bobnkaren

Geo: 10.4137, -75.5336Our days run together under the sweltering skies. Every morning here at Casa Marta we sit at a black iron table laid with red and white linens and white china. Marta's gracious helpers, Albi and Miguel serve us coffee and tea, fresh juice, fresh fruit and whatever strikes their fancy as breakfast. Sometimes it's eggs, more often it's a local dish of arepa-something. Arepa stuffed with egg or cheese or served with a dry crumbly white cheese or made into a pancake or fat fried... Arepa is made from corn and is to them what tortillas are to a Mexican. Every meal includes arepa, fried plantains and rice. After breakfast we generally saunter over to old walled town entering through one of the clock tower's three arches. There's always something going on there and ... read more

Geo: 10.4137, -75.5336Built in the mid 1600s and expanded a couple of times, this fort became Spain's largest in any of her colonies. It's humungous and entirely takes up the top of a 130' hill with a perfect location to protect the rich port from marauders by land or by sea. Cartagena was South America's first port. Imagine it. All the wealth from Peru's silver, Colombia's emeralds, and rich plantations everywhere -- it all had to come through Cartagena. This was every pirate's dream but Cartagena stood proud, beating back all but one -- the sly, determined French pirate Baron de Pointis who, in 1697, attached from the rear were they were not well defended. It even held firm against an attack by the combined forces of the British Admiral Vernon and the 13 colonies who ... read more

Geo: 10.4137, -75.5336Our guide picked us up at 8:30 am for a tour through the city in her car. No being shoe horned into a tiny van this time, we were going in style. Unfortunately, her idea of speaking English was only slightly better than my Spanish. I'm constantly reminded of what passes for English in other parts of the world. But on we went with our half sort-of English and half spanish. ... read more

Geo: 6.23593, -75.5751Imagine growing up in a country so torn apart by violence that when your father leaves for work in the morning, you don't know if he'll return alive. Imagine being five years old and cowering in a corner because dad's late and your mother's in a total flat-out panic. This was Pablo Escobar's Colombia of 20 years ago. A Colombia where an army of children assassins from the poorest regions held the power of life and death. Escobar recruited young boys mired in spirit breaking poverty and gave them guns. They gave him loyalty. Their motto was plumo o plata, bullets or money. You take the bribe or you get the bullet. No negotiation and no questions asked because anyone who would have was dead by now. Escobar murdered hundreds of policemen, bombed police ... read more

Geo: 6.23593, -75.5751Walking through Botero plaza makes a person of almost any size feel skinny. Fernando Botero, born in Medellín, has donated hundreds of his statues to museums in Colombia, including Medellín and Bogotá. ... read more