back in Panama and a little seasonal shopping

We are back and the season is in full swing in Panama, there are signs of pending arrival of Christmas everywhere, crowds are increasing, traffic according to our children is worse and we are shopping.  Patt, Raleigh, Jen and I rode the metro to a nearby mall for a little shopping a day or so after we returned from Cartagena. 

our fellow passengers were non-plussed, and as elsewhere we have been people were involved with their phones.  Once when I looked down a row of people all were so involved, all were so involved.

and coming up the escalators from the metro to the mall, wow, what a crowd.  We were not alone.  Our friends and neighbors came along with us too.

Raleigh refers to the seasonal tree (mispronouncing the final letter as an "N" not an "S")  in a most appropriate fashion.  This with the use of lots of "articles" such as 'a' and 'the' we find entertaining.  

 

A match box car is hard to walk past.  Check out next photo.

and we can move on.

Lunch at the food court was at Johnny Rocket — where else— and then Grandmama was a pushover  for the car ride and the choice was for the car closest to Lightning McQueen's.  Who else?  

 Then it was time to metro it back home for nap time for Grandaddy.

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!!

visiting Cartagena

If you are good with flags, know where Cartagena is, or follow Patt on Facebook, you have figured out we are now in Columbia -- specifically atop the largest fort in South America, Castillo de San Felipe de Baragas.  

Cartagena is a beautiful tourist city, primarily for Columbians according to a shop keeper I spoke with then American cruise ship patrons, followed by other South Americans and Europeans.  Cruise ship people are in and out in relative short order. The rest stay a little longer.

The "World Heritage" part has old very narrow city streets like this one where Patt is in front of our hotel with street vendors who while persistent will take no for an answer, they just forget who they ask and ask again and again despite the fact that I am wearing sunglasses and do not want another pair.

The city squares are plentiful and mostly fixed up and quite beautiful. And hot, i.e. 'mucho calor'.

One of our customs when traveling is to take the 'hop-on-hop-off' bus tour of a city we are visiting as one of the first things we do when in a new town.  Being old hands at this upper deck, seats behind the stair way - leg room and view and then if possible seats on both sides so avoidance of the sun and take in views from both sides of the bus.

and the old city wall that encloses the old city — well duh — from the other side of the bus.

and on the tour, wouldn't you know it a great hop off place we did not get off at but made a note to come back to was Castillo de San Felipe (note flag at far left end of fort at the top - yup, same flag).

Cartagena was founded in 1533 by the  Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia, for the purpose of exploiting the tombs of the ancient Indian burial grounds in the region for the gold treasure in them and living off the productive farm lands in the area. It was an extremely prosperous activity and additional gold mining followed. The city became extremely wealthy and a regional port for movement of gold from Ecuador and other regions which made Cartagena attractive to pirates both sponsored by other governments and plain old pirate pirates.

As point of reference, 1533 is 60 years before Sir Walter Raleigh lost the Lost Colony at Roanoke.

Construction started on this fort in 1537 and was of course rebuilt many times the last in 1697, though remained in use through Columbia's war with Spain for independence in 1833.

The city was overrun and pillaged many times by various government armies and navies as well as pirate armies. Sir Francis Drake succeed with an armada of 28 or so warships under his command.  This fort was successful in the defense of the city for several attacks but it was also overrun on occasion.

There are many wide open areas for assembling cannons and networks of tunnels inside the fort.

It is quite the trek up and down the ramps to get to the top of the fort or castillo. 

some of the things we do - we watch and we walk to school

Some days are like this - for a few moments— then, one or both start acting their age (or closer to mine) and a little more attention is required.  Despite our best intentions, one or the other can and will get a little fussy when we are around.  But when they are sweet they are very sweet, sorta like me.

Raleigh occasionally asks me where "the Grandmama" is or wants to "play-a the blocks"  using the article "the" and "a" as one would use "la" and "el" in Spanish in front of nouns. I suppose when speaking Spanish he has some Englishization to it too? I would not know.

When we are here I am usually the one who takes Raleigh the little-over-a-mile walk to his school.  It is a walk though the city (well what did you expect) and through Parque Uraca, along some interesting sidewalks and of course across some busy streets.  (Frederico Boyd Agenda.

I enjoy it and though it is a warm way to start the day and flat out hot when time for the mid-day pick up it is something I look forward too.

This little throwback store is next to a Waldorf Astoria Hotel.  Like I said it is an interesting and eclectic collection of streets- this particular one being Calle 5B just after Calle Uraguay.  google it.

we have been greeted and welcomed

We got here and were well greeted to the extent that half of the greeting party was completely worn out  by the effort and spent the 20minute ride back into town resting up for the remainder of our visit

i

 Clinton was preparing to surprise us, he has gotten so big.  Six months already!  Should be reading soon I expect and beginning to do higher math or at least continue to smile at us in the most delightful fashion.

Raleigh is now the fourth of our grandchildren to wear this outfit.  It has stood up to some tough wear and has been one of the favorites of Luke and Isaac as I recall.   I realize there is a bit of a color problem, but I do have a wife, daughter and son with degrees from UNC, so he gets the suit. 

and returning from a late afternoon walk on the Cinta Costera

Patt and I had early visitors one morning as Jen and Stephen tried to squeeze a few more minutes out of the AM - not that we minded.

Checking each other out.

and not so sure about older brother.
gotta love Clinton's expression
 

Helping the Grandmama make some brownies.

the concern is that at any moment he may have to cease the assistance.

and a little brownie mix got spread out a bit.

Clinton enjoying his mom

and checking out grandaddy.

and a little nap

Raleigh with Deuce

and that is a large dog

after his mile ride home from "school" he is the one tired.