Year: 2024

It’s remarkable that in a week we have left the old city only twice and ventured less than five miles each time. The first excursion was to the monastery of La Popa; the second to Forteza San Felipe. The small, walled old city is teeming with life, flowering bougainvillea and great restaurants. Last night we…

We spent a big part of the day in Getsemani, an artistic neighborhood. It has become such a popular tourist place that few locals still live there; instead it is full of bars, restaurants, small hotels. The streets are lined with murals, some with fierce political commentary. We also made a pilgrimage to Gabriel Garcia…

Rain. It rained today. Not a tropical shower, but hours of heavy rain. The kind of rain that cannot be ignored. Before the rain became too heavy I visited a museum of the Inquisition, human rights and the history of Cartagena. It was a well organized museum. In one of the courtyards was a guillotine,…

This morning Gerardo and I went to explore San Felipe, a massive fortress that, together with Cerro La Popa, protected Cartagena from the land. The city itself was protected on the sea side by 11 kilometers of walls and dense mangrove swamps. San Felipe, designed by an Italian named Antonelli, was state of the art…

Rain last night and early this morning made for a very humid day….so humid, in fact, that immediately after breakfast we went to the hotel pool. In the afternoon, when the humidity dropped a bit, we made an excursion to Cerro de la Popa, an early17th century Augustinian monastery/fortress on the highest hill in the…

My first good look at the city came at night and it impressed me. I was even more impressed this morning when we set out for a walk around the old city. The bright colors of the buildings, bougainvillea and flowers were magnificent. The city was every bit as lively as last night. We walked…

Getting here was a long day, but flights were on time and comfortable. At immigration an official sent me through the diplomatic line which was a lovely welcome. The hotel is a former Carmelite convent that has been beautifully adapted. My first exploration of the city was at night, a city throbbing with energy, music…