Cartagena

Just as you thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life in Santa Marta, I fooled you all by leaving! Ha!

I got a bus yesterday afternoon. The buses here are bloody cold- the air con is so high that I had to put my fleece on just to stop my lips from turning blue. We went via Barranquilla where, rather that going to the bus terminal, we stopped by the side of a busy road and a woman led me through the traffic to the middle where another woman hustled me to the other side and stuck me on a bus. We got here pretty quickly, so quickly that I didn't even reach the end of the movie- Spiderman, in Spanish.

So now I am in Cartagena (look at the map in the side bar) a UNESCO World Heritage site. There is loads of history, it was the main gateway for the slave industry here and that is still reflected in the people that make up the population. There was a big fire a few hundred years ago and since that time houses must be made of stone. It is a walled city that withstood many seiges after the town being ransacked by Sir Francis Drake, the vicious pirate. Independence was declared here then squashed by the Spaniards before it was finally acheived across the country after the defeat in Boyaca.

I am staying in a slightly unsatisfactory hotel which I must try and find a replacement for later. But I have been seduced into walking around the city this morning. I am in the heart of the old walled city right now and it is fantastically gorgeous. I have taken so many photos and it isn't even lunch time yet. I don't have the patience to do photos on here right now but maybe later.

I can see me staying here for a few days.....