March Break in Cartagena

 

Our traditional $12
Pearson Beer

So begins the second entry into this blog. For our first anniversary Marlene and I decided to get away from the bitterly cold, snowy and sun-deprived city of Toronto for the white sand beaches, topaz blue waters and warm Caribbean breezes of historic Cartagena. This trip was not on the scale of grandeur as our "honeymoon" vacation to Africa but incredible none the less. 

We finally arrived to this most beautiful of back yard gardens

Since it was March break (peak travel season) the cheapest flight we could find brought us through New York, where we managed to get about 4 hours sleep before having to connect with our 6am flight to Miami.  After a couple hour lay over in Miami we were finally on our way to Colombia on Avianca airline!  Avianca knows what customer service actually means and it was a very enjoyable 3.5 hour flight.  I watched "Inception" but unfortunately due to interruptions and the short duration of the flight I got about 2/3 of the way through the film, the captain turned off the entertainment system just as the movie was getting super interesting...needless to say all I could think about was the movie, that is, until we got out of the tiny spec of an airport.  The immediate reaction to the heat was shock, our bodies were used to the negative Celsius weather of Canada, and our eyes were going to need adjusting to the bright sunshine.

Inside the Walls

The area surrounding the airport immediately brought memories of other South American nations we'd previously visited but once we winded our way through the busy side streets toward the ocean side boulevard we knew this city was going to be much different then anything we'd seen in SA before.  The ocean was deep blue in color and the waves were constantly crashing on the surrounding beaches.  As we approached the "murales", or the walls, I began to get a sense of the history in this place.

Colombian beer and street food

Cartagena is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of Colombia's major economic centres.  Cartagena was colonized in 1533 and became an attractive plunder site for pirates due to its wealth and prosperity.

Because of all these attacks, the Spanish created a walled city and built many forts around the city in order to defend their assets.  The Spanish pumped loads of money into the city and in the 17th century paid from prominent military engineers to carry out the construction of fortresses which are some of Cartagena's most significant identifying features today.  The construction took over 200 years to complete and included food and weapons storage as well as underground tunnels.  Once these defenses were complete, the city was considered impregnable and was never overtaken again.  Cartagena was a major trading port for precious metals and was also a slave port.

Watching the sun go down on our first night

Dinner in the open air market of Cartegena

We approached the walls after about 15 minutes of driving along the beautiful coast line and eventually drove through on of the two openings in the wall designed for traffic.  Inside the walls there was a European atmosphere with narrow winding cobble stone streets, street vendors on every corner, and beautiful colonial architecture.  We pulled up to what would be our home for the next 5 nights and were surprised at what lay behind the front gate.  What looked like a very humble structure from the street opened up into a glorious back yard garden.  We were greeted by our very gracious host Lucy who had been expecting us since morning.  After exchange pleasantries Lucy showed us around the property and brought us up to our room.  The room had a double bed and a single bed in it along with a private washroom and a private balcony overlooking the stunning tropical garden complete with caged tropical birds. Lucy offered us some lemonade (which was really Lime-aid) which I was looking forward to since Marlene had been talking about the fresh juices of Colombia since we book our flights.  It more then met my expectations and was exactly what I needed to quench my thirst...after all, it was 30 degrees outside!

 

Our amazing and delicious breakfast fruit juice and platter

Today was more of an opportunity to acclimatize and orient ourselves more then anything else.  After a bit of relaxing time on our balcony sipping on some lime juice and reading through our trusty guide book (lonely planet of course) we decided to venture out and discover the night life of Catagena.  After a much needed and satisfying meat platter dinner (which was probably enough meat and fries for 4 people) and a couple of locally brewed beverages, we were ready to call it a night.  We did take the long way back, though neither of us could say if that was on purpose of if we got slightly lost (slightly).  The streets are reminiscent of Venice (says Marlene) in that the best way to explore its cobble stone streets is to simply travel with no map and just let yourself wander.

The next morning we awoke to glorious sunshine and the blistful chirp of tropical birds...ahhhhenglish and we spoke very little Spanish, and of course, the spoke very quickly.  Marlene seemed to understand more of what she was saying, I think I caught heuvos and pancake...how's that for spanish! Marlene managed to order hers scrambled while I insisted on omelette (same as in french yey!).  Either way both our meals were amazing and breakfast seemed to last for at least an hour...can never get enough fresh fruit right?

Today, our first full day in Colombia, was always meant to be a beach day, and it turned out to be a great day for it (though as we later discovered EVERY day is a good day for it!) We spoke to our lovely host Lucy about our plans and she gave us the low down on the costs and what to ask for once we arrived at the beach.  She called her nephew who is a cab driver to come pick us up and bring us down to the local beach which was no more then 15 minutes away.  Once we got to the beach our instructions were clear, don't pay more then 10K pesos for the tarpa (tent) and make sure the cilos (chairs) were included.  Sure enough they tried to rip us off right after we agreed on what we were getting.  Honestly, there just isn't any sense of integrity around here (sarcasm).  We managed to get what we wanted for no more $ then expected...and honestly we were just so incredibly grateful to be lying in the sunshine watching the waves role up on to the beach that we really couldn't have cared less about the money.

Beach Oysters

Today is a Sunday which means there are lots of local families on the beach.  It wasn't crowded by any means, nowhere near what Miami's beaches are like this time of year but there were long rows of beech umbrellas and lounge chairs in each direction.  With this amount of people also comes large amounts of peddlers offering everything from massages to "fresh" oysters.  The massage ladies were difficult to turn down because they would always insist on giving a "demonstration".  So even though your mind is saying no, your body is saying "this isn't so bad maybe just for 15 minutes".  But I had heard that what begins well doesn't always end well and the massage girls are notorious for ripping off their clients.  They are masters of deception in that they will claim a certain amount for your legs but after they are done they will say "no that price was per leg" etc. Regardless, Marlene and I were constantly turning them down while trying to admire our surroundings and to enjoy our quality time relaxing on the beach.  For whatever reason, the oyster guy was the lucky merchant today as Marlene took to engaging in conversation with him.  This is basically a guy who roles around with a bucket of oysters, a spoon, and a pile of limes.  I was not so interested in trying these local delicacies but after Marlene was brave enough to take the first two and insist they were delicious, I trusted her judgement and decided to try one for myself.  Although I was nervous at first, they really did taste delightful, even refreshing, something about the combination of sea salt and lime was very appealing.  This may have not been the smartest thing to do as travelers, to ingest supposedly fresh raw fish, neither of our gastro systems were punished for taking this risk.  Marlene spent the rest of the afternoon reading while I swam in the waves and took a few tours to see how the other half (rich tourists) lived.  About the only difference was their loungers had cushions, and they had security which didn't allow vendors to come through the designated area.  For now we just thought it would be nice to be away from these vendors, but not a necessity.

After a long day at the beach we returned to our rooms for a hot shower and some refreshments. Our location is so peaceful (and hot) its almost impossible to not have a nap.  We got ready to head out for the night and walked around trying to find several restaurants we read about in our guide book.  Unfortunately we had little success in finding all 3 of the restaurants and decided that either all the restaurants closed down on sundays or maybe our guide book was out of date.  After wandering around for a couple of hours we ended up at a pizza joint right around the corner from our B&B.  This was just a little hole in the wall place which extended its property into the adjacent park.  We could tell by the number of people hanging around this place that it was either the only place open or they served really good pizza.  Both assumptions turned out to be true.  It was a very european influenced occasion, pizza and beer in the park...althought the warm caribean breeze ensured we knew we were not anywhere near Europe.

After a day in the sun and with our bellies full we decided to retire to our room to watch what was becoming a daily ritual.  I had uploaded the second season of Mad Men to my IPOD and we were quickly becoming addicted.

At breakfast the next day, we decided it would be a good day to take a walking tour of the city. We were beginning to realize it didn't matter which day we took this self guided tour because everyday here was like a day in paradise!  28-32 degrees, sunny, with a beautiful ocean breeze.  We started from within the city walls and walked past all of the historical sites identified in our guide book.  Colonial architecture surrounded by tropical flowers and plants are an intensely beautiful contrast. The only trouble was that within the city walls, the cool breeze is unable to penetrate the large buildings.  So navigating busy, narrow streets is a very hot and sweaty experience.  So we decided to head toward the ocean to catch the cool breeze.  This turned out to be worthwhile refreshing experience because it offered beautiful views of Bocca Grande.