Cartagena, Colombia

Next stop…
Cartagena, Colombia

We ended up in Cartagena for two main reasons: (1) It´s a convenient place to stop and provision before the San Blas Islands in Panama, (2) Fatty Goodlander (travel writer and sea gypsy extraordinaire) told Doug it was his favourite city in the world. The first being a relatively mute point in determining our affinity towards the city, all we could do was hope that Fatty had some idea what he was talking about.

On our first forays through the city, we were continually impressed. The city was vibrant and beautiful; Technicolor colonial streets with horse drawn carriages meander a short distance from modern high-rises striving for South Beach status. The people were friendly and respectful. There were grand, modern art depictions of Christmas decorations in the city centers and more Colombian tourists than foreigners (except on Cruise ship days). Neatly pressed cops protected every corner but, unlike the AK-47 toting 14 year-olds you find in the rest Latin America, very few of them even carried guns. The parks were alive in the evenings with families enjoying the cooler temperatures. It was nothing like the country that US news sources call ¨Colombia.¨ It turns out that the sea gypsy who´s in the middle of his 2nd circumnavigation may have learned a thing or two along the way.

Cartagena was founded in the1500s by the Spanish to be the capital of ¨The Spanish Lake¨ (aka the Caribbean). Because of its protected location, it was never captured and burned like many other Spanish cities of the time. Cartagena today is lively mix of old and new where economic growth nestles up against historic tradition, and modern ideals mold to colonial systems. Bearing witness to the fact that Colombia´s the fastest growing economy in South America, Cartagena is full of signs of ¨successful¨ economic development; land rovers and large scale development projects dot the city. However, as is often the case in Latin America, development has not come equally. The paint-by-number social caste system, a hangover from colonial days, seems to greatly influence ones ability to successfully develop in this city. Porches rule some streets while a couple blocks away, Technicolor school busses still dominate. Nice, new trash trucks adorned with giant sea horses and run-down old horses both haul garbage through the city streets. Corrugated tin shacks housing entire families struggle to maintain their integrity next to sparkling over-sized grocery stores with more security than an international airport. While on the surface the city seems to exist peacefully with itself, on second glance, there are glaring social crevasses precariously held in place.

The anchorage at Cartagena is urban cruising at its best. Navy ships on one side, a container ship loading dock on the other and high-rises lining the horizon and only a 15 minute walk to the historic center of the city. Besides the fact that if you fell overboard you might come up glowing green and infested with a multitude of mutant parasites, it´s a pretty ¨idyllic¨ urban anchorage.

We´ve been here two weeks now and, while we still really like Cartegena, the glasses aren´t quite as rose colored. The city is beautiful but if we were to really stay any longer we´d need to get jobs. We´re ready to move on. Ready to head to more desolate islands with quiet anchorages and clean water for swimming. Ready to leave the traffic behind for a slower pace of life. Ready to leave civilization behind for a while. Luckily we´re about to do just that.