One of the main reasons I am riding this big yellow truck through Colombia is because I’ve been told by David the Colombian to visit Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. A favourite with domestic and international tourists it features a naval base, high end hotels, black sand beaches, three theatres, lots of shopping and the old walled city. Fletch, Stacy, Stephanie and I took the city sightseeing bus on a loop through the 12 stops through Getsemani, Bocagrande, Manga and the old town.
Our first stop once inside the old city wall was to buy fresh mango and melon from an icon of Cartagena, the brightly dressed women selling wares out of baskets carried on their heads. Continuing on to the main square, Plaza Bolívar, we came to the Museum of the Inquisition.
Housed in the beautiful colonial architecture with white washed walls, massive wooden doors, excessively high ceilings, marble staircases and beautiful wooden balconies over the road and high above the internal courtyard is a horrifying array of devices used by the torturers. The Witches Room held the weight scales, a chair and head clamp to drive a bolt into the top of the spinal column, a spiked collar and a list of the questions used in interrogation…the way the questions were framed makes one wonder if we’ve changed as a species in over 500 years. I’m sure similarly-impossible-to-defensively-answer questions would have been used in history’s more recent displays of genocide.
Other displays included the stocks, guillotine and hangman’s noose and platform surrounded by the high walls and charming grounds of the old orchard, garden and stables, shaded by the giant ceiba tree. As an antidote for the horror, the history of Cartagena was explained from all angles…and mostly in Spanish. They are certainly proud of their city. Talented artist Pedro Ruiz had works of paint on gold sheet exhibited on temporary loan from the Museo de Oro. Inspired by quintessential Colombian, particularly Cartagenan elements, each sheet reprinted a river of gold and a canoe carried each piece, from a flock of macaws and schools of fish to a jaguar to scenes from the old town to the street stall vendors and their colourful umbrellas. The intricate detail is beautiful and hard to render in a photograph.
Feeling suitably cultured, we enjoyed a gourmet lunch and wine in one of the few air-conditioned bistros, Oh La La. Some of the best food on tour has been in Cartagena and the smaller towns and cities, rather than the big cities. After wandering through the streets of the old town, souvenir shopping with unbelievable restraint and traipsing along the top of the monumentally thick city walls, complete with large coral making up part of the construction material, Stacy and I watched the slow sunset while waiting for the bus home.
Taking the opportunity to catch up on sleep, clothes mending and a precious phone call, the next day was spent largely in my room watching life – including a traffic accident at the intersection outside – from the comfort of air-conditioning. The allure of the piping hot sand on the beach and the need to hire a shade tent, to swim in not-exactly-crystal-clear-water right beside the shopping arcades wasn’t enough to warrant burning to a crisp and shriveling like a dead dingo in the oppressive heat. Afterall, I’m on holidays. I did venture out for a late lunch and window shopping with others after the bite went out of the sun. The boutique shops and their wares were tempting and I did snap up some jewelry before a group of us hit dinner at a nearby restaurant with happy hour cocktails and classic music videos playing on large tv screens. Some of us showed our age more than others 😉
Cartagena is blessed with an abundance of preserved colonial architecture, domestic and international tourism driving a vibrant restaurant and shopping scene and bright weather to entice the swimmers. And if you’re me, there’s even gaping holes in the floor of outdoor eateries below the dodgy hotel covered by loose camouflaged boards that are easy to fall into…because falling over is my specialty. My shins and knees will never be the same.
