The centro historico of Cartagena is like 4 blocks! Here I am all proud of myself that I know which way to go, which I don’t, and that I understand directions, which I can’t, and when I finally get my hands on a map it looks like this:
Anyway, did walk the external city walls in the morning heat and just soaked up the vibrant street life. The Chiquita banana ladies live across the street from my apartment and I watched them leave to go to work the plazas, selling fruit to tourists who take sneaky pictures. Yes, they were dressed like they should have been in a commercial from the 70s with Charo but, frankly, they looked like anyone you’d see anywhere, anytime, locking their door, kissing their kid, checking their phone and heading to work. I love that.
Wasn’t in the mood to lay on a beach so I figured I would go to a few museums. AND I knew they would be air conditioned. Did I mention how hot it is? First stop was the Palacio da la Inquisicion, I mean, why not start my Sunday with something nice and light and not in the least bit disturbing. I read a review of the museum that complained it didn’t have enough torture devices on display. Okay.
The museum is housed in what’s believed to be the actual site where heretics were sentenced to public execution for more than 200 years. Such a profoundly tragic part of the history of native inhabitants of the Americas and I haven’t run across many in-depth historical depictions of these atrocities in Latin America.
A block away was the Museo de Oro, an amazing collection of gold and other pre-Colombian artifacts, primarily from the Zenú culture. Such interesting pieces and techniques and curated beautifully. There’s a huge gold museum in Bogóta but since I won’t get to visit this trip, I’m glad there’s one here! No trip of mine is satisfying without a little bit of prehistory.
So after all that air conditioning and culchah, it was definitely arepa time! I admit, I was curious about the Juan Valdez cafe and couldn’t miss it even if I tried…and I was honestly just trying to find my arepa guy. Oh yeah, I already have an arepa guy. I love Juan Valdez iconography, it’s so estados unidos, the burro, the hat, the bag of beans. But I thought it might be like the McDonald’s of Colombian coffee, but I was wrong. Sure it has no sifons, no promises of sin cleansing, no friendly Latin Americans from nueva jersey and it does look exactly like any Starbucks, but the coffee was pretty damned good, and the iced coffee was sublime…Incréible!
I couldn’t find my arepa guy so I cheated on him with another one. I felt bad, I passed him earlier and promised to come back later but I was too hot and hungry to keep looking. My new guy stuffed butter and even more hard provoloney cheese in the center. My plan was to bring it back to my apartment, go up to the roof with an ice cold Aguila and my book and sweat myself into a siesta. No dice. I ate most of it before I even turned the corner. And forget about laying on any roof…the sun is so scorching I’m sure I saw the pool boil. And I’m a tar beach baby oil survivor from Brooklyn so you know that’s one hot techo.
Later on I went to the modern art museum and finally totally museumed out went for some dinner. Ate at an Argentinian restaurant, El Quebracho, I saw a few times while wandering around yesterday. Was really impressed with the decor, very creative and everything is cooked on a grill on the steps leading up to the entrance. My steak was really delicious. Took some back streets hoping I didn’t bump into my arepa guy. Who am I kidding? I totally would have bought one..
I’m in Parque Tayrona and the wifi doesn’t let me access or upload photos so I’m hoping when I post this the gallery works and until I can caption pics I just listed them below. Yeah there’s not a lot to do here at night.
That was two days ago…wow, I have better internet access up here than in the place I wasn’t supposed to have any!
