Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca is a beach on the Isla de Baru, about an hour away from Cartagena. When we arrived via a little launch from our larger ferry, we met up with some friends from the hostal and headed as far away from the well intentioned but annoying jewlery and massage peddlers, finally arriving at a solitary spot about a kilometer down from where we were dropped off.

We had arrived at the Carribean beaches at last!

There were all sorts of things to do, from jetskis to hotdogging behind motorboats to casual sails in traditonal lanchas. I chose to simply float in the warm, salty embrace of the sea.
Here´s a closer look... That is what I call relaxation. Nothing to be done but keep your nose above the water as the sea pushes and pulls and the sun slowly slides accross the sky. Bliss.
The cloud formations were varied and constantly changing, from light whisps to towering thunderheads, they provided all the entertainment necessary.
Dos burros en la playa. Maybe one is a long lost cousin of Tingaleo?
Playa Blanca from our boat.
Unfortunately, as we had spent the larger part of the day in transit to the Islas de Rosario, we only had about an hour and a half to spend at the beach, half of this eating lunch and walking o our spot. However, we had bathed in the sun and sea of the carribean outside of the reach of automobiles and construction materials. We had a taste of what we are seeking in the next week as we head up the coast to Capurgana and the isolated north eastern coast of Colombia, just meters from the Panamanian boarder.

The return from Playa Blanca

Despite the detour to the aquarium, it was a great day, made better by a spectacular sunset. While being serenaded by the swan song of DJ Johnny Wild, we all could enjoy the breathtaking vstas provided upon our return into Cartagena harbour.

Skin a definitive rosada, but with smiles on our faces, we said goodbye to the port of the city to head into the Barrio Getsemani, shower off the salt, and refresh ouselves with some much needed food and drink at El Cafe Gourmet.

Lizard Doorknobs

I noticed these two doorknobs in completely different parts of the city, and am eager to find out who makes them to bring one home with me. Classic.

Cartagena by day

From the sea wall towards the old city...

The narrow streets are lined with balconies and the street full of people, cars and horses jockeying for position amidst vendors and a constant police presence. Check out the face of the short, fat man in the blue shirt...

As you can see, it is a spectacular city full of fascinating nooks and crannys, beautiful people and an unparalleled colonial atmosphere.

Cartagena Lodging and Food

Woke up this morning, pleasantly surprised by the ambiance of our hostal, the Hostal Real. There was a parrot, turtle, and several little dogs as well as a helpful staff. Not the Ritz, but perfect for our needs here in Cartagena. Two beds, a shower and internet. No Gideons bible though. Guess they don't have a Colombian franchise.

We found another great menu al dia at Cafe Corncon around the corner and enjoyed a delicious meal of Caldo de Res, roasted chicken, salad, coconut rice and beans, along with a refreshing iced tea all for the whopping total of COP5300.
After walking through our neighborhood, it started to rain a bit, so we stopped for a little hydration: water, coffee, and beer.
Then it was on to explore the rest of Cartagena...

Cartagena!

Ahh, cartagena, it´s hard to describe the magical feeling of ariving at the old walled city at night, but needless to say the colonial facades and colorful balconies, flowering plazas and horse-drawn carriges were spectacular. We are off to explore this morning, but here are some pics from last night.

Leaving Medellin

Sad to leave Medellin, but excited to be getting out of the mountains and down to the coast for some real R&R!
The taxi to the airport is about 45minutes, straight up the steep valley over the mounains to the next valley of Rio Negro. As we headed out of the valley there were some great views of the surrounding mounains, and the flora changed noicably from mostly palms to conifers.




Next stop, Cartagena!

XMAS in Colombia

As I mentioned before, everyone is gearing up for Christmas down here, and here are some examples:
Merry Christmas, Matty!

Museo de Antioquia

Like the Museo Nacional in Bogota, the Museo de Antioquia (this is th name of the region of which Medellin is the capital) has a wide variety of objects on display: from indigineous artifacts to the largest collection of Botero´s work, they manage to fit in international artists and both historical and contemporary Colombian art as well. The Museum itself is beautiful and quite new as I believe it was founded in the mid 1990s by donations from local artists and collectors. Antioquians are histoically proud and independent, and we often heard disdain for other regions and especially the federal capital of Bogota.

There are several courtyards in the museum itself, making it a very pleasant place to visit.

While I am not a huge fan of Botero, it was great to see such a large collection of his work in addition to what we saw while in Bogota. I find the fact that he lived through the volence and upheaval of the last 50 years in colombia, but that the majority of his works on display were portraits and still lifes strange. Many other cnemporary artists adress this directly, I am not sure that I could have been so seemingly disengaged from it. However, perhaps that is the point, as he depicts a side of everyday Colombian life that provides a counterpoint to the violence we, as foreigners, tend to focus on.
There were some works that addressed the violence, like this one of the killing of Pablo Escobar and another of a carbomb going off.
This is a famous historical painting from called Horizons from the early 1900s, depicting and romanticizing the hopes and dreams of the new class of farmers and rural communities as they expanded into the interior of the country, much like the early pioneers and settlers of the American West.
This next one is contemporary and shares the same name. It expands the view of the original to include a plane, fumigating the planted valley below. This showing how, after colonizing the forests and developing the country, farmers are now being pushed out of these homes by the widespread use of toxic fumigation, which, while meant to target coca growers, actually kills everything in its path, forcing them to abandon the homes and regions they have worked so hard to develop.
This one is a mural as you enter the museum and is a discussion of the effcts of the oil industry on Colombia.
A Botero statue:
A cool painting of a flower!
Coca Cola anyone? Interesting that Coca-cola used to use that so maligned plant in its recipe, and is still widely consumed here and everywhere - it has played a contradictory role in the history of Colombia.

Medellin

Medellin is a beautiful city. They call it the city of Eternal Spring because it is always pleasantly warm during the day and pleasantly cool in the evening. It is a well organized, funtioning metropolitan area, and we used a clean, safe and efficient metro system to get around. While the people are not as warm as I have found in the other places we have been so far, this is the most modern, clean an accesible city I´ve visited (and apparently sme others agree).
We took the metro from down in the south of the city in Poblado up to the Universidad, where we visited the Botanic Gardens, which showed just how many dfferent plants, trees and flowers thrive in this country at the nexus of the North and South American Continents. I´ll post some pics from there soon.
After a pleasant walk through the park with Matty, who was familiar with many of the varieties of plants we saw an a great person to be visiting with, we went into the center of the city to visit a museum and just walk around. Despite the image most of us have in our heads, this a great, safe place to visit, and we cruised the street without any problems. The police are helpful and while there is some corruption (a taxi cab driver who was waiting for me while I ran an errand got out of a COP190,000 parking ticket by paying a COP10,000 bribe), the overall sense is that it is safe and orderly.

Here are some pics.

The city center, filled with Botero sculptures, street vendors and beautiful cathedrals:
A view of Poblado from our hotel rooftop:
The Medellin Valley:
The city at night:
Holiday preperations are just begining, but the whole counry supposedly lights up on December 7th with light displays adorning almost every public building and even overlaying the the river that runs through the city center.

A view from the Metro:

Medellin has joined Bogota and San Francisco (and many others I am sure) in that they close down roads on sunday to allow locals to get out and excercise. Needless to say, Matty and I woke up early and went out for a jog with the best of them.