Cartagena first came into my life in 1984, when Romancing the Stone came out. I remembered (a very young) Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner running around a fort surrounded by blue Caribbean waters in the movie, it seemed so exotic. Being twelve years old, I never dreamed I would visit Colombia one day, I had never even been on a plane. Decades later I was reintroduced to Cartagena again, in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book Love in the Time of Cholera (now there is a movie of the book starring Javier Bardem), one of my all time favorite books. His Cartagena was hot, sultry, colorful, thick with the scent of flowers and tropical music. After I read his book I knew I would visit one day, the city had implanted its way into my subconscious.

Me sitting on the wall that I saw for the first time in elementary school in Romancing the Stone.

Arriving in Cartagena the mid day heat was overwhelming. It was too hot to be outside. We drove in our cab from the airport along the Caribbean and when I saw the start of the walled city my heart soared. It was just like I had imagined it. Actually, it was better than I had imagined. This city was my favorite of the trip so far. We spent almost two weeks here. We just could not bring ourselves to leave. Our days in Cartagena were spent waking up fairly early before the sun was up too high and getting breakfast (huge fruit salads, coffee, and cold fresh exotic fruit juice) and just strolling around the city. We would then spend the hottest parts of the day watching the World Cup in bars, relaxing in our air conditioned hotel catching up on our blog and reading.

As the sun set, that was when the magic started in this city. The temperatures cooled, the streets began filling up with people, live Cuban music poured out of street side bars. We ate delicious Caribbean food, went to fancy restaurants that felt like we had time traveled back to Havana in the 1950s, ate wood fired pizzas in tree filled squares, drank many cold Club Colombia beers while listening the the rhythm of cuban beats, watched the sun set every night over the Caribbean from the wall and walked miles and miles around the city. While we were staying in Cartagena, my best friend Nicole visited for five days and we had a blast. It was fitting she visited us here at the start of our South American leg of this trip, because my last trip with her was in Argentina, seven years ago, my only other time on this continent. I can’t think of a city where we could have had more fun together, and it was so great to catch up and see her again. I miss my family and friends so much on this trip, when they visit it makes everything seem that much sweeter.

While we were in Cartagena we stayed at three different hotels, in three very different parts of the city, so I am going to group the pictures by neighborhood and since we have so many photos I love, it will have to be in two blog posts. So here is the crown jewel of Cartagena, the historic district:

El Centro and San Diego

El Centro at night. This is the best time to explore the city, it just pulses with energy. The bar on the left was Nicole’s favorite bar where they had live music and great drinks.

In Plaza Fernández de Madrid, this balcony was the inspiration for the Park of the Evangels in Love in the Time of Cholera, where Fermina would stand on the balcony and Florentino would pine for her.

Nicole asked me to take this photo one day while we were exploring, I love the colors of it. Thanks Nicole!

It is very hard to capture the magic of this city in pictures, but strolling around the streets let you discover new corners of beauty every day.

Nicole and I had so much fun in this city (while poor Sam was freeing the truck from customs).

We went to the Sofitel on day for drinks because I had read the it was the favorite haunt of Gabriel Garcia Marquez who died this year. We made a toast to him and got to know Mateo the hotels pet toucan who will actually fly over and drink from your cocktail!

The city is full of very fancy hotels, we could not even afford a drink in some of them, but we sure took in the view!

Cartagena is famous for its door knockers. This one was one of my favorites.

Exploring the wall in the crazy peak heat, we did that only one day. I can’t believe people were playing soccer, it was the hottest weather we have had on the trip.

Our favorite entrance into the walled city at night.

One of the many stunning shops of El Centro. No wonder this entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage City.

I am not sure you can do a blog post about this city without including a picture of Botero’s curvy sculpture. Seemed like every tourist here was lined up to take this picture.

The colors were so vibrant in the punishing tropical sun.

When there started to be shade, exploring became fun again. Sam’s shirt in the picture is completely soaked with sweat. It was hard to not always look like a gross hot mess here. Without a hotel and AC we would not have stayed here as long as we did.

At Cafe del Mar where you have the best view and most over priced drinks in the city.

Nicole rented a three story apartment overlooking Cafe del Mar, this was our rooftop terrace. Yes, I have awesome friends =). And even with sunscreen I got crazy, dark brown. I have never been so tan in my life.

One day there was sporadic tropical rain, and it came down so hard that the streets in El Centro were flooded within thirty minutes. I have never seen so much rain so fast.

Within one hour there was water up to my knees in the streets. And two hours later, it was all gone. That was the only rain we had during our two week stay. Crazy!

Sam, again feeling the need to recreate the famous Karate Kid pose.

Oh, and while we were here, we watched Romancing the Stone again. Let me just say that it was much better when I was twelve……..