Cartagena: April 2016
View of the Old Cartagena from Bocagrande.
I’m not really sure what our expectations of Cartagena were, but they were definitely exceeded. Our bus journey was short, only a few hours. We jumped out early and took a cab the rest of the way to our hotel. After going back and forth between staying in the old town versus Bocagrande (the part of town on the beach), we opted for two nights in old town and a two in Bocagrande.
As we entered the old city, the traffic was horrendous! The old city lies within the old city wall. The wall only has so many entrance points and small streets, thus all the traffic. Our driver told us to be ready because we more or less had to jump out quickly since we would be holding up traffic.
Centro Historico. Old Town Cartagena with its colonial architecture.
It had become progressively hotter as we moved through Colombia, with Cartagena being the hottest. Between our bus ride, taxi ride, and carrying our stuff upstairs to our room, buy the time we arrived, we were soaked in sweat. We contemplated a shower, but we were only going to go out and walk around, so we just decided to marinate. Although, I think Javier did change his shirt.
It was a Sunday, and therefore most places were closed for the day. We were starvacious and found a pizza place that had a bistro feel, but not quality. We were disappointed, but full! We continued to meander through the city and were impressed. As we walked around the first thing we noticed were the colorful buildings and the flowers.
Centro Historico. Old Town Cartagena with its colonial architecture.
The buildings are colonial style with balconies. Many of the balconies are covered with ivy and flowers. It is so picturesque. We walked to Parque Simon Bolivar where there was a group of local people putting on a performance of music and dance. It felt very Caribbean. Across the corner of the park is a cathedral called….get this, Cathedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandría de Cartagena de Indias. What a mouthful! As we walked to the next church, Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, we passed several ladies in brightly colored dresses selling fruits. These ladies are famous. They’ve been dressing like this and selling their fruit for generations. At some point back in history, some tourists wanted a picture and gave them a tip.
Ladies selling fruits. Centro Historico. Old Town Cartagena with its colonial architecture.
They didn’t understand this and tried to give the tourists some fruit, which they politely declined and moved along. Well, as you can guess, it didn’t take long for these women to realize that they were a bit of a tourist attraction and they now charge per picture. In the plaza area in front of the church are many sculptures. They are titled, “Daily Life,” and depict people working as fruit sellers, cobblers, carpenters, etc. We opted for dessert for dinner before walking to see a bit more of the old city and returning to the hotel.
We planned to take a free walking tour the following morning, but were a bit late getting out of the door. Subsequently, we had to hurry to get there and were nice a sweaty by the time we arrived.
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Plaza de San Pedro Claver. Centro Historico. Old Town Cartagena with its colonial architecture.
Our guide took pride in his ability to remember everyone’s names. So, as he would lead us here and there and tell his stories, he would say something like…”The people were unhappy, and you know why, Javier??”…Yadda yadda yadda. At first it was amusing, but after a couple hours, it was kind of silly especially since he could actually only remember about 5 names out of 20. Either way, the tour was good and informative. He took us through Cartagena’s history as a port city that was fought over by various groups and the history of slavery. The city is known throughout Colombia as La Heroica, or The Heroic, because of those who fought for Independence from Spain. They held fast inside the city for over 100 days, while the Spanish waited outside. There wasn’t enough food, so the people eventually had to feed on rats and whatever they could find until many starved to death- 4,000 in all. Finally, they opened the entrances and the Spanish retook the city. To them, holding out like this was heroic, thus the name. Together, we walked to popular points of interest including the old clock tower, back to Parque Simon Bolivar, the Cathedral, and the opera house, which is not used as a theater because the people of Cartagena aren’t into that sort of thing. As we were walking down a couple streets, he pointed out different door knockers. One was a mermaid, another a fish, an iguana, and a lion head. The knocker represented the different entities that lived or worked in that building- such as the navy or legislators.
Mermaid Door knob
At the end of the tour, our guide played a game with us- name that famous Colombian. Most of the answers were Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his famous works. After the tour, we made our way to a recommended restaurant with a large screen to watch El Clasico.
walking to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s house. Centro Historico. Old Town Cartagena with its colonial architecture.
While we were there, some other members of our group showed up, and we ended up sharing a table with a Spanish woman and her British boyfriend. We chatted and they were nice enough, the only problem…they were cheering for Real, and Real ended up winning.
We walked to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s house, which was very disappointing. It’s behind a wall, and apparently deserted, however, I just recently read that they will opening it as a museum in the future!
After lunch the next day, we jumped in a cab and headed for Bocagrande…we should’ve just stayed in Old Town.
Bocagrande
We walked around the area, saw the beach and weren’t all that impressed. We eventually found ourselves at a mall, which was a great escape from the heat. We stopped by a grocery store to pick up a few items, and were shocked by the amount of sodas they offered, as well as the size of the bottles. I have never seen a 3-liter bottle of soda before, nor do I ever want to again. It was actually kind of sad that people drink so much of this stuff to warrant the variety and the huge bottle sizes. Maybe the same is true here, and I just never walk down the soda aisle. Either way, it was frightening.
Bocagrande was not charming. It’s supposed to be the modern, up-scale area of the city, and relatively speaking, it is definitely more upscale than old town, but we weren’t there to shop, go to the beach, nor to hang out at some swanky bar/restaurant and sip cocktails…so why did we come here again??? Either way, we made the best of it and wrapped up our time in Colombia.
So much Soda!
Our flight connected in Medellin, and since we were arriving in the late afternoon and leaving at 7am the next morning, we opted to stay right next to the airport rather than make the 45 minute drive into Medellin. Since it was only one night, we bit the bullet and slept in a gas station hostel. That’s right folks, a hostel connected to the gas station. Which, I have to admit, wasn’t all bad. Next stop…Panama!
To see more pictures of Colombia, click HERE.