El viaje

Where to start? It is not easy.

There is so much history and so many , truly wild , stories in and about this place that i am having a hard time to pick the right one.

In my opinion the pre Colombian times here are less interesting than Cartagena’s past role as a link in the route to the West Indies.

The city actually is called Cartagena de Indias because of it.

It had important historical value for world exploration and preservation of heritage from the great commercial maritime routes.

As a former Spanish colony, it was a key port for the export of Peruvian silver to Spain and for the import of enslaved Africans under the asiento system. It was also a defense port against pirate attacks in the Caribbean. The city’s strategic location between the Magadalena and Sinu Rivers also gave it easy access to the interior of New Granada and made it a main port for trade between Spain and its overseas empire, establishing its importance by the early 1540s.

I should also ,at least mention : Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios, not because there is necessary important ties to Cartagena but the dude was the first president of Colombia, Cartagena is in the county Bolívar and you can since see a statue of him around every second corner.

Maybe just briefly: Born in Caracas, he was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia to independence from the Spanish Empire. Bolívar is regarded as a national and cultural icon throughout Latin America and is also known as “ El Liberator”.

So back to the current state of affairs, we got a little airbnb right in the Centro Historico. While Lu went jogging ,i did some research and tried to blog it on the balcony.

Realizing that i was not yet awake enough to write in a comprehensive, let alone interesting, way i went to buy coffee instead.

I also found habaneros and started making 2 different hotsauces. One carrot based , one pina based. The hotsauces in Colombia suck serious butt.

Better , i was ready to write. After i finished the dangerous river post i visited Lu in a nearby cafe where she was doing emails and went for a walk. You can not say Cartagena isn’t beautiful .

I was especially excited to find an old mentor whose books put chivalrous ideals into my head as a young boy and thus taught me to always be ready with lance and sword to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked.

After a long and very hot walk we quickly had a shower and went to a very nice but very pricey restaurant.

The food was excellent but it cost almost 10 times as much as one night in the hotels we slept at the last couple of nights and paired with the rest of the Cartagena vibe it did not go down so well.

Let me explain, while the town is , without a doubt, very picturesque, it has that Miami Beach party tourism vibe. On every corner you are being hustled to buy a selfie stick, a china sombrero or some cocaine. In the evening the place is packed with tourists and the prices of everything, starting at a coco frio, are exorbitant , especially for Colombia. The first comparison that comes to mind is Antigua. Yes, very worth and important to see but all in all we did not like it. So we did not even bother diving into the nightlife, had a mezcalito or five on the balcony and called it an early night.

We had a date at 8am at the cargo port! To pick up Jim! Or at least we thought so…

The date was to get formalities sorted, organize entry to the harbour, and break the seal of the container.Check.

That took around 3 hours. Lu had to wait outside but the joy was still big to see that good old Jim also made it to the new continent in one piece.

We had to leave Jim in the port, go to customs, sort things there , get rid of our rental car to then take a taxi back to the centro historico. Where upon arrival, we got a message that we should go back to the port, happy but tired we took another taxi that took ~40 min and went back at around 6pm.

Cutting it short, Lu left at some point and after many complications i left the port, nerv wrecked, at around 23pm.

The last hour or so i spent with Janine and Fabi on the phone who helped me greatly not to loose the remaining bit of my sanity.

The entire operation lasted 15 hours and i can not be asked to relive it in detail now. I am leaving this one for the right moment, over a future dinner and a couple of glasses of wine. Like this i also reserve the exclusivity of the story for my dear real time witnesses.

But i will show you good old Jim after a good nights sleep in front of the fortifications. Sud America, es mejor que te prepares!