Gunga-Candy and cannons

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First, I want to wish all the ladies Happy International Women's Day. It was celebrated throughout the city with women wearing red and being presented with red roses. We were given luscious dark chocolate by the young man at the desk of our hotel.

One of the last stops on my 'Marquez tour' was to find the Portal de los Dulces or the candy gate. Originally, Cartagena was a stop in the slave trade and slaves were sold to the highest bidder and this passage was called ' Portal de los Esclavos'. But now it is lined with sweets stalls where ladies display their homemade goodies in large glass jars. Most are made from coconut and tropical fruits. It dates from the late 19th century and you can find such tempting items as cubanitos ( coconut mass with milk), or casadillas de coco( a combination of cheese and coconut), bolas de tamarindo ( tamarind balls), cabellito de angel (angel hair) made from papaya, cinnamon and brown sugar. and on and on. My favorites are the munecas de dulce- These are little dolls made from dulce con leche.

Today we got up early to beat the heat ( hah!) We were going to storm the castle and climb the mighty ' Castilla de San Felipe'. This fortress is the biggest military building complex in Latin Am. It was built by the Spanish ( or rather by their slaves) in either 1639 or 1647 ( depends on what book you are reading). There are tunnels, underground galleries, powder stores ,and secret passages that transport you back to the 18th century when British troops attacked Cartagena and this fortress was the city's main defense. It is a bit ironic that the Spanish ( the original plunderers of So. Am.) went to such efforts to build this edifice to keep out the new plunderers ( Sir Francis Drake is mentioned as one of the prominent pirates of that day).

Ok, Val and I made it to the top of the fort after much huffing and puffing ( mostly on my part). The last bit to the top involved a long staircase but we did it. Yeah!!! We did not explore all the nooks and crannies as it was hotter than hades and we were a bit worn out.

Later in the morning we expore Las Bovedas or the Vaults. This is a set of 23 brick vaults in the form of half barrels that allowed the troops to move freely through them in wartime without suffering the effects of the heat. It was completed in 1798. Now it houses craft shops and Colombian art. We, however, were suffering from the heat so we headed back to our part of town and found an air conditioned restaurant.

Our time here is winding down with just one more day left. One future blog will be about some of the fantastic restaurants we have had the good fortune of finding here. Oh! La, La !!!- that's a hint. ;-)
Carolyn

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Comments

[Pat Walsh]

Val's Photos
Hi Carolyn, I checked out Val's photos and they're terrific! Your descriptions are so good that I could picture some places before I saw the photos...the gold museum, salt mines, setting's from the book. The splendors you've enjoyed in Colombia are beautifully captured in her pictures and in your prose! Good job! Happy travels back home to both of you.