ENTRY 2, Week 1 (part 2): Cartagena

On Monday evening (23 Jan) I flew from Bogota to Cartagena, one of the largest cities on Colombia’s Northern coast. Cartagena is frequently cited in guidebooks as one of the best preserved examples of a Spanish colonial town - it was a vital seaport for the Spanish in South America, and a point of departure for the vast amounts of wealth going to Europe. In recent years it has seen a tremendous boom in its tourism industry, which is only expected to continue as Colombia’s political situation improves.

The first thing that struck me on stepping off the plane was the heat - even arriving at 9pm it was like walking into an oven, not helped by the ever-present humidity. Even at night the temperature rarely drops below 25°C, and anywhere between 30 and 40 during the day (it’s mid-summer here at the moment). This was a huge contrast to Bogota, where it had been cold enough to need a jumper!

Views from San Felipe

City walls (“Murallas”)

The first day in Cartagena was spent wandering the city walls and the San Felipe fort which dominates the Southern side of the old town. The fort is extremely impressive, with interlocking series of battlements and batteries making it, in the words of one British attacker, “formibidable”. The Spanish treasure fleets departing from Cartagena made a tempting target, and the city came under attack several times, notably by the British in both the sixteenth and eighteenth century (Francis Drake had a good crack at it). For this reason the city and the surrounding area were steadily reinforced with increasingly sophisticated defences over several centuries. 

If you’re not a military history geek, then the real draw for Cartagena is the ridiculously pretty architecture of the old town, which is a maze of narrow streets, overlooked by balconies covered in ivy and hidden plazas around every corner.

The second day in Cartagena was given over to a thorough exploration of the old town, where, to my delight, I was even able to find a naval history museum (Cartagena is an important base for the Colombian navy). Highlights of the old town included a number of churches whose spires and domes peak out above their surrounding buildings, and numerous street-corner cafes and bars. I was able to occupy myself there for several hours, before heading out in the evening for a few beers with an uncle who happened to be visiting Cartagena on business. The old town is the centre of activity for visitors, with a large number of hotels and hostels within the historic buildings catering for anyone from the budget traveller to 5* luxury. 

Day 3 was spent relaxing on one of the beaches on Boca Grande (a projection of land which forms a large natural harbour) overlooked by modern high-rise blocks of flats which dominate the Cartagena skyline, which have grown up in response to Cartagena’s increasing desirability to both foreign tourists and wealthy Colombians. While not quite the idyllic white sands of the Caribbean postcard, and in some places rather crowded, very few parts of Cartagena are more than a 5-10 minute walk from the beach.

View of Boca Grande (Sorry for the ship-porn. The USS Elrod if anyone’s interested)

From Cartagena it is also possible to take a day trip to the nearby Rosario Islands, an archipelago of 29 small Caribbean islands which form a protected National Park. According to a local source, the most desirable island is not currently open to the public as the drug lord who used to lease it and run it as a tourist destination was arrested and his assets seized. The islands can be reached by a 45-60 minute powerboat ride from the centre of Cartagena to whichever island one is visiting. Should you ever find yourself in that part of the world, be warned, they are a definite tourist trap if you are after anything more than lounging on a beach. The islands predominantly cater to day-trippers from Cartagena, and the guys running the tours will try and squeeze every extra peso out of tourists for additional activities such as snorkeling or scuba diving - a far better alternative would be to go further along the coast to Tayrona, or out to the islands of San Andres and Providencia where these are much cheaper and there is more to see. 

It’s a hard life...

Next time: Week 2 “La Cuidad Perdida” and Tayrona National Park

ENTRY 1, Week 1 - Bogota

Several people have suggested I keep a blog while I’m in South America, both as a sort of journal and also in case anyone is bored enough to want to see what I’ve been up to!

My first few days in Colombia were spent in Bogota, the capital city, where most of my relatives live. The first day was unsurprisingly a lazy start, considering the 20 hour journey the day before. By late morning I  had hauled myself out of bed, out the door and onto a bus heading into town. Bogota is a fairly modern city, but isn’t going to win any prizes for aesthetics - concrete is most definitely king. I seemed to have brought the bad weather from London with me, as lunch was interrupted by one of the most torrential downpours I’ve ever seen including ballistic hailstones! With no sign of the rain easing we made a short dash to the Gold Museum, which, according to Wikipedia, it displays "the world’s largest collection of pre-hispanic gold work".

We then made a quick detour to the plaza where the Presidential Palace is located, only to find there was a religious celebration going on in the adjacent church - it seems 2 drops of Pope John Paul II’s blood were being brought into this church, which lots of people had gathered to see (Colombia is still a strongly Catholic country, meaning a surprising number of people braved the weather).

Pope action

The second day (Saturday) involved another slog into the centre of the city on the rather complicated bus network. The aim of the afternoon was to go up Monserrate, one of the mountains that hems the city in. The centre of the city is already at an altitude of 2,600m, and Monserrate looms over it, reaching a height of 3,150m. Visitors can ascend on foot, via a cable car or a funicular (if it’s running). The path is stepped for the most part, and pretty steep,, taking us just under an hour to climb.

The top of the mountain was originally a pilgrimage site, but has for the most part given way to tourism. The views over Bogota are spectacular, but are let down somewhat by the fact that so much of what can you see isn’t particularly attractive.

Saturday evening was spent at a family gathering, mostly trying to remember the names of various relatives, and attempting to play a variation of charades in Spanish - a good choice for someone like me whose Spanish isn't completely fluent yet!

Day 3 (Sunday) began with an early morning bus ride which took us to the town of Zipaquirá, about an hour’s drive from Bogota, which still has several Spanish colonial buildings surrounding the main square.

However, the real reason for visiting Zipaquirá lies just outside the town on the slopes of the surrounding hills. One of Colombia’s top tourist attractions is hidden inside the side of the hills, amidst the tunnels of a working salt mine, where workers excavated an incredible cathedral from the rock during the 19th century.

The photos really don’t do it justice, but this was one of the most spectacular sights I can recall seeing, and there are dozens of huge chambers within the mine complex, each hundreds of metres long, and all dramatically lit by an ever-changing progression of colours. Anyone who knows me will be unsurprised to learn that I had the music from the Mines of Moria playing on my ipod for much of the time. 

Of particular note was a “miners’" tour we did within the complex, which involved fumbling through pitch black tunnels in single file in order to get some idea of working conditions in the past. Even more fun was the chance to take up a pickaxe and hack away at some sections of tunnel wall in order to extract salt (although the chunks I gathered crumbled in my jeans pocket). What really struck me was the welcome contrast to the hyper safety culture that dominates European mass tourist sites - I couldn’t think of anywhere else that would allow you to pick up a heavy tool and attack a dusty rock wall, with no more Health and Safety precautions than an ill-fitting helmet. 


Next stop, Cartagena on the Northern coast and the Lost City ("Cuidad Perdida") in the Sierra Nevada. Hopefully my next entry will be a bit less rambling.