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Red Hot Cartagena

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

Day 105

Cartagena is hot, damn hot. Truthfully the nights do have a beautifully cooling breeze off the caribbean. The thing is once the sunrises it takes about 2 hours for the heat and humidity to become oppressive. Waking up in the morning I couldn’t wait to get in the cold shower, then walk into the bedroom and stand in front of the standalone fan and under the ceiling fan. Ahhh coolness, I like to call it backpacker a/c. The same routine is repeated at night for a somewhat comfortable sleep.

Cartagena is one of those incredibly beautiful cities where the main attraction is simply being. Walking from shady square to shady square, taking a stroll atop the city walls then when the heat becomes to much hiding out in an air conditioned cafe with an ice coffee. This is pretty much what we did in Cartagena.

Our day started out entering the Plaza de Los Coches, a former slave-trading square. Today the slaves have been replaced with tourists and its filled with horse carriages for tours. Just off the square, we found a fabulous cafe where we had fresh fruit shakes and a spinach empanada-like pastry. The cafe was run by a very friendly older lady and the selection of fruit shakes had to be seen to be believed. The list was massive and the fruit so exotic some fruits don’t even have English translations. It was a perfect way to start the day. From breakfast we walked back through the plaza and under the Portal de Los Dulces. Sweet vendors line up their stalls selling all kinds of sweets, if you know Jordana then you will understand how tough it was for me to steer her clear. We continued walking a circle around the old city, following the city walls and tucking in and out of the narrow cobbled streets. The most impressive thing about the old city is the lack of ugly modern buildings. There are a few monstrosities built in the 70’s and 80’s, but not enough to kill the beautiful, romantic feel of the city.

Night is maybe the most beautiful and enjoyable time in Cartagena. A cool breeze clears out the humidity, the churches, walls and buildings are magnificently lit up. We found yet another chinese place for dinner. For us vegetarians we just couldn’t beat the tasty fried rice for $6. We easily split one order, actually it was a challenge to finish. After dinner we headed to a cuban salsa bar that set up a huge patio next to the walls of the city. To our left was a beautiful square with a large, brightly lit church standing tall behind. People danced non-stop to the salsa inside. Outside Jordana and I drank $1 Aguila beers and admired the night time atmosphere. Street performers would stop by with their hilarious antics. One guy in particular had a fantastic routine of following people while imitating their every move. Then he would throw down a real looking puppy dog. When people stepped on it he’d make a yellping noise. As we sat there listening to the blaring salsa, watching the street performers and admiring the lit up city, I turned to Jordana and said, “look around, this could be one of those tourism commercials where it just looks to good to be true. It all looks so perfect.” Cartagena often looked that way.

Posted in Colombia | 2 Comments »

Polished and Popular

Friday, January 18th, 2008

Day 74

We transited through Managua for a night on our way south to Granada. It was immediately apparent Granada was going to be different than the rest of Nicaragua. Over the last few years it has become a very popular place for retiring expats to live, mostly American. Also the city is the centre of Nicaragua’s tourism industry. Similar architecture to Leon except here most of the city has been restored and has a polished look. As Leon has always been the centre of leftist Nicaragua, Granada has always been the centre of conservative Nicaragua. It was quite evident that meant more money was spent restoring Granada’s buildings, but Leon was richer culturally. Let me put it the way I saw things. Leon was the cool alternative kid in high school from the working class family. The type who isn’t pretty but has smarts and enjoys life to its fullest. Where Granada was the cheerleader type who gets older than elects for plastic surgery to keep looking good. They aren’t the smartest but they look sexy and everyone loves to party with them.

We found out quickly that Granada has more tourists than elsewhere in the country as soon as we arrived. We disembarked the bus in the beautiful main square of Granada. It was only 10:30 in the morning yet the sun was blasting down and the temperature easily into the thirties. It was hard not to be impressed, the large square was surrounded with grand colonial buildings coated with gleaming bright paint. On the south side was the equally brightly painted cathedral. The square itself was filled with trees, benches and small cafes which served tasty icy juices and a sort of chocolate drink. We walked out of the square to the south end and down a beautiful street lined with wide cobbled sidewalks, bars and restaurants. It was touristy yes but no doubt it was gorgeous. This is when we discovered how much more popular Granada was than elsewhere. We started to search for a room and everything was full. After a brief argument, the heat wasn’t helping, I left Jordana in an American run sports bar and I set out to search for a room.

After about 40 minutes I was back at the bar and we were back at the first guesthouse we checked out. It wasn’t the best place by far, but it was clean. The room was small and hot, only a small window. The heat wasn’t helped by the fact the washroom was only separated by a wall that went half way to the ceiling. Hence every time we showered the room was humid and sticky. It pretty much felt like a greenhouse.

The rest of the day we simply walked around the city admiring the beautiful buildings and spent lots of time watching life go by in the town square. Those chocolate drinks with ice and milk in the square kept calling us back for more, so we returned for more. We finished the night with beers on a patio, enjoying the warm night air. Also enjoying this rare occasion, most cities in Central America are too dangerous to be out at night let alone on a patio. Nicaragua was proving to be the safest country we had visited since Mexico. So far a very nice change from the usual night locked up in our room or door to door taxis at night. The more we saw of Nicaragua the more we enjoyed it. Yes Granada was touristy but it seemed to wear it popularity well and still felt like a real Nicaraguan city. Although not as much in the centre, but a short walk away and there was no mistaking where you were. The local flavour was still very evident here.

Posted in Nicaragua | 1 Comment »