JJ's Travelogue

Oh wow, what a world of difference from Panama City. Our first clue we were not in Kansas anymore was the airport: clean, modern, efficient. And empty. Immigrations & customs was a snap. Then walking out the doors into.. nothing. No swarms of touts hasseling, no cabbies yelling and honking, just a gentle breeze. Easy cab ride into town, and amazed to find that not only is Cartagena on the Carribean, it’s also fantastically rich in colonial architecture. It’s been preserved, but not in the Disneyesque way of some places I’ve seen.. this is a real, living city.

The city was founded in 1533, and in the 17th century work was begun on massive fortress walls that took 208 years to build, are an average of 12m x 17m thick, and are 11km long. These surround the old town, and look like a great place for morning runs (think China’s Great Wall, but shorter). And they didn’t ruin the beauty of it by putting up gads of safety barriers. You can walk right off the edge if you like and they won’t give a damn if you do, because they believe in personal responsibility – Josh’s reason #43 for leaving the U.S.

Every corner you turn is another glorious sight, whether it be the pastel colors, the grand balconies, or the interesting vendors in the street. There are a lot of vendors selling talk time on cell phones. They sit at tables on streetcorners or in doorways surrounded by a half-dozen cell phones. You tell them which one of the four mobile companies you want to use and you make your call. Not sure why this is better than pay phones or what the point of selecting the company is, since the prices seem to be about the same.

Away from the old city, on a peninsula reminiscent of Miami Beach, lies the modern city. It is predictably sterile and boring, with row upon row of condos and skyscraper hotels fronting the beach. Unfortunately the beach here is not much to write home about – a bit dirty and such – but apparently there are nice ones an hour out of town. I really don’t see why anyone would want to stay in the modern city when the old town is so much more beautiful, culturally interesting, and cheaper.

In the 24 hours I’ve been here, I already like the people – they’re not grumpy like the Panamanians and don’t stare as much as I’ve gotten elsewhere. They’re just regular folks going about their business.. but with a liveliness and energy that’s catchy (they say four Colombians in a room automatically becomes a party). There seems to be a middle class here, and the poor don’t appear to be as destitute as in Central America. The city buses are modern, clean and efficient (with A/C!) and appear to be city-run, which proves my point that municipal services do better when not left to the market forces. Oh, and there are street signs here, so you can actually use a map and find your way around! Central America could take a clue.

Another pleasant surprise is the prices – things are generally cheaper than in Panama. Drinks not by much, food a bit, but accommodation is much cheaper. I’m paying $10/night for a hotel room that would be double that or more in PC. I even saw some rooms for $4/night, but I need a window. No prison cells for me. My first clue of the low costs here was when I tried to withdraw a bunch of cash from the ATM – $120 worth is the most you can get! But perhaps this is to lessen the effect of muggings. So far, though, Cartagena feels far safer than PC.

Something about the city even feels vaguely European. Maybe it’s the old cobblestone streets combined with the post-modern bus stops. It’s just an all-around better vibe here. I continually forget that all I need to do to feel better is to simply remove myself to another location. It’s like David Byrne said in that movie, “When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don’t notice those things anymore.”

Last night I went for a walk along the promenade where a lot of clubs are and found a German brewpub serving real beer! Oh, I was in heaven after four months of weak piss. They were playing classic rock videos, so me and a local couple at the bar did our best air guitar and headbanging.

It’s amazing to me touts haven’t learned that when they walk up to a gringo and say, “Hello my friend..” what the gringo actually hears is, “I think you’re sucker enough to be swindled out of some money..” Do they really think we were born yesterday?

OMG, guess who just walked into the internet shop to say hello – Dom and Alex, the British couple that I seem to run into in every country. Fantastic. Sounds like we’ll see each other again for carnaval in Barranquilla. I was starting to wonder where I should be for Carnival when Marissa’s Colombian friend Eloisa suggested Barranquilla, a city in northern Colombia. Turns out it’s one of the largest Carnival celebrations in the world, and is more real and less touristy than Rio’s (the largest). Perfect!
I just learned that UNESCO calls Barranquilla’s carnaval one of the “world’s oral masterpieces and an intangible heritage of humanity”. Have a gander at these other ones. Looks like a shopping list of places to visit! I hope hotels haven’t already booked out.. hm, I’ll work on that tomorrow.

I actually have two new phone numbers. (Long story. But I have one in the iPhone and the other in the Treo, and they’re both with me most of the time). It appears I can send and receive texts from the first one, but maybe not the second one.
Comcell: +57 312-649-1812. Movistar: +57 318-545-8997.
It doesn’t look like I can send texts to Twitter from either number, so I can’t send tweets from my phone which kind of defeats the purpose.