Romancing the Stone
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2008
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Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
Today I let every bumster in Cartagena have his way with me and visted every emerald shop in town. One is actually called Romance in the Stone, but I didnīt care for the assistant there. A coupler of others might get my business but Iīm not backpacking with a $400 emerald on my finger thatīs for sure. Though having a tray full of emeralds to play with and weigh was fun! This was after being driven out of both the Gold Museum (gorgeous pre-Colombian stuff) and the Museum of the Inquistion (no one expects it) by hoards of school kids. Iīd have put some of them on the rack given the chance. Beautiful gardens full of birds though. Yesterday at the beach I encountered Vicky Pollard. Identical in every respect but colour (plain chocolate brown). I couldnīt help but stare. Iīve come acreoss several more since, so I guess thereīs a tribe hereabouts with access to endless skin tight lycra. The weird thing about Cartagena is that anywhere Iīm trying to find disappears until Iīve given up and gone somewhere else, when it laughingly reappears until I want to find it again and itīs gone. Every twisty colonial street has at least one person with 4 or 5 mobile phones for others to pay to use, boys with thermos flasks and stacks of tiny paper cups in wooden containers, fruit juice vendors, living statues and groups of men just hanging out. Besides the afore mentioned bumsters there are T shirts, hats, sunglasses, sundry items made from coconuts and reproductions of the better statues to fend off. Iīve never been anywhere with so much street sculpture and at night the pavements are spread with hundreds of pitches of ethnic jewellry. My favourite drinkery is on the edge of what used to be the slave market (the scales for weighing the slaves are in the Inquisition Museum) and tonight I was entertained by a middle aged fire dancer, a Chaplinesque mime artist (hilarious) and a troop of dancers and drummers performing African rhythms. Every square had itīs own entertainment I discovered when I went in search of dinner. Iīve never been anywhere quite so jolly. I love it. Iīve been eating at localsīplaces at lunchtime (with a couple of the bumsters today) and I havenīt had rice and beans yet. As the only thing I can understand on the chalk board menu of the day Iīve been sticking with steak, salad and chips. So far Iīve only found tourist places open in the evening unless I go extremely low rent. Tomorrow Iīm avoiding the arrival of a cruise ship by taking to the water myself and going to Islas Rosarios.
