more from Cartagena

We have enjoyed walking and exploring in Cartagena. It has been fun and entertaining. A great side trip from Panama.

As mentioned previously, the streets are narrow, some are very pretty and well decorated with flowers and well restored.  Of course during the day hot in the sun and hot in the shade without a breeze.

nightime is very different, this is near our hotel and one of the quiet streets.

one of many public squares

Cathedral de San Pedro Claver — built in the 1800's to honor a priest from the late 1500s to early 1600's who ministered to African slaves. San Pedro was persecuted by the Spanish while alive but was later canonized by the church in 1888. According to one of the people we talked with over one million slaves were brought into Cartagena to build walls and fortresses, mine gold and do the farm work. The slaves were treated very harshly.

The main sanctuary was being prepared for a wedding while we were there. In the red box under the altar is the skeleton of the sainted San Pedro, the actual bones themselves.  

Ahh - the street food 

We have enjoyed eating here. Dining has been wonderful. The seafood awesome, the beef and wine outstanding and the street food great.  Should have done some restaurant reviews.  This food cart would have been a good one to have reviewed as the deep fried potato balls with meat were good and the egg, beef, cheese corn fritter was worth the sweat.

I should add the fine dining — and there are plenty of offerings — is affordable and the South American wines delicious. As mentioned above — should have done several reviews of dining places!  Oh, the local beer Club Columbia is the one to buy. And we are bringing home coffee. Juan Valdez of course.

We did a lot of walking and enjoyed the many picturesque streets.

and stayed on the shady side of the public squares, as these people are doing.

sometimes the streets were crowded and a little more difficult to navigate

This was also true for our horse drawn carriage as our driver tried to get us close to our hotel. He had successfully kept us moving for the allotted time through more vacant streets and around the edge of the city just inside the fortress walls for most of the ride. Highly recommended. Some rides come with songstress' or guides, we chose neither.

however we did choose after drinks and a little music on top of the city walls 

Walking the old fort walls at sunset was fun and pretty too. If we read the signs correctly these walls around the city were built some time after the big fortress in the early 1600's when Jamestown and Plymouth were cutting down trees. (gosh it pays to find the gold early).  Of course I reckon the subsequent exhaustion of the resource and period decay illustrates the down side of dependance on an extraction based economy.

and Friday it is back to Panama and the grandchildren!!