Cartagena, Columbia -- January 11,2012

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Cartagena was one of the crown jewels of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. The gold and silver that was collected in Peru, Columbia etc. was sent to the coast where it was stored until a convoy of ships was ready to take it back to Spain. Cartagena was the largest depot and thus a desirable target for pirates and other nations. Sir Frances Drake led the oly successful attack. After bambarding the city he finally accepted a ransom equal to $200 million in gold. Spain responded with an immense program of defending the city, building 11 km of walls around the city, a number of forts at passage ways to the city, setting traps in one of the sea passages and building the largest fort in the Americas. The streets were built so that you cannot see the end of the street making it easier to ambush an attacker if they entered the city and putting large stores of gun powder under each of the forts so that if they were ever taken they could be blown up with the attackers. In today's terms Spani spent $3 trillion on the defenses. The expenditure paid off when Admiral Veron guaranteed the British Admialty that he would capture Cartagena. He arrived with146 ships, and over 20,000 troops. The Spanish had 6 ships and only 3,600 troops. When the battle was over the British suffered heavy losses and had to retire.

The tempature during our 2 days was about 32C and the humidity was 95%, we were informed that this was near the low for Cartegena and that in the hot months it would go up to 40C. One nice thing we found in our trip was that while there were lots of peddlers and street vendors everywhere they were not anywhere as pushy as we found in India or Egypt for instance. The net result is that we bargined more on this trip.

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Photos

Sailing into Cartagena
Across from the old city the skyline consists of new high rises

Madonna of the Sea
This statue of the Madonna is intended to provide comfort to sailors and fishermen.

Drug Smuggling Subs
The Columbian coast guard has caught several subs that were intended to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

The Port
Next to Brazil Columba has had the strongest growth in South America

Part of the Defense
Canons were placed here to hit enemy ships at the water line ensuring that they would sink

The Virgin Mary
In both Columba and Peru statues show Mary shaped like a mountain

Drive up to the monastery above Cartagena
The drive up to the monastery that over looks Cartagena is a bit of an experience with a steep road, tight curves, no guard rails and in n=most spots too narrow for passing vechiles.

A statue to the Spanish General that defeated the British
The Spanish General in previous battles had lost an eye, plus an arm.