When we say the word “Caribbean” we usually picture places like Barbados, Aruba, Bahamas, Saint Kitts, Martinique and a number of other small paradise islands shed by coconut trees, capped by volcanoes and bathed by turquoise blue seas. Cartagena is not yet a household name in the tourism industry, but it is on the map. San Andres is more difficult to locate. You may need to access Google Earth and you have to be geographically savvy to spot it!
Both places are in Colombia in Latin America. Thanks to its long Caribbean coast line, Colombia can offer tourist the famous three “Ss”, namely Sun, Sand, Sex and being Colombia, I will add a forth, Sin! Sins are plenty in Colombia, and they make headlines; its thorny relationship with its disruptive neighbor Venezuela, its flourishing cocaine trade and never ending hostage crisis get plenty of media coverage. .
All these nasty facts are very worrying but we were not on a humanitarian mission. We didn’t visit the country looking for sin, but rather for surprises, good surprises really. We were looking for relaxing and cultural vacations away from the crowd. The Colombian Caribbean coast is an unheralded treasure trove. Actually it has been a treasure trove for centuries; just check the résumés and stories of the buccaneers and other Pirates of the Caribbean who roamed its coast for centuries. The target of their covetousness was the city port Cartagena de Indias. More recently the city has been celebrated by its most famous son Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marqués. Many of his novels take place in the city; “Love in the Time of Cholera” is probably the most celebrated. Last year, the eponymous film was shot in the city.
The city of Cartagena is rather unique and cannot be compared with any other city. It is certainly the only walled port city of the New World left standing dans son jus, original, not tampered with. Its name “de Indias” indicates that the Spanish “discoverers” believed they had landed somewhere else. Soon Cartagena became the darling of generations of privateers, buccaneers and other pirates. They fell over themselves to lay siege to the city, demand hefty ransom it and plunder the Spanish galeones loaded with Peruvian gold and silver. Cartagena became a victim of serial looting as it lured the crème de la crème of piracy. Francis Drake gunned the cathedral tower; John Hawkins plundered the city with a vengeance. Not to be outdone, Henry Morgan also wanted to try his hands on Cartagena, but his boat mysteriously burned down and he had to abandon his plans.
Then again, French corsairs were the most daring. Take the case of Jean-Francois la Roque de Roberval, scion of French aristocracy, a consumed Renaissance man, hero of the colonization of Canada, and hunting buddy of French King Francis I (cousin of scoundrel Henry VIII). Having found only pyrite and mica instead of gold and diamonds in Canada, and to improve his financial standing the guy didn’t resist a little booty hunting on the sly. In the pirating business he is known by the alias Roberto Baal. When returning to France from Quebec he made a short detour through Cartagena, where with his men he indulged in burning, raping and feasting for months on end.
Another well-born ruffian was Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis. His Cartagena loot made him immensely rich and so powerful that he helped the Sun King to pay for the expenses of building Versailles. Boosted by his success, he attacked Gibraltar but failed. Cartagena learned its lesson; enough was enough, so when British Admiral Edward Vernon’s powerful fleet of 186 boats entered the bay, the city resisted and thanks to divine assistance was saved from another looting. Vernon’s troops were for the most part decimated by yellow fever. George Washington’s half brother was among the survivors; back in the Virginia colony he named his estate Mont Vernon in honor of his chief. 
Nowadays assaults are of a more gentle nature. Tourists come to stroll the pleasant streets lined with brightly painted colonial houses, all in shades of yellow, ochre, red, orange even blue. The bucolic wooden balconies are lavishly flowered. The result is utterly romantic, and with a little help from Garcia Marqués, Cartagena is selling itself as a city for lovers. The city’s most famous lovers are the two lovebird of “Love in the Time of Cholera”, the no-nonsense Fermina and lovesick Florentino Ariza. Today’s visiting lovers have a tough act to follow: When waiting and pining for Fermina, Florentino engaged in no less than 622 love affairs!
Weddings are becoming big business in colonial Cartagena . Tourism agencies sell hassle-free wedding-honeymoon packages. The colonial churches have been restored to their original splendor and marching down the aisle takes a special meaning in creamy pink colored Santo Domingo church. For good measure, the convents have been converted into hotels. If lovers are afraid of sleeping in the cell of this wretched girl Sierva María in the Santa Clara convent now the Sofitel, they can choose from a large selection of boutique hotels in the colonial centre. Garcia Marques’ weird characters lurk in every corner of Cartagena. In Marqués’spooky novel “Love and other Demons” Sierva María is a girl eccentric enough to be thought to require the services of an exorcist.
Grooms to be should be well advised to come to Cartagena with the engagement ring in their pocket. Beautiful emeralds are produced in Colombia and not far from the city, and jewelry shops are everywhere. Quantity is no substitute for quality. Locally manufactured jewels are pretty ugly and old fashioned and not in the same league as the jewelry available in Rio de Janeiro. Pity H. Stern has not set up shop in Cartagena.
Modern hotels along the Bocagrande beaches are to be avoided. By Brazilian standards, the beaches are ugly and unkempt. The hotels are perfunctory without any charm; they mainly appeal to package tours and cruise tourists on a budget.
Since 1984, Cartagena is been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Thanks to UNESCO’s supervision, the hideous urban development takes place outside the historic walled city. The old city is fiercely protecting its laid-back ways. Colombians from other parts of the country like to tell the story of the politician who was running for high office and when he promised jobs for every inhabitant of Cartagena, he was nearly killed….
San Andres Island is part of small archipelago off the coast of Nicaragua. Because of its location, it is a bone of contention between the two countries and their respective bickering presidents. A one-hour-flight takes you there. Although very different, San Andres is often packaged with Cartagena. Actually thanks to our package we flew free to the island. Here is the trick. In order to avoid the Bocagrande package-tours hotels, you have to select one in San Andres. A much better solution as there is more choice on the island. We picked up boutique hotel Decameron Los Delfines, which is off limit to large groups. You nonetheless have access to all the hotels of the chain. These hotels are all inclusive, booze included.
By Caribbean island standards San Andres is still quite rustic and unpretentious. The locals speak Creole a mixture of English, Spanish and French, a legacy of their ethnic mix. The island was colonized by Puritans from England and Holland and because it offered little strategic value it became a pirate stronghold. Henry Morgan didn’t make it to Cartagena but he established his household on the island.
The island is very laid back, music is heard everywhere and I hope that it stays this way. Some tourists are disappointed by its lack of sophistication and glitz. But for the jaded traveler like me it was a welcome change. The only compromise to modernity is its duty free status. San Andres has become a “sin” destination where cigarettes, liquor, and perfume are dirt cheap. The island is not for teetotalers.
After culture-soaked Cartagena, the cultural desert of San Andres came as a relaxing antidote. We were pleasantly surprised to see signs in French and decided to join the French speaking chiva bus tour of the island. The chiva bus is a Colombian invention, colorfully painted in red, yellow and blue (the Colombian flag), it has wooden benches instead of seats, and “doorless doors” instead of windows. A reputable chiva is equipped with sound equipment more powerful that its engine, it is in fact a boom box on wheels. It also has an open bar. On the driver seat was our disc jockey who accessorily remembered to hold the steering wheel and drive the bus. The reggae and rumba music was blaring and our fellow passengers went wild. They were all from Quebec and we were afforded a crash course in Quebecois French.
The island has not yet been discovered by mass tourism and may never be. It is off the itinerary of the WiFi set; broad band connection is not yet available in the old fashioned Internet cafes. Tourists are principally coming from Latin America and from Canada, Quebec in particular. They come for the duty free shopping, the rum punch, the sea food, the white sand beaches, the snorkeling and the relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Beware of falling coconuts; otherwise the island is very safe. |
URL site map
