Gold, Boats, and Forts

I'm just getting to finishing up our posts on Colombia now so bear with me. Thanks! ~Ayelet

We spent our last few days on vacation in the town of Cartagena, right along the coast. In a way, I felt like our vacation only started when we got to Cartagena.

Watching the sunset on century-old city walls

Why?

Because 1) it's warm and humid, 2) the people are super nice, 3) it was easy to walk around and felt safe within the old city walls, and 4) there was a variety of things to see and do.

One morning we spent some time in the old fortress on the hill. Cartagena was where Spanish kept all the gold they stole from the indigenous people before they shipped it back to Spain. So pirates loved to raid the city, or at least try to. The old city is faced on 2 sides by water and is protected by the city walls. The fortress on the hill protects the back sides of the city. We had a great tour guide at the fortress - at one point, he had us go down a dark maze to show how the military communications worked back then. And then he let us flounder our way out of the maze and scare us half to death in the process. Fun times!

Leading to the mazes below the fortress

On another day, we took a boat tour to a few islands off the coast. It took 2 hours to get out there, but let me tell you, this guy was the most entertaining guide/boat game show host we've ever had. We've got video, which we hope to eventually put together, but for now, I'll share this photo of just one part of this voyage.

Yes, those are two men who are cross-dressed up in women's clothes from female volunteers on the boat. They even have lipstick on and stuffed towels up their butts. Then, they were made to walk the "catwalk" and even dance with a pole. And I just want to say that the North American/European tourists were in the minority on this boat. That afternoon, after the boat, we ate lunch on Playa Blanca and relaxed on the beach under a cabana. It was perfect.

Because it was really hot in Cartagena one afternoon (actually, who am I kidding? It was hot every afternoon so we took our siesta usually between 1-3 pm), we stopped by the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum). To our surprise, it was an air-conditioned museum delight! The first floor was about the Zenu Indian tribe, which had goldsmiths quite early. They were around 200 BC to 1600 AD although there are a few remaining members still around today. It was amazing to me that they had an advanced enough society to use gold and have enough wealth to pay for gold jewelry during that time. When you hear about modern civilization, you don't hear about how advanced the non-European societies actually were.

Gold earrings that both women and men wore 

On the second floor, there was a section that talked about how they created a canal system over 400,000 hectares (almost a million acres) of land in northern Colombia because it would keep flooding. They carved out canals in their lands so their crops would still get the nutritional benefits of being in the flood plains, but their houses and villages were safe on the canal ridges. It's interesting because even today, people often build in places that are almost guaranteed to flood without taking precautions.

We were not expected Cartagena to have so much to do and see. We were pleasantly surprised.

Two Days in Medellin, Colombia

We just got back from a week in Colombia and our first stop was Medellin. If the city name sounds familiar, it might be because the infamous drug warlord, Pablo Escobar, ruled the city for many years. But he's gone now and the city is much better than it was during his time. To set the stage, we both read "News of a Kidnapping" by the well-known author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The book is based on a true story of several kidnappings of journalists in the 80's and 90's by Escobar's gang. It helped to picture what people went through during that time. Thankfully, the drug cartels are not what they were back then and Colombia is much safer now.

One slope of Medellin

The Medellin airport is actually 45 minutes outside of the city in a little mountain town called Rio Negro. To get into the city, you have to take a mini-bus and go over some hills and down into a valley. Apart from being so far away, it was nice to see a more rural part of the country because Medellin is 100% city. The city was warmer and a little more humid than Quito, but much of it was similar.

We decided to stay in the city center without much thought as to why. If I would do it again, we'd stay out in the El Poblado neighborhood, which was more hip and felt a lot safer. But no matter! Being in the downtown meant we were close to the park that housed more than 20 Fernando Botero sculptures and the Museum of Antioquia (the region Medellin is in). If you only have 24 hours in Medellin, these are two great sights to see.

Although it was raining when we got to the sculptures, we didn't let that deter us. The interesting thing about Botero is how he makes his subjects so large. According to him, he makes them that way because he wanted to express people's voluminousness and sensuality. I guess he meant we're all larger than life. ;-)

The museum itself had 3 stories full of Botero sculptures and paintings, as well as other Medellin and Colombian artists. A lot of the painters were from modern times so it was interesting to see their work.

Can you see the gun? This guitar was created to promote peace.

The next day we spent the day roaming around the El Poblado neighborhood I mentioned before. It had little shops, cafes and restaurants. There was even options for vegetarians - something that's not at all common in Ecuador. The area had a beautiful stream running through it with lots of lush gardens around, too. Our mountain-dried skin soaked up the moisture like sponges.

I'll write more about the later part of our trip in another couple blog posts - Medellin was okay, but Cartagena was the highlight of our trip. Just wait until you see the pictures!