Cartagena de Indias, the pearl of Caribbean

Cartagena de Indias, one of the most beautiful cities in the World! Designated a World UNESCO Heritage Site in 1984. It has the most extensive fortress in Latin America, that was built in order to protect the city from the constant pirate attacks and attempts to conquer the city by British, Americans or French.

Part of the fortress seen from the shore.
In the evening, at around 6 p.m.
people watch the sunset from the wall.

The history of this city is very rich, but also full of sorrow. It has suffered a lot during the centuries and also has been one of the greatest cities of Latin America. It was one of the most important ports in the New World, where the metals and slaves were traded. Most of the buildings have been built by slaves, e.g. the fortress wall.  Along with Veracruz in Mexico, it was designated the only port to trade the African slaves in Latin America. In the beginning of XVII century the Spanish Crown has established an Inquisition Court, which currently serves as a historical museum of the city and inquisition. Many people have been killed for the heresy and for magical practices. Many sophisticated machines have been invented to torture the suspects that can be viewed in the museum. The suspects also were burnt at the stake or hanged on public gallows.

View on the Naval Museum
and San Pedro Claver church in the background

The history of Cartagena begun early, as archeologists estimate it - 4000 A.c..

The tribes from the Carib family language habited the region around the year 1500, which they called Kalamary. About all this you can learn in the Naval History of Cartagena, a good source of information about the region, but if you don’t understand Spanish you rather read the history on your own. Everything is written in Spanish, unfortunately.

The Cathedral 

An important mark on the city left Francis Drake, when he conquered Cartagena in 1586. He has appropriated an amount of 107.000 Spanish eight reales, which currently is an equivalent of 200.000 US dollars and destroyed a quarter of the city, along with a part of recently built cathedral. The very same cathedral can be viewed today, but the access is not free. It is after this attack, the Spanish crown decided to build a fortress to protect the city.

Nineteenth century has been tough as well. The independence has been signed on the 11^th of November 1811.  Cartagena at that time has become the capital of the newly founded country called New Granada. Thirty years later an epidemic of Cholera broke, reducing the population number, one third of the people died. The city has been nearly destroyed, and on top of that it was stroke by famine. It resembled a ghost town during this period. 

The contemporary Cartagena shines in its beauty, the restored to splendor Walled City (La Ciudad Amurallada) amazes the visitors. The vibrant colours of the buildings, architecture, friendly locals, the Afro-Caribbean culture at its best.

Modern Bocagrande in the background

One of the lovely streets in Cartagena

The most popular music genres are cumbia and vallenato, the instruments that are popular are accordion, drums and guiro (looks like a big grater). We have participated in a Colombian private street party. After winning the match with Bolivia a group of friends have been celebrating for three days, drinking and dancing outside their house. When walking on the beach in Bocagrande (part of Cartagena, where all the skyscrapers are), we saw musicians playing music for particular people who were chilling on the beach, who were then dancing and singing along with the musicians. Colombians know how to have fun. 

It is a city that you should put on a “list of the places to see before you die”!

Cali - the capital of... Salsa!

Cali is located on the south of Colombia in a region called Valle del Cauca. It has a population of around 2,5 million people and it is the third largest city in Colombia. It is not so touristic as other parts of Colombia.

The city itself, I would say, is quite dull as it doesn’t have an important historical centre, neither museums, neither infrastructure.

First thing that impressed me is the immense green colour. It seems that any plant can grow, and spread around.  It is one of the greenest cities I have ever seen in my life.

Salseando

Although the city is quite boring, it does not have many touristic attractions, it does have one of the best things in the World: SALSA. It is the salsa capital of Colombia and the World Capital of Salsa. Dancers from Cali became World Champions in four consecutive years, moreover salsa is the main genre in here. If you walk around the streets, you will notice it instantly, it is being played everywhere.

The Salsa night club logo

I didn’t know what to expert, before going to the club. First of all it is a Sunday, that meant that all the good salsa clubs are closed, but one. Luckily it was just near to our hostel. We went to a club called simply “Salsa” on the Avenida Roosevelt 24-67 (entrance fee COP 5000 - £1,80), which apparently is the best club on Sundays.  It was a spiritual and emotional journey within myself. Dancing salsa relieves from stress, brings more vital energy. It doesn't discriminate: fat, young, old, skinny, ugly, beautiful, gay, mother, father, single, married, divorced, white, asian, black...salsa unifies people. 

I was seduced tonight and I think I am not going to get out of this so quickly, just as  it happened to my room mates in the hostel. One girl came to cali just for one day, but stayed for six weeks. Same thing happened to my other room mates, initially they were meant to be here for two weeks, currently they are in their 9th week and have two weeks more.

there is something magic in the rhytm. The dance hypnotises...I was so moved by it, that I shed a tear (or four!)

Here is a list of the best salsa clubs in town: 

#  Tin Tin Deo – very popular, old school bar.

#  La Fuente – small, inexpensive bar, popular on the weekends.

#  Zaperoco – live salsa bands on Thursdays.

#  Chango (external link)

#  Discoteca Extasis (external link)

#  Blues Brothers (external link) - live salsa bands on Thursdays.

#  Salsa Night Club, which I have already mentioned above.

Guest of The Salsa night club

Sunday is a typical  family day in Cali, they enjoy their time off by the Pance river, cook their sancocho de gallina (old hen soup) and swim in the river. It might be a good option for the afternoon. In the evening you already know where to go: Salsa on Roosevelt Avenue!

Enjoy your time in Cali!

Tips:

·     If you want to sit by the table, then you need to drink a bottle of rum. It is prepared on every single table.

·      Dress smart and sexy, Colombians are really hot.

·      Be prepared for willing to stay in Cali for longer than you thought.

Tayrona National Parque on the Caribbean coast of Colombia

Cabo San Juan

Tayrona National Park is a vast area of jungle, very near to Santa Marta and even nearer from Taganga. It does say in the guides that it takes half an hour to get there from Santa Marta…well, it does if you only include the ride! We got on a bus from the corner of the Calle 11 and Carrera 11, which is in the middle of the Market (Mercado).The bus costs COP 5,000 (£ 1,80) and instead of half an hour, it took us to get there one hour and a half, as we had to wait until the bus fills up. It is very common in Colombia, that musicians get on the bus and sing along the journey and play instruments. It is quite entertaining.

Bus from la calle 11 and carrera 11

After arriving at the entrance of Tayrona, one needs to obtain an entry ticket of a current value COP 37,500 (£ 13,50), unless you are a student of an under 25, then you only pay COP 7,000 (£ 2,50). After obtaining the ticket, we were searched by the police officer:

           “-     Any drugs? No, sir.

-       Any alcohol? No, sir.

-       Any plastic bags? Yes, sir.

-       They are not allowed.” 

So he took them away from us.

   

It is not advisable to bring any alcohol with you, neither plastic bags, as they will be confiscated. What IS recommended to bring though, is the food…biscuits, granola, cereals, fruit, tins of tuna, ham, bread, etc.

Arrecifes

From the entrance to the first camping site is Cañaveral, accessible by walk (45minutes) or by buseta (COP 2,000), which will take you there in five minutes. The downside of a bus was that we had to wait again until the bus fills up, and it took good 40 minutes.  We didn’t want to waste our energy, as the long walk was before us.

From Cañaveral we walked one hour and a half to the next camping site – Arrecifes. One can stay overnight there and rent a hut, tent or a hammock. The beach in Arrecifes is long and beautiful, but it is not possible to swim there, as it is very dangerous. The sea was ruff and the waves high and strong. We headed further to our destination - Cabo San Juan.

Another one hour walk and we arrived at La Piscinita, which is mostly a place to swim and chill out on the beach. It is a short beach in a form of a natural bay protected by a reef, so the high waves break earlier and don’t arrive to the shore. 

La Piscinita

It is one of the places where it is safe to swim, for this reason they called it “Little swimming pool” (La Piscinita).

It took us another half an hour to get to the Cabo San Juan.

We arrived there at 2 p.m., right in the time for check in. There was a big queue, so we had to wait a while. In the meantime on the TV they announced new Pope Francisco I, first Latin American pope ever. Glory Latin America!

Our hammocks

The accommodation they offer is (per person, per night):

Hut for COP 100,000 (£ 35), 

Tent for COP 50,000 (£ 18), 

upper hammock (very windy at night, not recommended) COP 25,000 (£ 9) and a lower hammock for COP 20,000 (£ 7,20).

There is a restaurant serving surprisingly good food (rice with prawns £6, fish fillet £9 or spaghetti tomato sauce £3,70). Not bad as for such an exclusive place, but we did bring our own food, so we only ate dinners there, breakfast and lunch we were supplying ourselves.

It is a beautiful, unique place in the World we got to, but the weather wasn’t great, so we headed back the next day to Santa Marta.

A vision of walking back 3 hours wasn’t appealing to us, therefore we rented horses (COP 30,000 p/p), which turned out to be mules.

The ride was quite pleasant, excluding the mosquitos biting my ankles. The ride back is only one hour through a different route, but its pretty muddy, not recommendable to walk. It is better to use the common route.  

Tayrona is not only an important place in the region for its nature – flora and fauna. It is a place of a cultural heritage, where the tribe Tayrona habited. The current descendants are Koguis, you can meet them in the park.

Tips:

·      Bring a GOOD repellent. Don’t save on it.

      ·      Bring some food with you, flip flops and trekking shoes.

·      Leave early, as we travelled from the hostel to Cabo San Juan 5 hours in total.

·      Check the weather earlier. Windguru.cz is the best website.

·      If you sleep in a hammock, bring a blanket to cover yourself at night.

·      Getting there by boat saves you the entrance fee, which is a good option of hiring a boat from Taganga or Santa Marta, if you are a group of four.

·      Bring books, cards to get yourself entertained.

·      Don’t enter with alcohol, unless you’re going by boat. It will be confiscated by the police.

                                               

Santa Marta and Taganga

The first church in Latin America

Santa Marta is a town located on the east coast of Colombia, in the Magdalena department. It has been founded in 1525 by a Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Batistas. The first catholic church of Latin America has been built right here in 1526. Santa Marta is also the oldest city of Colombia and second oldest of Latin America.

Portrait of Simon Bolivar 

The cathedral is built in a colonial style, placed in the historical centre. In here the great man of Latin America rested for eight years, after being transferred to his birthplace – Caracas. It is Simon Bolivar, the Libertador, who fought successfully the independence of Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia from the Spanish Crown. He took part in founding new independent nation of Gran Colombia, at that time covering the area of Panamá, Colombia, Ecuador, north of Perú and north-west of Brasil  of which he became a president on 7^th of September 1821.  He helped democratizing most of Latin America. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela and died in la Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino in Santa Marta.

Monument in honour of Simon Bolivar
in La Quinta de SAn Pedro Alejandrino

Iguana chilling on a tree

La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino is open to the public and the house where Simon Bolivar passed away is available for viewing. I felt honoured visiting  the house. If you’re not familiar with the history of independence it’s a good place to start your learning, as the history is explained, supported by paintings, it also displays some belongings of Bolivar. In the park there’s also a museum of art and an old sugar cane mill. Surrounded by various species of plants, flowers and trees, we have also spotted a few iguanas, chilling on the trees.

Taganga beach

The beaches of Santa Marta are not very nice, polluted as there are plants and port in the bay. The Rodadero has a long strip of the beach, which is slightly better, but not for my gusto.  Located 15 minutes from Santa Marta is easily accessible small fishing village called Taganga. You can get there by catching one of the minibuses on the crossroads of Calle 11 and Carrera 5. The bus cost COP 1200 one way per person and if there’s traffic it will take you there in 25 minutes maximum, when no traffic it’s 15 minutes only. The place is beautiful. It’s a cove, with quite a narrow strip of beach, but the views are beautiful. It is located by the highest coastal mountain range in the World, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.  We chilled out there until the sunset, which is spectacular, as provided in photos.

Taganga's magic sunset

 I’m nicely surprised by the way Colombians are. They don’t try to trick you, overcharge as usually people do in other countries, name it Thailand or Brasil. They’re very polite and give you tips on how to get to places by bus etc. The street vendors have never charged us extra for what they sell. It’s quite unusual for such a touristic places, God Bless Colombia!

Zipaquirá - The Salt Cathedral

Not far away from Bogotá lays a little town called Zipaquirá. The town is a seating of a salt mine, that has been converted into a cathedral. The salt is still being extracted from the mine, but it is also functioning as a cathedral where you come to pray or perhaps if you feel like - get married. The altar is located at 180 metres below the ground, reachable after a 2 km walk down the mine.

Zipaquirá cathedral in the centre

Old square of Zipa

Along the walk, as in any other church, there’s the Way of the Cross. You won’t see the traditional paintings of Jesus, but an artistic interpretation of it.

Entrance of the Salt Cathedral and the mine

The guided tour is available in English or Spanish language, departing every 15 minutes. The guided tour lasted one hour.

The mine has been opened to the public in 1995. Proclaimed as a miracle of Colombia, with a cultural and historical heritage. There’s only one place in the World, where you can see a cathedral made of salt – nearby Krakow in Poland, called Wieliczka.

The altar

The entrance costs COP 20.000, with the guide, show of the sounds and lights and a short movie included. You can also enjoy the tour around the salt mine itself and extract the salt, for a slightly higher price.

To get to Zipaquirá is really easy, as the infrastructure  in Colombia is well developed. We got on a Transmilenio to Portal Norte. As an indication of where you need to get off would be a huge yellow sign saying “´Exito”, which is a chain of supermarkets here. We crossed the platform and got on a minivan with “Zipa” written on it, which is a shortcut of Zipaquirá and an ancient name of it. It took us 1 hour to get there, but the way back was only 30 minutes. Ask the driver where is your stop. Where we got off was at the crossroads of the main streets, and it is where you get a bus to the way back. It is a short walk of around 12-15 blocks, I don’t think it’s necessary to get a taxi, as the guides and other blogs recommend. The bus cost COP 4.100 per person.  This excursion is worth your time, of which you will  need to devote  half a day. Enjoy!

The Candelaria, Bogotá

The historical centre of Bogotá is called Candelaria, if you come by TransMilenio

Then get off at the Las Aguas stop. This zone is a seat of the most important museums, like The Museum of Gold, of Independence, The Coin Museum, The Botero Museum, and Military Museum. In the Simon Bolivar’s Square there are located buildings of the highest importance in the state. One of them being the Presidential Palace,  that is guarded by La Guardia Presidencial, special police force to secure the building. The access is controlled and everyone is obliged to show the contents of their bags or rucksacks. It was quite an intimidating experience as the guards carried long rifles and grenades.

Patrolled street of the Presidential Palace

Palace of Justice

Primary Cathedral view

In the Bolivar Square there are other buildings, such as the National Capitol -Colombian Congress, Liévano building – Mayor’s seat, The Primary Cathedral of Bogotá, Palace of Justice, Museum of the Independence. Within the zone there is also the Mexican – Colombian Cultural Centre located, that offers expositions of the modern Latin American art and temporary expositions, during our visit there was a Contemporary Cuban Paintings exposition.

We were not able to enter the Gold Museum, as it is closed on Mondays (!) and we arrived too late to see the Museum of Independencia.

Botero Museum opening hours

Out of the museums we have visited the Botero is the top one! The genius of this Colombian artist can be appreciated, as the museum holds plenty of his paintings and sculptures. To me, Botero is a genius. The way he sees the World is unique, like Picasso. His characters are hilariously portrayed and obese. The ugliness of the faces converts into a genius and a grotesque.  Maybe he is foreseeing the future?

One of Botero's paintings "La Playa"

The Candelaria concentrates a good number of little restaurants, which serve typical Colombian food or sweets. We were tempted by a Cocolada, a kind of biscuit, which consists of a roughly grated coconut flesh mixed with passion fruit and sugar. Worth mentioning is the cafeteria “Juan Valdez”, which is similar to Starbucks, but national, supports local producers and serves only Colombian coffee. We have also tried empanadas with cheese, which are served with different sauces: guacamole, tartare, spicy pepper, lemon, pink sauce (ketchup & mayo) and a kind of spicy vinaigrette. Delicious!

Coconut-passionfruit treat

Bogotá - first impressions and Monserrate

We arrived at 10.30 a.m. in El Dorado airport in Bogotá, starting point of our two month trip through South America.

El Dorado is very modern and the infrastructure seems similar to the European or American at the first sight. Nice country to live in, one would think...but not everyone is fortunate in this country.  My view has changed when we arrived in the centre and was exposed to view the effects of bloodthirsty capitalism in operation. 

The taxi took us in 30 minutes into the centre, Chapinero area, and it costed 19.000 COP (£7 GBP).  We used the yellow taxi , outside the airport exit.

Worth mentioning is the taxi charging system, as it is quite unique. The taxi meter charges according to units. On the display you will see a number. The table (pic below) located in front of you indicates how much you need to pay. The drivers won't have a chance to take advantage of you, unless they drive you around. On the bottom of the table all the additional charges (holidays, Sundays etc.) are explained.  

Taxis charge according to units in Bogotá

During the ride the price of petrol has drawn our attention, at a price of £0.90 per litre.  The driver explained to us that there are two systems in place – one of the “oligarchs” and one of the “pueblo” (people). The “multis” and international investors are the owners of the extraction plants and manage the prices according to their will. The driver said the fuel in Colombia is the most expensive in the World, as an extracting country one would expect the prices to be lower… but the facts are different, as Norway is on the top of the list of the most expensive fuel.

Entrance and ticket office

After arriving and having a little chat with our local host, we all headed to Santuario de Monserrate, perfect place to start off the city tour. Pretty lucky, we got tickets to arrive on the hill by Teleferico (cable car) and get down by Funicular (cliff railway). One way ticket up or down costs 4.500 pesos (£1,70). Bogotá is situated in the centre of the country, along the Eastern Andes range, at a height of 2600 metres. As the advertisement proclaims, being in Bogotá makes you being 2600 metres closer to the stars. However, the Santuario sits calmly on the height of 3128 metres. One does feel the lack of oxygen up there…

View from the top of the mountain

The Church devoted to the Fallen Lord on the top

One of many food vendors offering plantain crisps

  To get to Monserrate, we got the Transmilenio bus (£0,65 one way) to the city centre, got off at the Las Aguas and walked up to the station. Lots of culinary temptations are waiting on your way like fried plantains, grilled corn on the cob, sweets, variety of fruits typical in Colombia, obleas and other… I’ll prepare separate page about the Colombian food, stay tuned.