cartageña de indias: la ciudad

cartageña de indias lives up to its reputation: it is a BEAUTIFUL european city on the carribean coast of colombia. at least the old city does i didn't have time to see much else . . . i traveled with my friend betsy, whose cousin was getting married. we hatched the plan to go back in december, even then i didn't do much research before taking off. turns out, i'm becoming an incredibly lazy traveler.

i used to want to collect a lonely planet for each place i have visited. before leaving, i would read the history of the country, know all the coolest things to see, places to stay, etc. now, i feel like i barely know what i am going. i travel with less, but have a ton of travel accoutrement . . .

this meant betsy planned the whole trip, and i just kinda tagged along, which was pretty awesome. we stayed at the hotel puertas de cartageña, which i can recommend without reservation. the rooms were comfortable. the bed was one of the best i've had in a hotel. breakfast was amazing. super fresh, pressed juices etc. . . staff was super friendly and helpful. plus it isn't big and loud.

cartageña is a colonial era walled city . . .

you can see betsy walking on the sidewalk as i walk along the wall

it rained at least once everyday we were there

the storms were amazing

and it felt kinda good, because it was wicked hot!

on my first day there, we got trapped by a downpour

and found ourselves near this art . . .

giant cigarette butts

i loved it

because it bugs me that smokers are such litterers

what gives with just hucking your cigarette butt where ever you want?

how did that

i loved what this artist was doing.

suffice it to say,

i was pickin up what he was puttin down

simon bolivar

the liberator!

this dance was amazing.

they could move their bodies so quickly and in so many ways, i never knew possible

it was amazing . . .

ceviche

i ate on average one ceviche a day

and decided, there is no good reason i'm not making this at home

all the time . . .

SO YUMMY
perfect summer food

those peruvians knew what they were doing when they started cooking fish in lime juice

we visited the museum of gold

i actually spent an hour or so in a museum

the sign next to this beautiful lady said:

"the potters of the Rio Grande (amazon)

made funeral containers shaped like women, with rounded features . . .

these were deposited as part of a deceased person's funerary offerings.

and then my favorite:

WOMEN WERE LIKE BASKETS . . .

anyway . . . some gold:

people really went crazy for this stuff . . .

they used to dig up bodies from sacred burial grounds

and run off with the sacred goods

i guess it was all worth it,

because it paid for the spanish empire!

turns out cartageña is a hub of fashion

there are a number of spanish and italian designers that have shops

in ibiza, milano, an carageña . . .

i didn't know, and feel in love with a cool beaded belt

that was $80 USD

and kinda worth it

but then also, not really worth it

because who NEEDS an $80 belt

i loved that their was just art all over the place

DC needs more of this

and less stupid political cows.

cafe de mar

is THE place to watch the sunset

it kinda blue my mind! (get it)

scuba in cartegeña

i have heaps of photos from a glorious week in cartegeña. i am going to have to post in installments: mostly because i want to post a ton of photos, because it was just so spectacular and feels like it was 5 separate events: wedding (and la hora de loca); scuba; tayrona and barlovento; mud baths; cartegeña . . .
so . . . here's scuba

this is about a 35 minute boat ride from cartegeña...

this is the beach we ate lunch on

not the best sandwiches

but the lobster was AMAZING!

susan, a friend from the wedding, and joey, and paulo

betsy and susan had never dived,

so they took a quick intro course

and dove with us on our second dive . . .

this is part of what we saw

we dove to 2 shipwrecks!

it was my first wreck dive so i was pretty stoked!

once in the boat we found a cannon ball . .

twas too heavy to dive with

the ships were at about 65 ft underwater

we went into the boat

and found a big pocket of air

we all went up into it

and took our masks off

it smelled musky

it was pretty cool to have a conversation under 65 ft of water

these are bubble coming out of the boat . . . again, 65 ft underwater

joey

c'est moi

wait i mean

soy yo

dinner

:)

tiger fish

interesting story. . .

i thought these were only in south east asia . . .

turns out that was true, until a guy in miami decided he didn't want his pet tiger fish anymore

and they started reproducing

and now they are taking over the Caribbean . . .

at least that is the word on the street.