Dancing in Sweltering Colonial UNESCO Site
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
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99
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Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Cartagena,
Colombia
Thursday, June 26, 2008
And, if South America looks like a salmon skin handroll, Cartagena is one of the leaves on the little bit of pea sprout that sticks out the top. Cartagena, the setting of Gabriel Key's Love in Time of Cholera, is allegedly one ot the current new "hot" travel spots. The cocaine cartels are busted, although it is still a huge export, the kidnappings are mostly a thing of the past, the main roads are safe, and FARC has been pushed back to only a couple rural counties tourists would not be travelling to anyway. There is still a very visible police presence, at least in the tourist parts of this town (I have yet to see what the countryside is like), but I suspect most people find that reassuring. I am fine with it, provided that I don't get searched for the purpose of setting me up with planted drugs to then extort a bribe. But, so far, the police have ignored me, except for one guy who shook my hand and wanted to know where I came from. They seem excited to have tourism returning, and I doubt they want to cook the golden goose by getting a new bad rep.
And, for all you children reading out there, although Colombia is named after him, Christopher Columbus never set foot here. Or in the modern U.S. for that matter. He "discovered", at most, the West Indies, Mexico, Honnduras, Panama and Venezuela.. And I won't bore you with Colombia's ancient history (if you care). We all know what it is famous for. Cocaine. But that story is best told when I go to Medellin.
Cartagena is the biggest tourist draw in the country, and you can see why. I cannot yet speak to Cartagena being Colombia's most beautiful city, but its appeal is obvious. The Old Town is a marvelously preserved colonial town, with bright colors, interesting architecture, medieval history (the Inquistion Museum is well worth it even though all the signs are in Spanish), balustrades, churches and plazas. Also, attached to the Old Town is a Riviera-like stretch of not-so-great beach, hotels, and high-rise condos. There is also an old fort that overlooked the harbor to explore, and an amazing incredibly defensible harbor it was. See http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/kislak/images/kc0025.4s.jpg (map). And the people are unusually friendly, welcoming, curious and love to dance. With anyone, anywhere, to salsa, son, rumba, and mamba (I think, since my Latin music knowledge fits on the head of a pin with room for angels to conga). As an aside, they also come in all colors; assuming someone is a foreigner because they are of paler complexion is generally wrong.
The pleasantries, however, are at least partially offset by a few things. First, it is oppressively hot and humid. Day and night it seems like it is constantly 88 degrees with 90% humidity, but, unlike at home, very few places are air conditioned. Even most high-end restaurants are open-air or fan-only. My room was a sanctuary of 65 degree wonderfulness to be returned to a few times a day to reload (and change my sopping shirts). It also feels overtouristed in the usual ways - overpriced restaurants on plazas, rows of sunglasses vendors, touts who accost or address you in the streets pushing anything from restaurants to emeralds to money exchange, and cabbies who take advantage of any lack of knowledge regarding the appropriate fare. I say "feels" because the tourists must be mostly Colombians or other Latins because I saw and met very few Western tourists and there is no English speaking tourist infrastructure like you find in really popular tourist spots. Colombia is just emerging from 20 years of tourism isolation and that can be both pleasant and frustrating.
However, even though it is just emerging, this is already not not a cheap town (I am told the rest of the country is cheaper) to eat or drink in, at least compared to the places I have been recently. There are a lot of very high-end type restaurants with $15 appetizers and $20-30 entrees. Quite often, though, there is a place across the street or around the corner with a similar menu and just as good food for half the price, but with less fancy FF&E. Also, eating at the locals restaurants is completely reasonable. A set menu with your choice of several entrees, plus some combination of salad, rice, beans, plantains or french fries will run from $3 to $5. I had a variety. I tried the local menus. I went bottom high-end at a place that charged about $20 for three appetizers, one entree, dessert and an entire bottle of wine. (The wine was pretty mediocre, but the food wasn't bad.) I had a lot of ceviche/cocktails, from a place called Le Ceviceria (excellent) to street vendors that sell all sorts of types of seafood cocktails (risky, I know, but it's so good) priced by the size of the container. I had a brilliant steak at an Argentian place. I also went, unintentionally, Cuban, and it was better than I imagine Cuban restaurants would be. Plus, one of the big dance bars here is the Club Havana, regaled with photos of Havana's heydays. And I had street dogs, chorizos and whatnot thrice. Get this - I get razzed for putting picante on my dog, but they put shoestring potatoes on them.
Which leads me to that I am doing Colombia guidebook-free. It is going to be all Internet and word-of-mouth because one of the authors of the 2006 Lonely Plantet book admitted he never set foot in the country, writing it all from the 2003 book, the internet, and his Columbian girlfriend because "Lonely Planet does not pay me enough to go to Colombia." In 2005, I suspect that was true, but this country has changed a lot since the 2003 book was written in 2002, and the current version is roundly trashed by people who have used it. And I have not located a book published by any other company, although Footprint supposedly does.
As for me, the last four days were pretty much the usual, except for having four full days allowed me to catch up on some mundane stuff like doing laundry, getting a haircut, uploading photos, etc. Explore by day, eat and drink by night. I again stayed in the Old Town, but, unlike Panama City, it was the right choice. Most of the restaurants and nightlife are here and Bocagrande felt like any other tourist stretch of higrises. Tuesday and Wednesday nights were pretty slow, with a lot of places closed, fairly empty, or closing early. However, Thursday, and even more so, Friday, were a different story. Places that were closed the day before were open and packed. At every bar, people would drink bottles of rum and aguadiente - the local firewater made from sugarcane and flavored with anise to tast much like Ouzo - and dance. They would clear space at even the smallest bar to dance, or, for example, at the well-known and popular Club Havana, in the aisles between the bar and the tables against the wall. Famously, then, everyone ends up at Mister Babillas, one of many clubs on Avenida del Arsenal, dancing on the tabletops. I'm not a huge dancer, and my Latin salsa skills are so flailingly clumsy as to be funny, but you can't help it. Girls, women, men, others all urge you to get up and dance. They don't care that you suck (at dancing), although they may smirk, and most conventions are ignored, i.e.
Another Typical House
people don't stick to one partner, age doesn't matter, etc. Although they dance close and sensually, for most people, it is not actually for the purpose of mating, but just good fun. (That said, I did see two guys attempt to use the dance to try to corner girls via dance. Literally, they would get closer and closer, trying to kiss them, etc. The girls would push their hands away or avert their face, but keep dancing. The guys behavior was so aggressive it would propbably get them popped in the States, or at least someone intervening to say leave the girl alone. Or her friends would grab her away. But, it appeared to be sort-of a standard courtship since the girls would not only keep dancing closely, but would step away to the restroom or bar and return to the guy, until by the time I hit my sweaty limit, they were sitting together cuddling.)
In sum, I would recommend Cartagena, and it was nice to have four full days to have some time to do miscellaneous shit like laundry and getting a haircut.
Next up: Medellin, Colombia
