Advertisement
Published: April 11th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Cartagena was once the most important sea port of the Spanish colonies in South America (basically the whole continent and more). Many of the gold ships of the Spanish fleet left from here towards Spain laden with the gold of the Incas and Aztecs. This obviously attracted many pirates and buccaneers of the time which led to Cartagena being plundered quite a few times. The Spanish didn’t like that a lot so they started to build a wall around the city and some forts to protect the city better. This seemed to work just fine as the pirate attacks continued but the success rate dropped drastically. Just to get an impression on how much money was involved, when
Francis Drake returned home from one of his raids he brought back gold valued today over USD 118 million. Another time he returned with so much gold that the queens half share in the treasure surpassed the income of England for that whole year!
Today the old city still looks like it was 300 hundred years ago and is by many considered the most beautiful city in the world. I am always wondering how many “most beautiful” cities in the world exist as
I have been to at least 3 of them during this trip. Saying all this the city is beautiful and it really looks like it is a set for a pirate movie. The amazing thing is that there are next to no tourists. I have spend 4 days here and have been to the city most of the days but the word crowded never came to my mind. Not that I am complaining it is actually nice that way I was just wondering how many tourists would be here if the same city would be in Europe, USA or Australia.
Check out the picture to get a better impression of the city as it is hard to describe all the gorgeous houses with the little balconies, the amazing doors and windows and the general feel of the town.
One thing you should come here for is the night life. There are lots of bars and salsa bars but they also seem to be deserted most of the time. Again that’s no excuse for not drinking excessive amounts of Cuba Libre and having a good time. The nice thing about staying in backpacker hostels (of which Colombia has a surprising
Part of the city wall
Most of the city wall around the old town is still standing and in very good condition considering that quite a few pirates tried (and some were successful) to take the town. number) is that you always find someone to go out with.
One other attraction close to the city is a mud volcano. As you can see in the pictures it looks like a proper volcano but it is filled with mud. Apparently the mud is brought up by decaying material well below the surface. Its a weird feeling getting into the mud as the consistency is like liquid porridge. It is very hard to swim in but the good news is that you cannot sink. Even if you stand upright you only sink in up to your breast. The only problem is that my bottom seems to be lighter than the rest so it tries to rise to the surface most of the time.
Next stop Medellin.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.051s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb