Cartagena

After our breakfast of eggs and croque monsieurs on the rooftop terrace of our hotel (Hotel Santa Cruz), we headed over to the Naval Museum of the Caribbean. It had good diagrams of the early fortifications of Cartagena to protect against pirate attacks. Upstairs was a section on the Korean war since Colombia had contributed a ship to support the conflict.

The best part was a ship's bridge and submarine simulator upstairs. Lots of stuff to climb on and check out. A good museum, though a bit run down. All Spanish.

Next we headed to the modern art museum around the corner in the old city. Good showcases celebrating local artists, and the standout was a photo exhibit of old women of Cartagena, as well as survivors of domestic abuse. The museum was heavily supported and supportive of late local artist Enrique Grau, whose widened subjects look a lot like Fernando Botero. More on him when we get to Bogotá.

Then the Zenu Gold Museum, which contained fantastic gold pieces in the first exhibit. A number of them looked like the logo for  Club Colombia beer. 

My finger paint sketch

Gold!

Waterways and crops in close harmony in this diorama

Upstairs was a display of farming techniques of the Zenú indigenous tribe, who would dig rows of troughs to extend the river’s reach. They would use the resulting channels for transportation and crop irrigation and fishing, while the ridges were planted with crops. These rows extended far across the Magdalena river valley and were visible in satellite photos. Man-made networks like this are fascinating to me, especially to see such a close cohabitation between land and water based food systems. 

Alex and I were walking through Cartagena's tight old streets when we encountered a street vendor selling cups of soft, sweet soursop juice and fruit. This being my favorite tropical fruit, I called out to him with the Spanish word for it: Guanabana! He repeated it back excitedly, and I trotted over to pick up a cup. I wa surprised to see that the whole fruits were about the size of two large pineapples, and scaly. I got a picture of Alex next to him and his cart.

Guanabanas!

Then we walked to Paraiso, a woman-owned and operated gelato operation that was fantastic. Alex ordered coconut and dark chocolate, which was a winning combination.

Next Alex and I walked in the dead heat of midday across an east bridge to reach the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. This is a defensive castle built on nearby Lazaro hill to protect Cartagena from foreign arrack. A good audio guide took us through the four tiers of batteries (terraced defensive positions with firing positions for scouts, soldiers, and cannons. All the batteries were oriented to cover all directions and protect each other. 

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

My favorite part was the “fake knickers”, which was an old term for a trap to lure would-be attackers into a shooting gallery if they happened to overrun the exposed Santa Barbara battery on the upper portion of the sketch. The gallery included sloped sides and “matacanes”- literally dog killers, or slots for pouring burning oil. 

The other great part was the extensive tunnel system that spread beneath all parts of the castle. Individual sections could be filled with gunpowder and detonated underneath sections that had become overrun with attackers. Alcoves along the length of passages serves as locations for soldiers to hide and ambush intruders. Nowadays the slippery passages lead to roped off flooded sections and skylights on the opposite side of the batteries. 

'splorin' under the castle! Watch your head!

The completed castle, finished around 1700, never saw any attacks. Prior to its completion, the French and British attached it, respectively successfully and unsuccessfully. The castle was originally built by Spain to protect Cartagena and was the largest Spanish castle in the new world.

We got a taxi back to the old town. We went to KGB, an over-the-top bar and homage to the Soviet Union, complete with mannequins in navy uniforms with gas masks. A back room was decorated to look like the interior of a Russian sub, making this the second mock-up submarine interior of the day. 

For dinner we went out to an Argentine steakhouse, at 9:30. The steaks were

delicious- mine was a delicious and extremely tender sirloin.