Hot! Hot! Hot!

I haven’t been as hot as today since I was last in Cartagena.  

Happy St Patrick’s Day! Seems very weird to be celebrating it in Colombia! 

Today we will spend the day in one of my favourite cities, Cartagena. I was here last year on my cruise in January.  So some of today’s blog will be a repeat performance.  But all new pics.  

Cartagena is a port city and UNESCO World Heritage Site and the walled Old Town has such amazing brightly coloured, colonial architecture, churches, monasteries, plazas, and the street art is a level above anything I’ve seen. It’s often cited as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and from those that I’ve seen I’d have to agree.

Archeologists have found evidence that people have lived in this area, from around 4000 BC. But Cartagena was founded in 1533 on the site of a Carib Indian settlement. It was rebuilt in 1552 after a fire destroyed many of it’s buildings. It quickly became a main port for the Spanish on the Caribbean coast. It suffered many attacks from pirates, including Sir Francis Drake in 1586, who demanded a ransom not to destroy the whole city. These attacks precipitated the building of a series of forts and a seven mile wall around the city and 22 bastions, which successfully defended the city from severe attacks. In one attack, 25,000 English soldiers and their fleet of 186 ships was fended off by commander Blas de Lezo, and 2500 poorly trained troops. Don Blas is considered the saviour of Cartagena and there is a statue of him outside San Felipe Fortress. Don Blas, it was said, was only half a man, having lost one eye, one arm and one leg, however it is also said he had 33 children by 25 different women!

Cartagena was one of the first cities in the Spanish empire to proclaim independence from Spain which it did in 1810. Spanish forces retaliated in 1815 and took the city after a four month siege during which 6000 inhabitants died of starvation and disease. But in 1821, Simon Bolivar’s troops defeated the Spaniards after freeing Bogata in 1819.

Fun Facts:

⁃ Colombia is one of 17 megadiverse countries of the world.

⁃ Although there are claims that Cuba was the originator of the Mojito, Colombia’s aboriginals are thought to be the origin. They came up with a mixture of rum, lime juice,mint, and sugar which is believed to be an antidote for dysentery.

⁃ Famous Colombians include Actress Sofia Vergara, Garacia Marquez, (Nobel Prize winner in literature) and singer/songwriter Shakira.

⁃ Coffee is the national symbol of Colombia. Colombia is a primary supplier of Arabica coffee beans to the world and it’s important to the economy. Also, it’s not unusual to see kids drinking coffee in Colombia.

⁃ It’s required by law for radio and tv stations to play the national anthem daily, at 6 am and 6 pm.

⁃ It’s believed that 70-90% of the world’s emerald market is from Colombia and that they are of the best quality. In fact one of the excursions offered is to an emerald facility.

⁃ Colombians like to put cheese in their hot chocolate. The saltiness of the cheese supposedly brings out the other flavours within the chocolate. They use a special cheese that is like a halloumi or mozzarella.

⁃ The condor is the national bird of Colombia

⁃ All men must serve in the military for 2 years when they turn 18 unless there is a medical reason, they are an only child, or if they are married. Our guide said many get married early in Colombia.

To start our day, we left the ship and were transported by bus through the working port area to the cruise ship terminal. After getting off the bus and going through a gate it was like landing in a zoo! Feeding stations throughout the treed area attracted hundreds of birds including Scarlett Macaws, Flamingos and parrots of various sizes and colours and several different kinds of monkeys! I didn’t get any monkey pictures because they were moving through the trees to fast that it was impossible. The area also included a building with a plethora of souvenirs of Colombia and Cartagena, including several display cases of the ever popular emeralds for which Colombia is famous. 

We grabbed a taxi outside the cruise ship terminal and after negotiating a fair fare we were transported through neighbourhoods of modern high rises, and commercial areas into the old walled part of the city. Our taxi driver was all set to come along as our photographer and guide, but he spoke little English and so after much hand gesturing, pointing to watches, etc, we agreed to meet him back at our drop off spot in 3 hours. 

We walked through the old walled area of the city, where the ancient buildings of the city have been preserved on the outside but renovated on the inside into boutique hotels and lovely shops.  None of us are particularly shoppers so we didn’t stop often. But after an hour or so we found a cute little restaurant where we stopped for a drink and to appreciate their air conditioning. 

Next we headed to the Getsemani neighbourhood. This area is where the poorer of the people of Cartagena lived in early days, and it had become run down and once was the scene of a prolific drug trade. But in the last 10 years the area has been reclaimed and some of the old buildings of this neighbourhood are being turned into cute boutique hotels, and the main floors are retail shops, restaurants and bars. It’s now considered one of the “hippest” neighbourhoods. It was busier this year than when we toured it during the day last year.  

We criss crossed some of the most colourful streets and the street art is unbelievable so we stopped often to take pictures. We had started early to try and avoid some of the heat but failed. By the time we were done and as happened last year, I was literally soaked all the way through my clothes by the time we got back. 

One of the things that I always find interesting when travelling are the doorways of the local architecture. And here it is even more interesting because there is meaning to the doors of the homes. Door knockers are very prominent and they even tell a story of what the role in the city the inhabitants played. Lion door knockers meant that this place was home to some in the military. A Reptile meant that they were politicians. A fish meant that these people were businesspeople and a hand meant that this family were close to the church, and the government. Also on most doors there were what our guide called nipples, small knobs of metal. If there were a lot of nipples, it indicated this family was wealthy and if only a few or none, not so much. 

We made our way back to our meeting place and there was Alejandro waving to us from down the way, ready to take us back to the cruise ship terminal as promised.  We were greeted by a great display of peacocks strutting their stuff and the Macaws fighting.

The Excursion Director had organized more cultural entertainment on the ship for late afternoon today. It was a band and colourfully dressed dancers from Colombian doing traditional dances. The leader of the group explained the meaning of each dance explained what was happening in each dance. It seems like most of the traditional dances from the various countries we’ve seen all have a similar plot that involves men trying to attract women and them being shy, or vice versa.

Tuesday, March 18: Sadly, the Captain advised us yesterday that he had made the decision to cancel our stop in Santa Marta, further along the Colombia coast due to bad weather.  He also told us to take any seasick medication that we might need as it was going to get rough for the next few days. I’m sad that the stop was cancelled but not surprised because staff and other passengers had said that this port is often cancelled due to heavy winds.  The ship has been pitching a bit, but not bad. I’m not prone to sea sickness but took some Gravol Ginger tablets just in case. Breakfast this morning was served in the inside dining room rather than at the outside space just in case of too much wind. It’s gray but not raining today and a little cooler than the previous few days.  A welcome relief, really.  

So we’re at sea today and tomorrow and will hopefully arrive in Aruba on schedule on Thursday morning.