Just came back from a weekend adventure to the Caribbean pseudo-jungle beach resort city of Cartagena de Indias. It is a crazy city with a crazy history. It boasts some of the best beaches you'll find in the Caribbean, the friendliest people around, best sea food you'll ever have, and a great escape from the bustling, perpetually overcast metropolis of Bogota and its over 10 million people.
Known as the surely well-disputed "Capital of the Caribbean" and undisputed title of "The best Walled City," Cartagena de Indias (or just Cartagena for short), is the fifth largest city in Colombia with a population of around 1,000,000. The city was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia who named the new colony after his hometown: Cartagena, Spain (located in the province of Murcia, located on the Mediterranean).
Incidentally, Cartagena is located a mere 200 hundred kilometers (124 miles) from the application eating donkey in my last post.
The city gone through numerous battles and pirate attacks over the years. Which is why the historic city (the original city) was surrounded by a huge fortified wall mounted with cannons (at some points more than 30 feet tall).
One interesting note is that an American (U.S.) colonist named Edward Vernon led an invasion in 1741 in an attempt to conquer the city. He came with over 186 ships and 23,600 men and was defeated by the city's defenses and 6 Spanish ships and 6,000 men. The effort somehow impressed George Washington's brother (Lawrence) so much that they named Mount Vernon after him. (I must be missing something!)
The historic city is fully restored and gorgeous. It feels like traveling back in time to the 1500s. (Except for the cars).
Botero put a fat woman in the Plaza Santo Domingo.
A view of the historic city off in the distance from our hotel.
Our hotel was located in Boca Grande. It is the modern beach resort district of the city. It's absolutely gorgeous and completely safe. You just need a cattle prod to fend off the street venders who will sell you anything from hotel rooms to hats to a bucket of live crabs. The only Spanish you need to know to get by in Cartagena is "No, gracias!"
One day, we took a cab ride over to the Castle of San Felipe. Ironically, San Felipe didn't ever live there. It was just named after him (Prince Felipe (Phillup IV) of Spain) The castle is actually a military fort. Acutally the largest in Colombia. It was built in 1657.
SEAFOOD!!
The view from our table.
The best sea food dish I have EVER had. Lobster, mussels, shrimp, calamar, in a parmesan cheese sauce and rice.
Then we decided to hop a dinky motor boat and go to the Islas del Rosario (Rosario Islands), which are little tiny exotic islands off the coast of Colombia. Don't worry, the crazy Afro Colombians gave us life jackets and took pretty good care of us. Deidi had already been there before.
Well, the ride was bumpy. But I learned that I don't get sea sick easily.
After an hour, we finally arrived! (We went to Playa Blanca, a small island)
Maps, showing our trip (the bottom left corner of the second map is Panamá)
Overall, I recommend Cartagena to anyone! It's a fun, unique and beautiful city that is used to a lot of tourism. Now I am back in Bogota on the job hunt, wishing I was still in Cartagena.
Saludos desde Bogotá.
