13 December 2019 | Holiday start! We’ll discover the Colombian Caribbean coast, starting with a nice fortified colonial city: holidays in Cartagena de Indias!
It’s December and Costenians (people from the coast) LOVE Christmas lights just as much as Antioquians do.
Our first impressions of the Caribbean coast: hot, noisy, smelly, busy, and colorful! There’s constant music all over the place and the streets and squares are packed with people.
The city is divided into many neighborhoods, but there are mainly two with a known history: the fortified old town and the first neighborhood outside of it, which is Getsemani. The house colors are pastel within the fortifications and bright and colorful in Getsemani, including pink, purple, blue, orange, you name it.
We stayed in Getsemani at La Buleka, a cool hostel with a staff that welcomed us like friends! On our first evening, we joined a bunch of people (including the hotel owners) on the terrace for food and fireworks! The hotel organized Zumba class so Anais joined… Santi watched.
Talking about Zumba, alsmost everybody in the Caribbean dances; or so it feels at least. This became extra clear during an open-air Zumba event in front of the main church of Getsemani. Everybody was dancing and the crowd covered all ages and sexual orientations. Santi watched.
A good way to get to know the city is by walking. So we did. A lot! We discovered the city on our own first (half a day to find the perfect bikini for Anais). It’s a nice little area but it’s intense. You don’t come to this city to be in a zen-like state. People will try to sell you water, beer, and hats constantly, they will try to convince you to get into their restaurants and join their trips to different tourisitic spots. But here’s the thing, if you smile, say “no gracias, amigo”, and show a thumbs up, they’ll smile back, give you a fist bump, and go to the next gringo. “A las ordenes, agua, cerveza!”
The city tour
We like free tours, not because they’re free (because they’re not really), but because you learn a lot about the place you visit. And we’ve been happy with almost all of our free tours. So, we decided to do the famous old town tour. It wasn’t the best tour. Too many years and names to keep in mind and we were not in a mood for that. Still we learned some stuff.
For example, a sidewalk next to Plaza de Bolívar (Bolívar Square) depicts all the winners of Miss Colombia has a special spot in the bottom center for the once that won the whole shebang (Miss Universe; two pictures for now). We also learned the main reason for the fortification around the old center: pirate and privateer attacks. The most famous pirate being Sir Francis Drake coming all the way from England.
Back in the days, Cartagena was an important harbor for goods and slave trades. The mix of the Spanish and African cultures created lot’s of cultural phenomena, including the music/dance style la Champeta! A mix of African and Colombian rhythm.
The city is filled with female characters called Palenquas that allow you to take a picture if you pay. These women are descendants from salves and dress up in bright colors and carry a fruit basket on their heads. They are called Palenquas because they come from San Basilio de Palenque, a city that was founded by the Africans who escaped slavery.
The Getsemani tour
We met our guide Luis on La plaza Trinidad (main square of Getsemani) at 10 AM. Luis lives in Getsemani since almost forever and forms an active part of the Getsemani community that works towards improve the poor part of the neighborhood.
The streets of Getsemani were once infected with poverty and drug dealers, especially one of the narrow streets. What did the community do to rid this? Police? Nope. One of the cool ideas the community had was to make the street nicer with art and umbrellas (now the famouse Umbrella street), so people started living on the streets again, tourists started showing up, and this naturally chased away the drug dealers!
But, although the tourism, in part, helped Getsemani getting rid of the drug dealsers, it’s a double-edged sword. Getsemani is unfortunately experiencing heavy gentrification through a saturation of hotels and hostels. More hotels = less locals. So, the balance between enjoying the tourism and keeping locals in the neighbothood is sensitive.
Still, the community has managed to remain active and socially aware. We got the impression that several of the neighborhood’s habitants part-take in tasks that benefit the community. You can see a wall covered in photo’s representing these people in the local bar/restaurant Karpineros. The bar is always open. When we entered, a man was sleeping on a madtress next to the bar, and that’s a normal thing there. If you get to enjoy the tour, which we highly recommend, ask Luis to show his pictures. He’ll proudly point them out for you on the wall. It’s like a trophy wall!
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