Cartagena

So, I read about Medellín before we came, but pretty much all I knew about Cartagena was from the 80s movie “Romancing the Stone” (which I just googled and found out it wasn’t even filmed in Cartagena). And while I’m confessing, I’d never really registered the fact that Colombia has both Pacific and Atlantic coasts because Panama kind of splits Colombia’s coast in half. Cartagena sits on the Atlantic side, along the Caribbean Sea. I didn’t imagine we’d get to go there, but Dan was already there working last week, and the kids and I got tickets on a local discount airline (Want to take your big tube of sunscreen in your carry-on? Sure, go ahead! Forgot to throw away your bottle of water? Just take it with you! No, really!) to meet him there for the weekend.

We dropped our bags off at the hotel (that’s a pretty grand word for where we stayed) in the old city and made our way through town just in time to sit on the 400-year-old wall and watch the sun set over the ocean.

People gather along the wall every evening to watch the sunset.

The Spanish started building Cartagena in the 1500s, including a protective wall they decided they needed after a nasty pirate attack by Sir Francis Drake. The building material that was most readily available? Coral.

It’s an unfathomable amount of coral they somehow took from the ocean and fashioned into walls (along with stone and bricks), sidewalks, entrances to cathedrals and other buildings, and a fort on a hill above the city. The Spanish decided to establish a town here after they saw all the gold the indigenous people had (and stole it). They brought slaves from Africa to clear the land and build the town, and Cartagena became a major port city, with gold and silver going out and slaves coming in. (Very sketchy knowledge I have about all this, folks! Just enough to be haunted by the massive amount of suffering that people endured here for centuries.)

No filter!

For some reason the islands that are right off the coast are gorgeous like other Caribbean islands, but Cartagena’s beach has brown sand churned up in the water. But Cartagena is so hot and humid I felt like my skin was melting off from about 8:00 a.m. till the sun went down. And boat trips to the islands for five people are mucho dinero. So we rented a canvas shelter and some old plastic chairs and played in the waves for a couple of hours.

Mango, anyone? 

The fort (Castillo de San Felipe). MADE OF CORAL! Again, unfathomable. When they finished the fort in the 1700s, in addition to the wall that surrounds the old city, the Spanish were able to hold off 186 British warships.

Tunnels snake all over under the fort. Grace's favorite part.

Another ridiculously beautiful walk through the city looking for dinner . . .

Plaza de Santo Domingo

Breakfast on the roof of our  hotel.

We walked around and ended up at a museum about the Inquisition. The Inquisition was carried out in Cartagena for two centuries, from the early 1600s till Colombia won its independence from Spain. Below is the window where people could accuse their neighbors of being heretics. Upon accusation, people were imprisoned and tortured to confess their alleged heresy (such as witchcraft or blasphemy). With or without a confession (if I understood it right--it was all in Spanish, hee hee) people could be sentenced to a public execution. (Some vacation blog post, eh?)

I didn’t take pictures of the few original tools of torture that were on display, but I will never get them out of my head. I took pictures of the beautiful buildings instead.

We were extra interested in the exhibits in the air conditioned rooms!

Wandering around . . .

Plaza de Santo Domingo

Church of Santo Domingo (That's coral, not stone.)

Church of Santo Domingo - snuck a peek just before a wedding!

They probably mean the word "father" here, but it's so much more awesome if you assume they mean the Swedish rock group like we did. :oD

Anyone remember the movie “The Mission” with Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons? (One of Dan’s favorite movies ever.) Unlike “Romancing the Stone,” which was set in Cartagena but was filmed somewhere else, this 80s movie was set in another part of South America but was partly filmed in Cartagena! We were trying to find the entrance to the Church of Santo Domingo but found ourselves in the adjacent building accidentally. The guard told us we could go in and look around the beautiful courtyard, and while we were doing that, we overheard a man talking about how several scenes from “The Mission” were filmed there!

Where the Cardinal hears testimony and listens to an indigenous boy sing.

Where DeNiro's character has to apologize to the Spanish official.

They also filmed in this square where, in real life, countless slaves were sold. 

Outside the walls.

Kids playing soccer under the broiling sun.

Iglesia San Pedro Claver

Gelato!

The kids leading the way through Cartagena at night like it's no big deal.

Catedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandria - photo by Dan

Wish all airport gates were like this!

Walking half a mile to our plane. (Felt like.)

Goodbye, Cartagena!

I thought this was going to be another straightforward post about a weekend trip to a beautiful town. But Cartagena's history is suffering on top of suffering on top of suffering. AND beauty on top of beauty. It’s a complex place, for sure. I’m so incredibly grateful we got to experience it.