Feb 10 – Our plane landed around 9pm, and a twenty minute taxi ride got us to the walled city of Cartagena (Car ta HAY na). A last minute text informed us that the apartment we rented had plumbing issues, and offered us an alternate address on a different street. Our taxi driver got us pretty close, and we walked the rest of the way down the jam-packed narrow street, bustling with tourists and music. Once at the door, Jim negotiated the coded lock, then another lock inside the lobby and a third lock at our door. This place is secure! We dropped into bed, exhausted.

Cartagena is the port that the Spaniards originally used to ship their gold back to Europe. They built a fortified wall around the city to protect it from pirates (most notably Sir Francis Drake).

An excursion to the wall was our goal for the morning. While the weather in Bogotá was temperate, here it is HOT. At 9am it was 91 degrees with a real-feel of 103. Off we go!

After an arroz con pollo lunch (every area has their own version of chicken and rice), we retreated back to our air conditioned room to wait for the cooler temperatures of evening.

The name of our neighborhood is Getsemani, the area where the backpackers and groovy people hang out. It’s a tourist scene with lots of locals touting trinkets and offering tours.

At one point, a trio of young men with a boom box and a microphone followed gringos down the street while making up rap songs about them. Similar to mariachi bands in Mexican restaurants, they count on you to eventually pay them to leave you alone!

Since arriving in Colombia, I have been on a quest to taste an arepa – a delicious native cornflour griddle cake featured in Encanto (where Julietta’s arepas had healing powers). Every place we tried, even when the name of the restaurant had arepas in the title, we struck out. No arepas.

Today Jim spied a street vendor selling warm arepas filled with egg from a cart. We bought one, and pronounced it just okay. The search continues!

We were told to look at the door knockers in the old town, as the creatures depicted provided a clue as to who once lived inside.

An interesting day!