildings. Coral blocks, rocks and limestone (I am innocently thinking that these may have been quarried in the hills or have simply been washed up on the beach, rather than the destruction of reefs!!) dominate the construction materials of these old (and new) buildings , statues and walls. As a result, when you walk into the interior of the buildings they are cool and refreshing in contrast to the hot sticky heat outside. The front doors of all these buildings simply open straight onto the narrow cobbled streets – many of the entrances being beautiful huge doors of 4 or 5 metres with smaller narrow openings of 2m within the large door. Glimpses behind the doors as they are opened reveal beautiful cool leafy interior courtyards (lots of mature bangalo palms) and open to the air .And the colours of the plastered exterior walls are so intense – beautiful terracotas, yellows, reds, even purple and blues. The cathedrals, towers and the entire walls are in natural ‘coral’ tones.

One big difference with our wanderings today was the crowds of visitors to the city. A cruise ship must have arrived and there were thousands of people being herded around in groups with guides holding up little flags. Large pale bodies sweating in the heat –and yesterday was hot! It was good not to part of it – enough to simply witness!

Now some have asked about the food. So far our choices have been very international. It has been hard to actually think that there has been anything traditional that we could say was definitely Panamanian or Columbian. The cassava and other carbohydrates(rice, lentils, beans,) have been very bland. Today I had some mashed sweet potato with lentils with the ‘stir fry’ and it was so sweet! The desserts that we have sampled are also VERY sweet – bordering on sickly. In general, we think everything needs o be spiced up. It will be interesting to stay with the Columbian family and see what is served.

Last night we met an Argentinian lady (heaps of Argentinians here in Cartagena) who has invited us to stay in Cordoba, Argentinia with her in July!!! Not exactly the route we had planned but not far off the track so we may do just that – too good to refuse. She has recently retired from teaching English so conversation was very easy. Have another couple outside of Buenos Aires to visit too.

We visited a few museums within the old city today and learnt a bit more of Cartagena’s colourful history. This was basically the center of the trade of slaves from Africa during the 17th Century .One local hero was the main instigator for rights and freedom for the black African slaves worldwide. Earlier than that the Spanish Inquisition were here when witchcraft was blamed for many of the problems of the times. The houses of torture for suspected witches are a gruesome glimpse of the cruelty that occurred to hundreds of innocent victims.

We do need to read the book – Love in the Time of Cholera, which was set in Cartagena.

And, ‘yes’ we have seen the Royal Wedding on CNN T.V here at the hotel..

Next blog will probably be from Bogota – met another VERY friendly person who spent an hour with us telling where to go and what to see when in Bogota. And we have a hotel booked in advanced which is what we have decided is a better option than just arriving and then trying to find one. The good old Lonely Planet is our bible!

P.S. Hope this isn’t tooo much detail in these blogs. Many many of you would LOVE Cartagena!! I know you are awaiting more photos and they coming. We pay separately for W-ifi at this hotel and it is quite pricey. We go to an internet café for cheaper access and we cannot use ‘our’ computer, so we are a little stuck until we get to Bogota where maybe the hotel has Wi-fi for free. The photos take quite a long time to upload!