Catagena Jan 5-9 and Jan 18 2016
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Episode: Santa Marta
Ah, a nice cooling breeze,
natural air conditioning right off the Caribbean, perfect for walking Las
Murallas. The thick walls were built, started at the
end of the 16th
C to guard the old city from pirates, buccaneers and other marauders, and were
finally finished in 1796. Now you can walk a good portion of the original walls,
and keep cool at the same time. You get a completely different view of Cartagena
from the top of the walls. From here you can pick out your next leafy plaza to
stop for a coffee, a beer, or my favourite, a tall glass of fresh tropical
juice.
We flew from the cool, autumn-like climate of Bogota to
the tropics of Cartagena, where we spent the next four nights exploring the
UNESCO sights of this old, Spanish Colonial city. As soon as we checked into our
hostel in the Old City, we headed out for a walk to orient ourselves through the
narrow streets. We made sure we had a map as each block has a new name in the
old city and they are not all set on a convenient grid pattern. Cartagena is
full of well preserved colonial buildings and we intended to see many of them
over the next three days. We headed north into a busy commercial area full of
end of day shoppers, and then out to the docks where impressive bronze statues
of three Pegasus sit on Martyrs Square commemorating the independence of
Cartagena from Spain in 1811. There were a few tall ships in port, one with full
rigging, Gloria, with a line-up of more than 100 people all waiting to board the
ship for a brief tour. We decided to continue our walk rather than stand in
line.
We walked through the most famous city entrance, the
Clock Tower Gate, into the Plaza de la Aduana (Customs House), with its statue
of Pedro de Heredia, the founder of Cartagena. One day we happened upon a
fashion photo shoot of a bridal couple in the square. The plaza would be the
perfect backdrop for all sorts of celebrations. The upper classes of Colonial
Cartagena displayed their wealth by the number of balconies graced their houses.
Cartagena was obviously a prosperous town as entire streets displayed elaborate
balconies on every upper floor window.
You can’t visit Cartagena without visiting at least two
of the interesting museums. Our favourite was the Museum of the Inquisition,
housed in the actual building where trials were held to determine the guilt or
innocence of the accused heretics. Besides leading us through the displays of
indigenous life before the arrival of the Spanish, our tour guide, Tony, put his
theatrical personality to good use when talking about the Inquisition era and
the ghoulish torture instruments. Towards the end of our tour the conversation
turned to emeralds. When a man wears emerald rings on every finger, you know he
will show you the best shop to buy Colombia’s most famous gems. We decided Tony
probably makes more in commissions from the jewelry store than he does as a
guide. I now am the owner of a pair of emerald earrings that beg to be worn with
an outfit to do the emerald colour justice.
Yes, we went to see the convent and church dedicated to
the first person elevated to Sainthood in South America, San Pedro Claver, who
was the revered for his work tending to the poor and especially the black
slaves. As is the case for many revered saints, his body was preserved and is on
display in a glass case in the church.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) had two very interesting
exhibits, besides showcasing the best of new Colombian talent. Olga de Amaral is
the best known of Colombian Textile artists. She has won awards around the world
and had books published highlighting her work. Her wall hangings are noted for
their use of gold and silver fabric tags to fabulous effects. I especially loved
wandering between the exhibits of her works.
The 10th
Annual International Classical Music Festival was just beginning and the MoMA
had the best photographs of performers over the last 10 years. There was a photo
of siblings Scott and Lara St John, violinists who were teen agers in London,
Ontario when we lived there. My favourite photo was taken behind a French
pianist highlighting her much annotated score. It just revealed how much work
goes into the interpretation of a composition by a musician. Inspired by the
photographs, we discovered there was a performance scheduled for the next
afternoon in the upscale Hotel Santa Clara, once a convent with a chapel where
the concert would be held.
The concert lived up to our expectations. We got to
wander about the lobby and atrium of the hotel before taking our seats in the
candle lit chapel. A program of sacred music by Vivaldi and was performed by an
excellent youth choir and orchestra from Bogota with soloists from Italy. This
was the first performance of the year in the chapel and half way through
Vivaldi’s Gloria in Excelsis, the lighting for the performers failed. The
performance was halted and electricians were summoned. It took almost half an
hour to correct, while the audience chatted and refreshed themselves with
chilled bottles of water provided by a sponsor. Nobody seemed to mind the
unscheduled intermission. The concert continued without pause. The orchestra
included two instruments I had never seen before. They were Tiorba, or Theorbo,
a member of the lute family, with extended range to provide bass accompaniment.
I spoke to one of the musicians, a young man from the US who told me he had been
studying the instrument in Italy for 15 years. We were leaving the next day for
Santa Marta, otherwise we would certainly attended another concert.
Herb Auerbach asked about our dining experiences.
Bogota had not been memorable, but we found several good restaurants in
Cartagena. Most of our dining was at small restaurants with street side tables
clustered around two small plazas, Plaza Fernandez de Madrid and Plaza San
Diego, near our hotel. They were alive with Christmas lights, vendors selling
crafts and souvenirs and strolling buskers. The food was good too. Being a
Caribbean
town, we mainly stuck to seafood. Of course we sampled
several versions of ceviche and a good seafood pizza. One morning we walked to
the Getsemani area, once a less savoury part of town just outside the city
walls, now being gentrified and full of good restaurants. We had a large
American-Colombian breakfast at Oh-La-La, with scrambled eggs mixed with
tomatoes and onion and tamales served with a cream sauce and cheese. Our next
favourite breakfast and lunch restaurant was the vegetarian Girasole (sunflower)
that served tasty treats for a very reasonable price.
Unfortunately, our visit to Cartagena ended on bad note.
As we had in Puerto Morelos over Christmas, we brought our laundry to a
professional service. When we returned to retrieve our clothes we discovered
that two pairs of Ray’s pricey Ex Officio travel underwear had been switched to
cotton boxer shorts. I must commend the laundry for how they handed the
situation. When they couldn’t trace Ray’s underwear, they reimbursed us for the
amount to replace the two lost pairs. We are now doing laundry by hand and
draping it around our room to dry.
We had originally booked for four nights at Hostel de
Viajeros. After being awakened at 1:30 AM and again at 4 AM by returning party
goers, we checked out. It was still the holiday season and booking I found
online were scarce in our price range. We did find a room in an Airbnb not far
from our current hotel. The apartment, rented by a Colombian woman and her
British roommate, was in a large complex of small family apartments. We had a
small room with a balcony facing the street. It was advertised as ‘bohemian
decor’ which really means minimum. That would have been fine if the street noise
in the evening hadn’t been so loud. I coped with my ear plugs, part of my
standard travel kit. Then we were assessed for extra charges which we considered
above and beyond reasonableness. The issue went to Airbnb conflict resolution.
We made our case and as of now, the extra charge has been dropped.
That said, we returned to Cartagena for one night on
January 18 before our flight south to Medellin and enjoyed a quiet night at the
small Casa Abril Hotel.
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