The R&R Big Adventure

The Three Ws

The drive from Santa Marta to Cartagena yesterday was uneventful – thankfully, after our boat trip – the only ‘excitement’ being to spot many local tourists clustered around a large gold female statue in Barranquilla, a city en-route to Cartagena. It turned out it was the singer Shakira, a local girl ‘done good’.

The guidebooks say Cartagena is the prettiest city in the Caribbean: I haven’t been to the islands, but it certainly is pretty. Up until now we have seen modern Colombia, and old, decaying Colombia, but now we have restored and gentrified Colombia: in the old town of Cartagena, beautiful, multi-coloured colonial houses, many draped in bougainvillea. A lot of these properties now house designer restaurants, shops and boutique hotels. Our guide at the coffee farm told us that Cartagena would be very hot, expensive, and full of Americans. He was right on all three counts: the second point probably as a result of the third. He also said a lot of people come here to party – for prostitutes and drugs, and unfortunately I can see that too. Whilst the old town is aesthetically reminiscent of some of the beautiful towns and cities we may see in Spain or Italy, where the similarity ends are the armed police on many street corners at night, and the many street vendors, carrying trays of goods, like ushers selling ice creams in theatres. However, rather than innocuous ice-cream, as you walk past them, they quickly move from offering cigarettes for sale, to women, weed or ‘white coffee’ (cocaine) – and often doing so just a couple of metres away from the police. Look closely, and more shops and restaurants here have ‘no to sex tourism’ stickers (this time in English) in their windows. It seems to be more obvious and frequent than we experienced in Medellin. Such a shame, for such a picturesque city.

Last night we ate at a beautiful restaurant in an old colonial mansion – Dona Lola – check out the photos on their website . On the way there, we passed an evangelical preacher who was whipping a crowd into a frenzy on one of the squares. No doubt they too could find Jesus – for a donation that would equate to more than a day’s salary for most of them.

This morning we have woken up to wonderful views across the city from our AirBnB apartment – on the 6th floor of an old building in the middle of the old town. Last night we saw lightning roll in across the city, and a great firework display a couple of squares away marking ‘The Day of The Races’. Not celebrating the 3.30pm at Aintree, but a national holiday marking Columbus Day, or Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity.

We are looking forward to exploring more of this beautiful city today -whilst avoiding buying any of the three Ws.