Cartagena: Final thoughts/assessment

Old Town Cartagena reminded me of Barrio Santa Cruz in Sevilla, Spain. I suppose the closest thing in the US would be the quiet, residential part of New Orleans’ French Quarter. It’s nice in the daytime because you can better see the architectural details and also sneak peeks into interior gardens/courtyards. But at night, it’s visually enchanting.

Like Sri Lanka, I was seemingly the whitest person in Colombia. If the folks noticed how fair my skin is (and I’m sure they must have), they didn’t register it at all. Unlike Sri Lanka, no one stared at me during the trip.

The attitude of the locals was polite but not too friendly, and the service was not doting. Everything was very matter-of-fact. Nothing bad or outwardly hostile, but we didn’t make real emotional connections when we were speaking with locals. Also, very, very few people speak English, so brush up on your Espanol before traveling to Colombia.

The weather was greyer and rainier than I would've liked (I think the dry season ended in April). However, it was very hot and very humid the entire time, which was what I was really after. Actually if it had been full-on sun with that much humidity, we probably wouldn’t have spent as much time walking around exploring the city. So it all worked out in the end.

We encountered only a handful of Americans during our week in Cartagena, and practically all of the “gringos” we met were European or Australian backpackers. So Colombia’s reputation and international perception is still suffering from drug-related violence of the 1980s and early 1990s. While the city is a tourist destination, the tourists are overwhelmingly from other parts of Colombia and South America.

There was some visible security (guards with machine guns) on major roads/highways. Otherwise just the occasional policemen, more were out in the busy tourist squares during the day on Saturday.

Cartagena seemed a lot cleaner & safer than NYC's East Village, and I recommend it to folks who want to travel to a place that is not yet over-run with Americans.