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Cartagena de las Indias, Colombia
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Cartagena - Arrival by Kite
On February 23rd I took a one way flight to Cartagena, Colombia, supposedly one of the most beautiful cities of South America. I always had eyeballed Colombia, and in particular Cartagena as a good place to visit, maybe even to live, and finally it was time to go there. After a short flight from Miami to Cartagena I headed straight to the kitebeach I read about on the web. It was late already, around 4:30 p.m. when I got there but was immediately convinced by the friendly local kiteboarders to go on a downwinder to Cartagena. To Cartagena? Yes, I was like 8 miles outside of town in a neighborhood called La Boquilla and my first sight of Cartagena would be on my kite from the water! How cool is that? Not everybody can say that they arrived in Cartagena by kite, right? Well... it was an awesome introduction to a beautiful city, kitesurfing through the waves in front of the old historic colonial city, in front of Café del Mar, with 7 other passionate sportsmen. Taxis, moto-taxis, buses, locals, and tourists stopped to enjoy the show while the sun was setting with a deep red in the background. Even the newspaper got "wind" of the action on the water and an article was published a day later http://www.eluniversal.com.co/noticias/20080225/ctg_dep_el_kate_surf_en_todo_su_esplendor.html
Cartagena is a fascinating place! Situated on the Caribbean coast of Colombia its full name is Cartagena de Indias. For me, the city is full of distinctive contrasts particularly between the poor neighborhoods with houses put together by tin plates, the rich area with apartment buildings with pools, trendy shops, and close to the beach, and the beautiful historic, colonial, well-maintained, walled-in city-center. Yes, it's a bit mind-boggling at times if you look at the city this way because reality is that there's a ton of extremely poor people there while only a short distance away live rather wealthy people. The difference between poor and rich has been in my experience a bit more obvious here in Colombia although these class differences exist in any of the countries in Central or South America that I have visited. Nevertheless, Cartagena has a magical vibe especially when you stroll through the walled-in city center, which is so different than the rest and could make you think at the blink of eye, as soon as you enter through the gates, that you were transported in time and space back to when the Spaniards ruled.
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