Touring Cartagena

I was feeling under the weather and I should have stayed in bed but I wanted to see something of this city Layne had told me she was enjoying a great deal. We were still waiting for GANNET2 to be released from the port and our agent had screwed up my insurance application so the scheduled release was a day late. So I went for a walk. 

My first goal was the Castillo de San Felipe named in honor of the Spanish king at the time, Philip IV, overlooking what was at the time a small walled city set between the fort on the hill and the beach. I thought the positioning was slightly odd compared to St Augustine in Florida and San Juan in Puerto Rico where the defenses typically overlook the harbor. Think of Fort Zachary in Key West…but this fort with a garrison of just 200 soldiers was built to protect the sole gate into the walled city as well as the narrow entrance to the anchorage in the lagoon between the fort and the city.  

Here the fort is set on a hill, Cerro de San Lázaro, which gives it a view of the harbor mouth and the lagoon, or did before the era of skyscrapers and electric power lines. 

It’s an imposing lump but unlike most of these vast monoliths to war from another era this one was involved in two important battles, losing one and winning the other  and thus ended up protecting Spain’s possessions on the Spanish Main. The castle was built in 1536 and attacked by a major force of French raiders  in 1697 who tore parts of it down. The man with the eyepiece below is Blas de Leto who died at 52 but who was shot to pieces during his life losing an eye and a leg and defeated the English here in 1741. 

Historians describe Admiral de Leto as one of the greatest naval strategists of his time as proved in the War of Jenkin’s Ear, a decade long struggle in the Caribbean as England tried to force Spain to open its colonies to trade. Admiral Edward Vernon attacked Cartagena with force of 20,000 and de Leto with only 2300 trounced his ass. 

Aside from the history this rather peculiar fort with no apparent living spaces was a great place to wander at will, enjoying the breezes and the cool interior passages.

Wander at your own risk, there are no warning signs, handrails or closed areas. 

Food delivery and moto taxi. Fancy a helmet-less ride in this chaos? Me neither; I can afford Uber lucky me. 

A few shots of the harbor. 

Rusty navigating the artistic undulating sidewalk. 

Harbor ride:

GANNET2’s approximate landing point: 

Cruising sailors below. I was one once and now I love my land yacht. I am fickle. 

Colombia really does need to get its tourist promotion together as cousin Lyn remarked. However at the moment I am quite enjoying being ahead of the curve. 

Cruise ships have it figured out. One day last week there were four in town while I was in bending my cold. Layne said Old Town was a nightmare with the crowds. 

We celebrated our restored GANNET2 with a night out in the hip Getsemaní neighborhood, still full of crowds of drunks and sidewalk artists, beggars, noise and confusion. 

Layne found a weird Chinese/Cuban/Caribbean fusion restaurant which was founded in Bogota but also has a place in Miami. It’s called Calle Dragones and we have it a mixed review. 

The chef in charge is called Luis Pous and weirdly enough 20 years ago he was the chef at Little Palm Island so I guess we are familiar with his cooking, completely by accident. They do live music and the cocktails were good but when we ordered a bottle of wine (thank you Uber for driving us) they took the bottle away to chill it or something. I hate waiters who pour my wine for me, but I’ve never had them spirit the bottle away before. I had to ask for a goddamned refill from my own bottle! Forget this place. 

The bao buns were okay but the dumplings were flaccid and flavor free. 

The seafood risotto was okay but I’ve had more seafood in the street risottos at cheap eateries. It seemed weird to fill up with rice in this place. 

Layne didn’t like the Catalan crème brulée as she thought it was like rice pudding but that sort of thing suits me just fine. 

Well that was $150 we won’t be spending there again I guess! 

Rusty can handle living here quite well. 

I think overall so could  we if we weren’t nomads. I’m nowhere near ready to settle down and neither is Layne.  Rusty I’m not so sure…

Let’s see what the rest of  Colombia has to offer! 

Getting It On

Sergio flew to Cartagena Friday lunch time. Shortly thereafter he was shouldering the burden of our air conditioner. 

He brought his wife and two daughters on the flight from Panama and he had a hankering for roast suckling pig known as lechon. So he picked up the unit off the bed and walked it up the rickety step ladder. Done and dusted. 

And that was that. He did it all on his own, slid it in place, wired it up and bolted it down. No new padding needed as the whole thing seems to fit in place.  We kept his sheet of acrylic so next time we have what we need to plug the hole. I’ve learned a lot from watching him but I’m still going to hire some experienced truck a/c installer  to check it out for me and muscle will be needed to lift it up and down. Ours now has new bearings and should be good for a while longer. Next time…I just cannot wait for our next container trip. 

It’s hot here but we decided to stay Sunday to give us time to clean GANNET2 up do laundry, fill the water tank, stock the fridge and store the contents of our cases. We will both be very happy to be at home with our routines and away from hotels, taxis and other peoples’ schedules. 

And on top of that I got a head cold which I’ve now passed to Layne which is why this post is published a couple of days after I intended it. The rooftop a/c was in place by mid afternoon Friday and here we are…

I screwed up while I was sick and allowed myself to be pickpocketed, obviously I don’t know how exactly but I suspect a cab driver…he got my drivers license which actually is no big deal. It was my old one, still valid but with my Cudjoe address. After we left the Keys we put our mailing address on our new ones so I have my new license in my pocket now and I’m still good to go. It’s annoying I let my guard down but as I say I wasn’t myself. 

One of my French container buddies lost his vital passport and car papers in our Uber on one of our trips from the port. I’d paid for that ride so I was the driver’s contact and sure enough on Saturday he contacted me and returned the papers which I will return to Martin when we meet in Medellin in ten days. That’s another reason to use Uber and not a cab! 

But we did end up with an after installation gathering as a candy seller came by with assorted fruit flavored concoctions. Sergio, his family and all stood around chatting and munching silvered her wares:

Our plan is to leave today to meet some friends in a campground in the hills above Cartagena where hopefully it will be a little cooler and I can get my Kindle back that I left in a hotel. Hugh and Sue kindly picked it up for me saving us a six hour detour…I tell you living out of a suitcase is a special skill and my hat’s off to all of you. I have really missed living aboard GANNET2 I can tell you. 

Tomorrow I’ll post my final set of pictures from Cartagena and I hope we will be back on the road. I feel like we haven’t been traveling properly since before Christmas with all the reissues and shipping and failing to tour like tourists. 

I’m ready for the open road as soon as Layne feels ready to go. It’s her turn to stay awake all night coughing and spluttering but as she’s a lot tougher than me she whines a lot less.

I’m ready to drive. 

Dog Walking Cartagena

I have fond memories of walking Rusty around Key West on my nights off. I’d wake up around three in the morning at our home on Cudjoe and we’d creep out to the car and drive in to Key West, find somewhere to park, Mallory Square, Eaton at Simonton or New Town and off we’d go.

Old Town Cartagena has its similarities. The three of us spent almost two hours criss crossing the lanes out to the city’s 17th century walls and back. 

Because she’s a tiny bit more organized than me Layne  had some small bills to buy a 75 cent cup of coffee from one of the many street vendors loaded with Thermos flasks serving the workers and early risers. This one was strong and sweet, more like a Cuban coffee than most I’ve tasted. 

I’ll tell you what, I got a sudden and pronounced mental shift back to Key West on this cool breezy morning promising another hot sticky Caribbean day.  I could taste Five brothers or Cuban Coffee Queen as we strolled. I wasn’t in Cartagena de las Indias for a few minutes, I was in Old Town Key West on my day off. 

Colombian cuisine for working people is heavy on the frying. Fashion corn meal into a pancake, call it an arepa and stuff it with a fried egg and you have breakfast on the go. Fried empanadas and fried yucca balls with a ground beef center just like the Cuban balls at Five Brothers in Southard Street…

Cartagena claims it’s total war on holes as the city languidly tries to clean up tourist central. 

There is work going on but you need to watch where you put your feet as you wander around. 

The core of the waterfront city is astonishing 19th century architecture enclosed with huge stone walls on the waterfront. The poverty and drug addiction and trash  so prevalent in New Town where industry works is miles from here - actually 15 minutes by Uber - but you can get anything done in Cartagena. 

No one speaks English in Colombia. I grant you that is a broad generalization but don’t expect most people to be able to speak English. But as you can see below they are trying to get ready for you and your dollars. 

I spoke with our landlord about Colombia’s emerging role as a tourist destination and he is envious of Mexico. I think he’s right too, Mexico is light years ahead of Colombia in attracting tourists. I’m not talking about how we travel in our van but in terms of mass tourism, the stuff that brings foreign currency. 

Which explains why this magnificent city probably has more visitors from Eastern Europe right now than it’s ever had Americans. You can see handfuls of youngsters the hip travelers no doubt seek new destinations walking the streets in the evening when the whole world is out enjoying the cool night air. 

I feel lucky to be here now in the infancy of mass tourism. 

Even the few bums  remind me of Duval Street before the work day begins. 

Imagine buying up some real estate like this and restoring these magnificent buildings. Not for me, I’m a nomad but I’m surprised Americans haven’t figured the possibilities out here, less than three hours from Miami. 

Like Key West Cartagena loves its poets, probably more so and these plaques reminded of the poems set in cement on various sidewalks around Key West  extolling the virtues of the town. 

And then you get to the walls, built in the 1600s and as thick and massive as ever, now a backdrop to endless screaming honking impatient traffic.  

As you look at these photos notice how there are no handrails, no warning signs, no cautions. You are free to be as stupid as you want up here. Just remember you are responsible for yourself and there are non liability laws here or lawyers ready to take your damage case. The fact that we Americans notice these things shows how conditioned we are. 

Rusty rather enthusiastically jumped up into the embrasure on the wall and I grabbed him by the scruff to keep him from checking the edge. He got the message. 

You are free to step into space if you feel the need: 

What a fascinating city. I also walked the Castillo de San Felipe site of one of Spain’s few resounding victories against the English. 

And there’s the gold museum. The product of mines across Spanish South America was shipped from Portobello in Panama ( Colombia ‘s former province) to Havana for shipment to Cadiz by convoy. Cartagena de las Indias (Carthage of the Indies) was just an outpost on the Spanish Main, a safe harbor, but they took it seriously with all the work they did here. 

We have moved across town to the middle class neighborhood of Manga where we have a courtyard to park GANNET2 and where hopefully today the air conditioner will be installed and we shall soon be free to drive away. This is a pretty nice spot though, a quiet neighborhood close by the city and the apartment has all middle class amenities. 

Always full of surprises, Cartagena.