My Equator Adventure: Cartagena- City of Walls

Jan 31-Feb 8, 2016

Cartagena. Full of history, walls, and gift shops. And my final stop before leaving Colombia.

PS. before leaving Medellin I finally got to visit this church

I had been watching it with longing each time I rode the Metro as it passed above the rooftops.

I arrived on a night bus from Medellin, and took about the slowest city bus ever in towards the old town. I figure it's a person's job to flag a bus. This driver took it upon himself to drive slow and honk at everyone to ask if they possibly could be looking for his bus. But eventually I made it, and caught a much cheaper taxi to my hostel than it would have been from the terminal.

The next week involved exploring the walled city and trying not to sweat myself to death. It was upper 80s every day, though being right on the water there was a good wind most of the time which helped. It actually got downright pleasant around 7:00 every night.

See? Right on the water. That's the Caribbean!

The old town is wonderful. Lots of two story buildings with balconies and trellises. A mix of whitewash and color, with some of the prettiest domed churches so far. It would be perfect if not for the fact that it is an outrageous tourist trap.

I went to the Naval museum, which wasn't the greatest, but had some interesting info about Cartagena's founding and models of different battles fought while the British and Spaniards were trying to capture it.

Cannons in the courtyard

Anchor selfie

Some wonderful architecture was sprinkled around.

Torre del Reloj, or Clock Tower was the photogenic entrance to the walled part of town. There were gaps in the walls in other places, but they weren't so pretty.

Iglesia de San Pedro Claver

Iglesia de Santo Toribio. It had a cannon ball go through the window during an attack, luckily no one was hurt. I think the cannon ball is still on display inside, but it wasn't open when I walked by.

I took time to walk along the wall, which rings the city. Built of sand, coral blocks, and something I didn't know the Spanish word for, but probably sticks it all together, the wall is 15 feet high and about 20 feet thick in places. The watch places at the corners are my favorite.

There's also some cannons still kicking around.

The Caribbean Ocean laps nearly against the main drag around the edge, I liked this monument to pelicans.

There's this cool Pegasus statue along one of the bays.

PS. Cartagena looks awesome at night.

And I got great sunsets every night.

Torre de Reloj at night. You can't see the awesome guitar player just inside.

Another in the running for favorite picture from the trip

And now you get a couple more random photos that dont really fit in anywhere.

In one of the churches, I found this delightful statue. So far as I can tell it's just an angel holding a fish.