Cartagena (Colombia)
22 MAY - 27 MAY 2015
What a way to celebrate blog post 200!
Since 2007 I've been updated this blog as I've made hops all around the world. The original version, Helisher's Death by Caffeine, was meant to be a blog that contained my random thoughts on the world. In fact, the first two entries were of that elk. How times have changed, and how time has changed me in those years.
Travelling has changed my perspective, opened my mind and changed my life path, that's a fact. That yearning to move, to see things, to try, to feel, it's more than an addiction, its now part of my fabric and something that I'll never be able to live without.
The moment we hit the Caribbean cost line we felt it. The warm, thickness of the breeze blowing in off the sea, the turquoise blue water, swaying palms. A different attitude. Island time on the continent, this was it.
Years earlier I had read Gabriel Garcia Marquezs' work, Love in the time of Cholera. His work of fiction was set in this wonderful city and the way he described it, 'a place of amethyst afternoons and nights of antic breezes' just about says what this is all about.
So here you have it, blog entry #200 - Welcome to Cartagena
Our first of four stops through Panama City - Panama
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
For me, this was the surprise packet. There may have been other places that I enjoyed more but on my list this was the 'biggest mover'. Lying within 13kms of centuries old cobble stone walls, this UNESCO heritage listed town has an air of romance and mystery about it. Walking under bougainvillea covered balconies, candlelit interiors, cobblestone alleyways, this town oozes charm from its pores. There's an easy way about the people, they present themselves as happy, social and engaging.
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
Drinks on the famous city walls
Like most places that encounter brutal daytime heat, life is lived during cooler times, specifically of an evening. There's a vibrancy and sensuality to Cartagena that I hadn't encountered into too many other places, not until then. Reflecting on my travels now, I can see how there are comparisons to Buenos Aires, Havana or Rio in terms of being sensual. But what constitutes a sensual city? Is it a mood? A feeling? A heightened sense of anything and everything? Perhaps it's all that and more. How is it that you can just feel the energy in these known cities and don't feel them elsewhere. It's more than just words on a page or statistical data that nominates a place has having a spirit, liveliness and passion for life, and Cartagena is just one of those places.
Spending a few days in Cartagena was blissful, but, we also had the opportunity to get out to the Rosario Islands (Islas Rosario). A group of several islands that were about 1.5hrs out of Cartagena by speedboat.
Cartagena - Colombia
Islas Rosario - Colombia
Islas Rosario - Colombia
Islas Rosario - Colombia
Islas Rosario - Colombia
Inga and I decided to spend a day, initially, on one of these dreamlike islands. Just imagine it, beautiful, warm turquoise waters, cocktails at the raise of a fingers, and endless beams of sunlight hitting your body. Total bliss right....well...almost...
Now, as you may already know by now, Inga is a Latvian from Riga. Their Summer stretches from the about the 10th of August until the 20th of August, outside of that exists a total depletion of sunlight and lack of vitamin E. This craving for sunshine and extreme 'UV action' transposed onto her true lack of understanding for what true sunburn means, put her inline for the 'ripened tomato' award of the decade. None of my pleading and Southern Hemisphere awareness made any impact on what the 'smart' thing was to do that day. Additionally, more out of annoyance than anything else I also decided to put myself in harms way and accepted the best that the sun had to offer that day, all 10hrs of it........
There's no sugar coating the result. The final result was BRUTAL. Trying to sleep that evening felt like all my body was being dragged across a sheet of sandpaper. Every turn, every twist, every single move was agony. It was perhaps in my top 5 dumbest moves of all time.
We did end up staying on the island for an additional day. Mostly out of the sun and trying to cope with the absorption of all those UV rays from the day before. Paradise has its drawbacks.
The next few days we spent back in lovely Cartagena. The 'Old Centre', the UNESCO Heritage listed area, is georgeous, without question, but outside of that, the new area fill with high rise offices and condominiums wasn't much to write home about. And so denotes the dichotomy between the historical beauty and charm of the old and the necessity of the new. Places such as these are ever expanding, ever growing and you just hope that the beauty of what it has is not overwhelmed by what's coming.
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
Cartagena - Colombia
After five fantastic days in Cartagena we were ready to head north to Cuba.
Undoubtedly Colombia has much, much more to offer. From the people I've met, from what I've read, this is a country that is making its way back from decades of turmoil and is now once again able to open its doors to its natural beauty and wonder. It's definitely a country I'd like to revisit at some point in the future, there's too much here that just shouldn't be passed up.
