On Sunday morning (April 21), Peter had to do a few things on the boat (Nothing new here!), so I found some chores also. Before noon, we left the marina to walk to and explore the old walled city. As we walked along the waterfront in that direction, we first encountered the Fuerte de San Sebastion el Pastelillo, one of many that were constructed on the waterfront and on hills to protect the city. (It now is the site of the private marina, Club de Pesca, and its restaurant.)
Cartagena is on the site of previous Native American communities dating back to 4000 B.C. As a colonial outpost, it was established by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Heredia on June 1, 1533, and became an official city in 1574 by declaration of the Spanish king Philip II. From its beginning as a Spanish colony, it was a major port for goods and slaves, where ships departed for Spain with silver and gold and other treasures from the northern part of South America. As such, it was a target for pirates and corsairs from France, England and Holland.
The first defensive fort, San Felipe de Boqueron, was constructed to protect the inner harbor in 1566. Attacks, raids and bombardments continued, spurred the development of plans for a walled city in 1594, and construction lasted for 200 years, until 1796. The wall, still almost entirely intact, is 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) long.
The Fuerte de San Felipe de Boqueron was destroyed in a seige by a British armada led by Admiral Edward Vernon in the spring of 1741. The English armada included 50 warships, 130 transport ships, and 25,600 men. Although initially successful, the British soon withdrew, perhaps compelled to do so by losses of men not so much due to warfare but to tropical diseases. The replacement for the demolished fort, the Fuerte de San Sebastion el Pastelillo, was completed by 1744. Its irregular base was built up from the land. From the ramparts, which held over 30 concealed canons, there are great views of the inner harbor and the area of city called Bocagrande.
Without a paper map or access to online maps, since we had not yet purchased a SIM card for Peter's phone, we had to guess our directions. As we came to a bridge, I thought that we needed to go straight, but Peter spotted fortifications to the right, so we went that direction. Had we gone directly ahead, we would have been within the walls of El Centro within five minutes. Our little detour took us to El Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, an enormous triangular fort on a hill. Construction began in 1536, and later improvements and expansions were added 1657 and and 1763. We considered buying tickets and exploring, but it was a steep climb up many, many steps, and we were already very hot and sweaty. Every day, the temperataure is in the mid-80's and the humidity is at least 70 percent. A breeze usually starts by midday, but the mornings are brutally still.
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| El Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas |
Realizing we had not reached our intended destination and did not know how to get there, we asked for directions and headed off. On the way to the walled city, we came upon a large, modern shopping mall. The air-conditioning called to us, and we could look there for a SIM card. Upon entering, we considered buying ice cream from the first kiosk, but I sighted a vendor selling fruit smoothies and we went there. The tropical fruit concoctions were delicious, refreshing and cheap. Fortified, we sought out a store among the mix of international brands and local stores, finally finding SIM cards for sale in a major department store.
Finally, we had maps at our fingertips and a way to communicate with Paula and Andrew (who cleverly has already established a Google Fi account for seamless access to date and phone service internationally). And we found the walled city. First, we had to fend off a persistant man trying to sell me a hat, claiming that his hats were made by hand by his entire family, and he needed money for "the babies." I actually don't like to wear hats in hot weather and I silently questioned whether artisanal headware would have a mass-produced inventory tag inside it. (Other than this man, we were not bothered by touts. Some men approached us with goods, but they graciously accepted our "No, thank you's" and walked away. This is a welcome contrast from the men on the streets in Jamaica.)
Extracating ourselves, we went up the ramp to the wall and walked along the top for a while. At another point, we descended into the neighborhood of San Diego, where we were delighted with the architecture and the bright colors of the buildings and the wares spilling out of shops.
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| View of Plaza de Las Bóvedas from the wall |
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| Peter on the broad wall |
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| Shops along the Plaza de Las Bóvedas |
First we walked through brightly colored arcade under the wall, on the outside of the Plaza de Las Bóvedas. Construction of this section was completed in 1798, and what are now shops served various purposes in the last two centuries, including being barracks, prison cells and munitions storage. Peter was on a quest for a small flag that we could use as a courtesy flag on
Mantra. All the vendors were very friendly and helpful, but all the flags were too big or too small.
We communicated with our friends, who were at the Palacio de la Inquisicion, which is now a history and culture musuem, and arranged to meet them at the Plaza de Bolivar. On the way there, we passed many two and three story buildings with balconies overhanging the narror streets (closed to vehicles except taxis and residents). The finely turned wooden balusters lend a sense of grace, and bougainvillea and other flowering vines climb the walls and cascade from the railings, the red, coral, magenta, purple and white hues of the flowers contrasting strikingly with the colorful walls.
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| Brightly colored edifices on a narrow street |
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| Vines and balustrades in the walled city, with more modern buildings on the outside of the wall |
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| Balcony |
We walked through a couple of plazas on our route, including the large Plaza de Los Coches, spreading out from the portal of the Torre del Reloj. A large, temporary pavillon shaded the open air Festivel de Dulce, an annual event held every Easter Sunday as a way to keep folk traditions alive in the city. A wide variety of homemade sweets were available, but we were too hot for sweet food, so we only walked along the booths.
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| Traditional sweet concoctions |
At the Plaza de Bolivar, we found Paula and Andrew relaxing on a park bench while nearby children fed pigeons, and pigeons were using various parts of the equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar for perches. They had already had lunch, but we needed nourishment, so we walked back to the Plaza de Los Coches, stopping at the statue of Pope John Paul II and pausing frequently to admire the outside of the buildings and sense the lively culture all around us.
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| Front of the Catedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandria |
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| Statue of Simon Bolivar with pigeons |
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| Andrew, Paula and Peter |
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| Statue of Pope John Paul II |
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| More beautiful street scenes |
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| Arcade along the Plaza de Los Coches |
Thirsty in addition to being hungry, Peter and I responded to a man selling glasses of limeade for 2000 pesos each. (This is less than a $1.00 US.) How refreshing! Paula and Andrew bought a small cup of some overly sweet coconut concoction. We finally settled on a restaurant nestled under the arcade opposite the clock tower. Compared to other restaurants, the prices seemed a bit high, but after we tasted the food, we realized it was worth it.
Fortified, the four of us set out to explore some more. We walked through several plazas and found a ramp up to the wall. We walked along this side of the wall facing the sea, enjoying the breeze and the views.
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| View from the seaside wall, with the dome of San Pedro Claver |
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| Another view from the wall |
Sightseeing in heat and humidity can be exhausting, however, so by mid-afternoon, we had walked our way back to the place where Paula and Andrew are staying in the San Diego neighborhood of the walled city. First we gulped down ice water and relaxed in the comfort of air-conditioning before going to the rooftop swimming pool. The water was comfortably warm and refreshing, and the breeze made us shiver a bit when we got out.
Peter and I walked back to the marina. We passed through the Plaza de Los Coches again, and the Festival de Dulces was in full swing, with a large crowd and a live salsa band. Peter decided to sample something, which turned out to be a very sweet combination of coconut and molasses.
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| Peter selecting a sweet |
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| Festival de Dulces |
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| Live music at the Festival de Dulces |
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| Vendors under the portal of the Torre del Reloj |
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| Plaza on the outside of the Torre del Reloj |
On Monday morning, I took our huge load of laundry, some of it still damp from the crossing from Jamaica, to the laundry room. The machines are large, and I was able to divide the clothes and towels into three machines. Meanwhile, Peter got started on cleaning out the forepeak. Over the course of the day, sometimes with my help, he managed to get all the lines, jerry cans, spare sails and anchor rodes, emergency bilge pump and miscellaneous items onto the deck. I cleaned the outside of the jerry cans and vinyl sail bags as he worked on getting the gunk off the bottom of the compartment.
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| Contents of the forepeak |
In the morning, we talked briefly to our agent for immigration and customs, who said he was waiting for Customs to contact him. It is a strange system here in which there is no direct contact between the officials and the cruisers; using an agent is required. We had assumed, erroneously, it appears, that Customs officials would come to the boat and ask questions as in other countries, and so we waited for their appearance. We did not hear from Mike or officials all day.
This morning, I talked with John, the dockmaster, who told me that it could take days for documentation but we are free to leave the marina. Then David, Mike's boss, found me on the terrace and said he needed to take photos of our boat registration and Peter's passport again because the first photos were not good quality. This means that probably nothing happened yesterday. We plan to haul the boat out of the water later this week, but we are not allowed to do this until we have all the proper paperwork--and procuring that is out of our hands! Somewhat frustrating.
Peter has been working on the boat all morning while I have been writing and talking with Katya. He has anchor lines and chains snaked up and down the dock. He cleaned them and now they are drying.
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| Peter hard at work |
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| Sails airing out |
Now, we are going to the old city to meet up with Paula and Andrew and to shop.
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