Cartagena

The walled city of Cartagena is nice, historic and unashamingly touristic. Still the preserved colonial buildings give it a charm and the small streets invite you to wander in them. It is not the simple unassuming Colombia we met during the rest of the trip.

The balance between bringing income and spoiling the place is as delicate here as anywhere similar in the world.

Our first evening we tried to celebrate Argiris' birthday with a meal in a seafood restaurant. Lovely paella, but not as good as mine😍.

Starting the day with a cake and coffee is done the right way in pasteleria Mila.

Colourful buildings, colourful flowers and colourful people.

And as the streets slowly fill up so does the temperature rise.

The imposing cathedral and the Inquisition building where thousands found a terrible death contrasted with the streets around.

The Caribe Naval museum was interesting in putting the history of this place in context: in particular why the walls were created and how each colonial European country (Spain France England) tried and managed to occupy it, loot it or even savage it. The exhibition part of the cholera times was also moving showing how a quarter of the population vanished.

The NH gallery in collaboration with NYC exhibits some Colombian talents in painting and photography.

It is difficult to find non extravagant places to have a bite in Cartagena but Los Tacos del Cordo is exactly what we needed. Birria tacos were great.

We used buses today and after a local used his transport card (after we gave him the ticket price) to let us on the first ride we bought our own transport card and loaded with few tickets a system very similar with Medellin and Bogota.

We are staying out of the centre, primarly because of its vibrant streets might have impacted our sleep, and we are in a high rise block of apartments overlooking an underwhelming beach which is a bit quieter.