Hey! It's not the destination, it's the voyage.

The upper level of Castillo de San Felipe with the convent in the background


A panorama of Bocagrande (left) and old Cartegena (right) from convent















Bernie (doing his David Suzuki impression) & Aysha
















Jen & Dave in the mud volcanoe

Pool time with Grandma Linda

This is our 4^th. day in Cartegena, mostly relaxing with Jamie, Karla and Aysha. Their apartment is located on Bocagrande, a narrow spit of land that protrudes into the Caribbean Sea in a “L” shape. Bocagrande, in conjunction with a few islands, create a natural sea wall for Cartegena Harbour. Bocagrande is a mix of apartments, hotels, houses, schools and businesses. It is one of the wealthier communities within the otherwise sprawling city of 1 million inhabitants.

Where Bocagrande meets the mainland, stands the old walled city of Cartegena. It is a wonderful example of Spanish colonial architecture. The stone wall surrounding the city took almost 200 years to complete and although damaged by attacking forces during construction, it was completed only 25 years before the Spaniards left Colombia. Except for time, vandalism and a misguided attempt to “modernize” parts of the city, the wall is intact. The old city is quite large and although touristy in parts, it is a functioning urban community. Beyond the old city, Cartegena expands into a network of seemingly disorganized roadways that are impossible to navigate unless you grew up here. (more on this later.)

Since Jamie and Karla are working Linda and I spent the first couple of days walking around the area and the old city. Naturally, taking Aysha with us when we could. Jenny and Dave decided to take a day to visit the “mud volcano” (Volcan de Lodo El Totumo), about 1 hour by bus from the city. (See photo, it tells it all!)

Saturday

On Saturday we ventured out of Cartegena to the nearby city Barranquilla. Those familiar with Latin culture will be familiar with “Carnaval” celebrations.(Mardi Gras). Well, the Carnaval de Barranquilla is the BIG carnival celebration in Colombia and Jamie suggested that we should involve ourselves in the festivities. After some investigation it was decided that the Carnaval was not a good place for babies so Karla and Aysha stayed home while the 5 of us headed out on quite an adventure.

They say that… “It’s not the destination, it’s the voyage”. Well this was a voyage like none other that I had previously experienced!

Barranquilla is located about 130K from Cartegena. To get there required a taxi ride to the bus station (30 minutes). A line up for bus tickets (45 minutes). The bus ride to Barranquilla (2 hours) and a taxi ride from the bus station to the festival area of town (45 minutes). That’s 4 hours of excitement and entertainment and we haven’t even experienced the “carnaval” yet!

Taxis, line ups and bus rides are entertainment? It is impossible to describe in words how scary and entertaining it is. I can only compare it to a carnival ride at a summer fair . . . but cheaper! As I mentioned, navigation around the city is impossible for any tourist. The city appears to be a conglomeration of smaller towns randomly situated on the outskirts of the old city. The roads, streets and lanes run in all directions and never for a great distance. The cab drivers are constantly in a hurry. It seems like a competition to get from departure to destination as rapidly as possible.

Since there were 5 of us, we took 2 cabs from Bocagrande to the bus station in Cartegena. The cab drivers followed each other, on occasion, but often took different routes in an apparent effort to get ahead of the other driver. We changed lead several time enroute to the station. The route included cutting through a couple of gas stations, passing cars on the shoulder and into the face of opposing traffic. Very entertaining.

Once we reached the festival area we first bought a beer from the nearest vendor and wandered with a moving mass of people, in the general direction of the action. The main event on Saturday is the parade of flowers but we did not know the route or when it started. We knew that to see the parade one needed to purchase tickets for the bleachers that had been erected along the route. The tickets were expensive and perhaps unnecessary, we thought, so we didn’t get them. As it turned out they were necessary if one wanted to see the parade. We did see a few of the taller floats, but it didn’t really matter. The interesting action took place in the crowded streets.

Everyone and every house in the area of the Carnaval is involved in the action. Whether it be selling food, beer, rum, aguardiente (liquorice liqueur), spray foam, water pistols, flour or souvenirs, to setting up temporary toilets for cash . . . everyone is out in the streets. Spray foam is a big seller. It is then used to spray any thing or anyone within range. Water pistols and thrown flour, accomplishes a similar effect (obviously this is not the place to wear your finest attire).

At one point we attempted to move through a constricted area behind the temporary bleaches. The crowd became tighter and tighter until we were packed together like sardines in a tin. After a few minutes we reversed direction in an attempt to extricate ourselves from the crowd. Luckily there was no panic and within 15 minutes or so we worked our way out of the constricted area. Phew!

We had been warned of the possible dangers of robbery and had taken precautions. We did not take our wallets, purses, cameras or anything else of value. My cash was secured in a zipped cash pocket located inside the top of the front pocket of my shorts (similar to the change pocket common in blue jeans). This worked well. However, Linda had some cash in the front pocket of her shorts when she entered the crowded area. It was not there when she exited the crowd! Luckily it was only a small amount of cash that went missing but the crook also stole her valuable stash of toilet paper! No big deal, we laughed about it and had another beer.

After a few hours of wandering around, watching the festivities and listening to the music we realized that it was time to think about the return trip to Cartegena. This time we caught a local bus that was eventually going to the bus terminal. We stood up for a good part of the way, literally hanging on for dear life. After a while Linda managed to get a seat. I wish I had brought a camera. A picture of Linda, sitting on a public bus, sipping beer, is just not a sight that will ever be duplicated in Canada. We lucked in at the bus depot and immediately caught the Cartegena bus for home. Back in Cartegena, all 5 of us packed into a small taxi for the ride back to the apartment where Karla had prepared supper for the voyageurs.

Sunday

Sunday, we took it easy. After breakfast we cabbed it to the highest location in Cartegena. It is the location of the Convento de Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria. A convent founded by the Augustine Fathers in 1607. Its’ prominence was of strategic importance in earlier times and was used as military headquarters after Colombian independence. It is said that one could see ships from its location when they were still 2 days from shore. Today it is once again a monastery and nicely restored.

From the convent we headed to Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. The strongest and greatest fort ever constructed by the Spaniards. Truly impregnable, it was never taken despite various attempts. The engineering is phenomenal. It is an interesting visit. It, like the old city wall, was probably constructed with extensive slave labour. I have been told that the average life span of the slaves that were brought to Colombia was 6 months after arrival. It seems to me that possibly more people died building it, than died attacking it, but it’s just supposition. Slave labour aside for a moment, it is quite remarkable to see what can be accomplished with what must have been basic tools and manual labour.

Following our visit to the fort we returned to the apartment for lunch and relaxing poolside discussion. It is nap time now for Aysha and some of the older kids too.

Tomorrow we are off on a cruise to one of the nearby islands.