Cartagena: Bikinis and History Books

The day we arrived in Cartagena, it was raining. No wait, it was pouring! My hopes were dashed. What use was a Caribbean holiday without the sun? But thankfully, that was the last day it rained for us. The weather cleared by evening and the sun greeted us with open arms. And we set about filling our days with sea, sand, fish, coconuts and history. 

 

We had seen the old city on the way to our hotel, and were dying to go there. So next morning after a hearty breakfast, we reached the place first thing in the morning. And it was beautiful! The entire place is a Spanish settlement, reeking of history. Cartagena 
 was one of the most profitable sea ports for Spain. But after being ravaged and pillaged again and again, Spain spent a fortune on its security. Consequently, you can see tall walls, lined with cannons, solidly constructed towers and breathtaking architecture, all the works of European military engineers hired by the Spanish crown.

And the colours are breath taking! Each building looks like a huge cake done specially for some occasion. There were buildings in bright mustard, baby pink and blue, wedding cake white, butterscotch creams, you name it. And boy, did they look edible! The doors and gates too were so solid and impregnable giving an immediate sense of security.

There are a number of statues strewn all over the place. The ones I could identify with my poor historical

From the left, a statue of a pirate, India Catelina, Simon Bolivar on a horse.

knowledge were India Catelina, Pedro de Heredia and Simon Bolivar. India Catelina was an indigenous tribal woman who assisted Pedro de Heredia in the Spanish conquest of Colombia. Simon Bolivar, a Latin American freedom fighter, has his own square too. There is a quaint little park built around his statue where hundreds of pigeons flock on a daily basis. My son had a good time here.

 Now, this entire place has been transformed into a shopping centre. You have a Benetton, a Hard Rock Café and many other contemporary shops. The goods are modern, but the setting is classy colonial. All I wanted to do is get into a long fluffy gown with a bonnet and shop till I dropped.

We were pretty tired by the time we were done with this place, so after clicking a few pictures of a few old

A 'coache

fashioned galleys docked nearby, we left. But hey, we hadn’t had enough. In the evening we hired a horse carriage, locally called ‘coache,’ for a night tour of the old city. It was perfect. We rode into a cool breeze, past traffic and modern roads, yet feeling like royalty on a surprise visit. With all the lights blazing, the old city shone with an indescribable brilliance. Our carriage driver pointed out a lot of things but our poor Spanish didn’t help. Especially since Cartagena has a different dialect from Medellin. The night tour took around an hour after which we dined on fish at our hotel restaurant and called it a day.

Old City skyline at dawn

The clock tower in the Old City

A row of lights of the Old City at night

Brilliant lights of the Old City

Freddie's shack

Octopus and Cocolemonada

Next morning, we reached the beach early, around seven. After booking some chairs for us, we got busy. My son had his sand castles to build and a dead fish he found on the sand kept him company. I got a massage from Isabella whose hands I wanted to buy and take home. And my husband made friends with Freddie who owned a little shack of a restaurant on the beach. He kept us well provided with fish fry, crab in marinara sauce, octopus (which surprisingly I loved) and the various, refreshing drinks such as coco lemonada, maracuya juice etc. etc. By around mid-day when the sun started getting hotter, we thought we were done. But then we saw the pool. So we lazed around there for a while, shampooed, showered, and then fell flat on our faces in our bed and snored off. 

In the evening we shopped a bit for souvenirs, our Indian haggling skills in action. People were shrewd but jolly and sympathetic to our Spanish. And dinner was fish again. In the middle of the night, when we had to leave for the airport, it just seemed cruel. I can still close my eyes and see the Caribbean stretching in front of me, with miles of lazy sand telling me that I really need them. But alas! Drab daily routine wakes me up.