Arrived Cartegena at dawn
gale-at-sea
Humphrey Gale
Fri 18 Jan 2013 21:37
Cartegena, Columbia - never heard of it before. My only awareness of Columbia is through the well publicised drug cartel activity and a capital city of Bogota, which a danderous place to be. We had no toursit information avaialble so it was blank canvas. The skyline as we made our way into the bay and up to the old city was industrial and a working dockland on the left and ahead of us a skyline of very modern and new skyscapers. The old city is by repute the finest example of Spanish colonial architecture in South America, and it did not disappoint. Enclosed within massive stone defensive city walls, is a city that has been beautifully restored in many parts, consisting mainly of 2 storey building all with wooden balconies almost without exception; 2 fine churches; some 16th century stone municipal buildings. It was the centre of the Spanish slave trade in the Caribbean and the source of much gold for the Spanish empire, from the inland mines and raided from the tombs of the indigenous tribes. We were certainly made welcome and not hassled. It was safe place to be.
My favorite memory was sitting on the front of the boat early in the morning in the marina doing my stretches and in the background the early morning sun on the new skyscrapers, and in the foreground, the water taxis/buses passing by, ferrying people to work, and then single dugout wooden canoe being paddled by one man sat at the back, 3 strokes on the left, 3 strokes on the right at an even speed and a perfect straight line - it seemed to sum up the extremes of this city.
More about the pre Spanish civilisation and the gorgeous gold jewelery of those times in my next post.