Usually when I go someplace new, I read and I research and I plan - poring over a Lonely Planet guidebook so I know not only the places I most want to see but I have some sense of the history and culture of wherever I'm off to.
Not this trip. I had no idea what Cartagena would be like except for 'Romancing the Stone' and that was filmed in Mexico and the Philippines. (Fun fact: Michael Douglas' character mispronounces the city as Cartagenia throughout the whole movie, much to the ire of people who live in Cartagena who still hear it mispronounced that way to this day.)
Well..it turns out Cartagena is really very cool and I should have done my homework. Described as "Latin American's hippest hidden secret", I found the city to be a cross between Old Town San Juan and Miami. In the short time I was there I feel lucky to have gotten out to explore quite a bit, but not having a sense of context for what I saw I have since ordered a guidebook to Colombia to better understand the city's history.
I took a lot of photos so I'll be spreading my favorites out over a few posts. First up - scenes from the old city:
For more about Cartagena, check out this story the NY Times ran last year about Cartagena and Gabriel García Márquez. One of his favorite restaurants, La Vitrola, was where we ate the first night I arrived.
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