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, behind which loomed the dome of the cathedral. When it became clear the rain was going to linger, I gave in to a nap and then began reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Of Love and other Demons” set in this hotel when it was the Santa Clara Convent. After the rain stopped we walked over to an elegant mall built into an old bullring — bull fighting was abolished in Colombia about 25 years ago. The mall differed from US malls in that the shops are more boutiques, no anchor stores. In one way this Colombian mall and US malls are similar: it was already decorated for Christmas. We had dinner on the roof of the mall overlooking the city.
