For a look at another side of Colombia, we flew north to the city of Cartagena. Alejo had told us ahead of time to expect tropical weather conditions. Sure enough, as soon as I stepped out onto the tarmac, my hair, which had been in a state of rebellion since drizzly Bogota, registered the stifling heat and humidity. (I still don’t understand how so many Colombian women can have long, sleek, glossy hair!) Aside from hair problems, I was delighted to be in Cartagena, a city whose very name has captivated my imagination for years.
Actually, the official name of the city is Cartagena de Indias since it’s named for the city of Cartagena in Spain. Founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia on a small triangular-shaped island separated from the mainland by a very narrow channel of water, it is one of the oldest Spanish cities in the Americas. It gained its importance due to its strategic location on the Caribbean coast. It is here that the Spanish stored the gold and silver that they extracted from the Americas before shipping it off to Spain. Of course, this made Cartagena a prime target for pirates and the privateers commissioned by Spain’s enemies, namely England, France and the Netherlands. One of those privateers was Sir Francis Drake, who was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I of England to attack Spanish settlements and steal their wealth. To defend it, the Spanish built walls around the city and constructed an immense fortress.
In the late 1500s, after an attack by Drake and his fleet, the Spanish built walls around the city. The walls still stand and this part of Cartagena, the historic walled city (“La Ciudad Amurallada” in Spanish), has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Later the Spanish constructed an immense fortress, Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, to provide additional protection.
From the airport, we headed straight to the historic walled city. Our first stop was at a lovely restaurant (our first cloth napkin restaurant of the trip). Lunch was full of Caribbean flavors: ceviche, which I’d been craving; white fish (probably grouper or snapper) with mango sauce; moist and flavorful coconut rice; and a refreshing glass of passion fruit juice. Already, I was feeling in vacation mode.
After lunch, we made our way through the congested narrow streets to the Hotel Bantu, our home for the next three nights. Formerly a pair of colonial mansions, the hotel has a prime location, just steps from the Parque Fernandez de Madrid (setting for Garcia Marquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera).
The name Bantu didn’t surprise me since Alejo had told us that much of the city’s population has African ancestry. In colonial times, the city was the second most important slave port in South America, after Bahia, Brazil. Bantu was a group of languages spoken in western and southern Africa, the home of many people brought to the Americas.
Despite the afternoon heat, I set out for a walk around the neighborhood to soak up a bit of local atmosphere: Blue skies, palm trees, Colombian flags, flower draped balconies, plazas filled with outdoor tables, shops selling emeralds and African-influenced handicrafts, hawkers, street food stands, motorbikes, music, the sounds of multiple languages surrounded me – and I was enthralled. But I was also grateful to get back to the hotel for an hour or so of air-conditioning before dinnertime. Below are some scenes of the historic center:
Later that evening, with a small group of fellow travelers, I joined the tourists enjoying Saturday night under the balmy starlit skies of Cartagena. We found a table at a popular (i.e. crowded and noisy) restaurant, dined on grilled seafood and vegetables, and then temporarily got lost trying to find our way back to the hotel. Streets and buildings definitely look different in the dark!
Our group’s exploration of Cartagena began in earnest the next morning. Over the course of two very full days, our local leader, David, guided us around the city and the surrounding area. And because of the heat, we got a very early start each day. As we started our first walk, he noted that there is always one shady side of the street. In fact, he told us, the city was intentionally designed that way to provide relief from the tropical sun.
A native of Cartagena, David was very familiar with the city’s history. The 12-foot high walls around the historic center date back to 1595 and were part of the original fortifications. In El Centro, the center part of the walled city, most of the buildings we saw were built of limestone and sandstone and date back to the 1800s. This was a neighborhood inhabited by the upper class. David pointed out architectural features and details, including the “barba" (bearded) windows and distinctive door knockers.
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| Note the "beard" shape under the window |
Many of the large wooden doors had coats of arms and metal knockers that were symbolic. A lion represented nobility. The most common door knocker we saw was the iguana. The iguana represented power – because the iguana can go wherever it wants to go.
Right in front of the church, somewhat incongruously, is a statue by Fernando Botero of a fleshy nude woman.
Also in the plaza, we noticed a couple of colorfully dressed women with baskets of fruit on their heads. These are palenqueras. They sell fresh fruit and let you take photos of them for a tip. Their clothing is a reminder of the communities of escaped slaves that settled in the area. Within their communities, many still speak a language was based on Bantu.
When I got home, I did some research and learned that the communities were established in the jungles outside Cartagena by escaped slaves about 400 years ago. The inhabitants returned to their African cultural traditions and as a way to earn a living, they started to bring fresh fruit and vegetables to sell in Cartagena. Although most of the communities were destroyed by the Spanish and the enslaved people were recaptured, one survives to this day – San Basilio de Palenque, located about 30 miles from Cartagena. It is one of the first independent communities in the Americas.
We also visited Cartagena’s cathedral, Santa Catalina de Alejandra. The church is built of coral stone and features a sundial on the exterior. Santa Catalina was an indigenous woman, kidnapped by the Spanish, who served as an interpreter. The story made me think of Malinche in Mexico, a Mayan woman who helped Cortes and is viewed by some as a traitor to her native people. I was curious about the attitude of the today’s Colombians towards the Spanish conquerors. Although it is widely known that the Spanish subjected the indigenous people and enslaved Africans to terrible mistreatment, I didn’t hear much negativity.
Around the corner from the cathedral, we paused briefly in the shady Parque Bolivar. An equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar stands in the center of the park. I learned that the pose of the horse, with one leg up in front and one leg up in back, indicates that the rider didn’t die in battle.
The biggest church in the historic center of the walled city is the Pedro Claver church. It is dedicated to the Spanish-born monk and Jesuit priest who devoted his life to helping Africans and who baptized many of them. He was canonized in 1888, the first person to be canonized in the New World.
Well, that’s enough about churches. The heat was building up, so we made a detour to GoYurt, for paletas. These frozen pops came in a wide variety of flavors. Some were made of ice cream, others from sorbet or frozen yogurt. I chose a combo pop – one side Nutella, the other vanilla. They were cooling, delicious, and a bargain at 7000 Colombian pesos (less than $2) each.
There’s much more to share with you about Cartagena – the neighborhoods of Getsemani and Boca Grande, the Castillo San Felipe, the beach at La Boquilla where we learned to drum and dance. So see you again soon!
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