Cartagena – 11 years later.

Hi folks,

I was back home from my extended summer vacation in my favorite location on the planet for just days before I was jetting off once again – this time on an extended business trip, and in the opposite direction to my vacation: southwest to South America. And here I am already – in the Colombian city of Cartagena (officially Cartagena de Indias) ->

I think some of you, dear readers, may be wondering where Cartagena is – hearing of it for the first time just now. It’s here, in northern Colombia, northern South America – near the border with Panama and by the Caribbean Sea.

And it’s a most interesting, tourist-attracting place: plenty of history, nice architecture, a great Latin American vibe, plenty of sun, and a perfectly charming old town:

The flag of Cartagena:

Founded in 1533, the city quickly became a transshipping hub for stolen silver and gold on its way (back?) to Spain. Such activity soon enough attracted pirates – and also corsairs backed separately by France, England and Holland. The city would be repeatedly ransacked, pillaged and burned, so the Spanish eventually built a wall around it and bolstered defenses.

Said wall is still in place today – complete with the original canons in places:

I’d actually been here before – way back in 2013 attending INTERPOL’s 82^nd General Assembly. Back then we walked atop some of the city walls, but we didn’t have time to check out the old town since, as per, the work schedule was too hectic ->

This year, however, everything was just the opposite: walking along the wall is forbidden these days (no doubt to preserve it; also, in places it’s now dangerous), but we had a full half-day for checking out the old town. That free half-day arose given our complicated avia-route here, which took more than 24 hours (like getting to, say, Australia) – meaning a good dose of down-time was simply mandatory so we could function work-wise later. Accordingly, we headed on over to said old town…

First up on our touristic tour – the house where none other than Gabriel García Márquez lived. Yes – the universally respected and revered author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera! ->

Nearby, some of the ashes of Colombia’s greatest author (and, according to a one-time Colombian president – the “greatest Colombian who ever lived”) are interred:

It’s clear that any serious fan of the creative work of Señor Márquez simply have to get to Cartagena.

Meanwhile, we slip down the narrow streets of the old town:

Very Latin America, charming, neat and tidy, historical, brightly-colored, quaint, inviting, relaxed (add your own adjectives here) – not necessarily in that order ->

We pass a cult sculpture of Fernando Botero – for some reason highly polished only in two places! ->

All very interesting, but it was a bit tricky appreciating all these significant cultural objects in 33°С temperatures. But we adapted quickly: we strolled around in half-hour spurts, then took breathers + cold drinks in a café or bar, then were back at it – over and over…

Plenty of tourists – mostly trying their best to keep out of the scorching sun:

…Including in the parks with plenty of shade:

…Whereas open spaces were practically empty:

Onward, around and about, camera always at the ready ->

Next we hit a part of the city that was once very poor, run-down and rather dangerous. These days I’m glad to report it’s been done-up all rather nice and become another tourist spot. You’ve just got to be careful when a car passes by on the narrow streets! ->

Check out the width of the “sidewalks”! ->

Here – the restaurant’s kitchen’s clearly on one side of the street; the tables where the punters eat – on the other ->

Bright colors are a theme:

Graffiti – tastefully done:

There’s just soooo much graffiti; it’s all good – but I think the graffiti in Valparaiso in Chile beats it somewhat…

Onward down the brightly-painted side-streets – with a guide: we’d have gotten lost without her…

Our wonderful guide suggested we checked out this here monkey; however, I was here for the particularly Cartagenero sights. Monkeys – seen plenty, and never been a fan ).

Ok, ok. These were actually unusually cute nano-monkeys, I’ll give our guide that ) ->

Ah – now this beast is interesting: a sloth – the first I’ve ever seen in the flesh fur! ->

Onward – and yet more bright colors:

Suddenly – a papaya plant growing out of a grate in a wall! ->

So there you have it folks – the “new old” town of Cartagena in a nutshell.

Perhaps the one downside is that, despite the city sitting on the coast of none other than the Caribbean Sea, the beach and bathing options are pretty dismal: there’s not much sand along the shore (it’s mostly all rocky), and where there is sand it’s kinda dirty/dirty-looking (and the same goes for the sea – all gray and uninviting)…

All the same, we did take a quick dip in the sea early the next morning. Then there was the business of the day – meetings, speeches, several interviews – and then it was time to be off to our next port of call; just as well – since the weather that afternoon was hardly suitable for anything beachy-bathey ->

And that’s all from Cartagena folks. In 10 minutes we’re boarding our next plane to… find out in the next South-American-tour post…

The rest of the pics from Colombia are here.