HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: The beautiful city of Cartenga
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing but it should be back in Rosita
WORD OF THE DAY: BEACH
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 400km
We leave Taganga and head for the beach city of Cartagena (pronounced Cartaheena) today for another 3 glorious days in one place. The drive was not supposed to be too long today, so it is with a little trepidation that we caught the transfer bus from Taganga to Rosita, where she had been parked in a service station for the last 3 days still in one piece. Gray had been busy and had fixed her inverted so we now had the fridge back, lights (in case we have another long drive) and recharging facilities again.
Back on the road at 10am and with only 400km to cover today, that really doesn’t mean too much when we only had 200km to travel a few days ago and it took 8 hours. In saying that, we were travelling through the Andes where-as this was going to be a coastal drive day, so it would really only be traffic that would hold us up or road works. Famous last words and possibly a jinx? We also found out that The Summits of the America’s was finishing today, so there would be a massive security presence that may affect the traffic once in Cartenga getting to the hotel. Barrack Obama was in town!
The Summits of the Americas are institutionalized gatherings of the heads of state and government of the Western Hemisphere where leaders discuss common policy issues, affirm shared values and commit to concerted actions at the national and regional level to address continuing and new challenges faced in the Americas. In April 2012 the 34 Heads of State and Government will address the Sixth Summit central theme, “Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity", which focuses on the role of physical integration and regional cooperation as a means to achieve greater levels of development and to overcome the Hemisphere’s challenges in several key areas including poverty and inequalities, citizen security, disasters and access to technologies. The Summit, which occurs every three years, offers the opportunity for countries to jointly define a hemispheric agenda at the highest level to address urgent challenges and propel positive change.
Just after our toilet stop at 11.30am we were pulled over by a security checkpoint. I’m not sure if they were traffic police or police, but when we pulled over there were 2 of them. Mark had to get out of the cab, looking all official and then they shook his hand and were all smiles and happy jib jabbing in Spanish. The group of police grew to 10 as they came over to have a look at the truck and 3 of them came on board just for a sticky beak. NO passport checks, just a look around a friendly wave and then we were on our way. I saw 2 of them as we drove off taking pictures on their phones. I told you we were an unusual scene and I’m starting to feel a little like a freak show, in a good sort of way. As mentioned there aren’t a lot of tours that come to these countries, Tucan only come up here o9nce a year and last year they didn’t make it this far as the weather didn’t hold and the truck got flooded in at Santa Marta I think and the passengers had to fly to Bogota.
We arrived into Cartenga just after 3.30pm. The first thing you noticed was the security. There were police officers every 100m along the main road we were driving on, armed mind you. We must have looked like a massive security risk, this big yellow truck full of Gringos driving through town at the height of the delegates leaving and in transit. My first glimpse of the city from the water front, the skyline reminds me of Panama City or the Gold Coast. Lots of tall apartment buildings, residential and office and it was stunning. We were able to off load out the front of the hotel and Sharon and I were determined to get a post office run done during our 3 days here, so we also had to take our postage bags off the truck along with everything else. I was going to try and hold on to this stuff till I get home, but I am really not keen on checking in 2 bags, so I’m just going to post it from here, even though I heard it was expensive to post things from Colombia, like washing it is just something that I just need to suck up. I also want to have some room for my market shopping at Otavalo in Ecuador, which is the largest markets in South America and we are there on the biggest day, Saturday. So I still may end up with 2 bags, we’ll see!
Cartagena de Indias is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region. The city had a population of 892,545making it the fifth-largest city in Colombia and giving the Cartagena urban area the status of fifth-largest urban area in Colombia. Cartagena is a center of economic activity in the Caribbean, as well a popular tourist destination. Activity and development of the Cartagena region is dated back to 4000 B.C. around Cartagena Bay by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. The Spanish colonial city was founded on June 1, 1533 and named after Cartagena, Spain. Cartagena served a key role in the development of the region during the Spanish eras; it was a center of political and economic activity due to the presence of royalty and wealthy viceroys. In 1984, Cartagena's colonial walled city and fortress were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Cartagena was founded on June 1, 1533 by Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia, in the former location of the indigenous Caribbean Calamarí village. The town was named after Cartagena, Spain, where most of Heredia's sailors had resided. Initially, the city had fewer than 2000 inhabitants and only one church. The dramatically increasing fame and wealth of the prosperous city turned it into an attractive plunder site for pirates and corsairs – French and English privateers licensed by their king. 30 years after its founding, the city was pillaged by the French nobleman Jean-François Roberval. The city set about strengthening its defenses and surrounding itself with walled compounds and castles. Martin Cote, a Basque from Biscay, attacked years later. A few months after the disaster of the invasion of Cote, a fire destroyed the city and forced the creation of a firefighting squad, the first in the Americas.
Many pirates planned to attack Cartagena, which became more and more interesting to them. In 1568, Sir John Hawkins of England tried to trick Gov. Martín de las Alas to go against Spanish law and open a foreign fair in the city to sell goods, planning to ravage the port afterwards. The governor declined, and Hawkins besieged the city, but failed. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake, also of England, and nephew of Hawkins, came with a strong fleet and quickly took the city. The governor, Pedro Fernández de Busto, fled with the Archbishop to the neighboring town of Turbaco, and from there negotiated the costly ransom for the city: 107,000 Spanish Eight Reales of the time, or around 200 million in today's US dollars. Drake had destroyed one-quarter of the city, the developing Palace of the Township, and the recently finished cathedral. After this disaster, Spain poured millions every year into the city for its protection, beginning with Gov. Francisco de Murga's planning of the walls and forts; this practice was called Situado. The magnitude of this subsidy is shown by comparison: between 1751 and 1810, the city received the sum of 20,912,677 Spanish reales, the equivalent of some 2 trillion dollars today. The city recovered quickly from the attack and occupation by Drake and kept growing, and continued to attract attention from its opponents. Cartagena was a major trading port, especially for precious metals. Gold and silver from the mines in the New Granada and Peru were loaded in Cartagena on the galleons bound for Spain via Havana. Cartagena was also a slave port; Cartagena and Veracruz, (Mexico), were the only cities authorized to trade African slaves. The first slaves were transported by Pedro de Heredia and were used as cane cutters to open roads, as laborers to destroy the tombs of the aboriginal population of Sinú, and to construct buildings and fortresses. The agents of the Portuguese company Cacheu sold slaves from Cartagena for working in mines in Venezuela, the West Indies, the Nuevo Reino de Granada and the Viceroyalty of Perú.
After checking in, my new roomie Sharon and I joined the group downstairs to get a run down on what optional tours were on offer for the next few days. While we waited I realized in Australian time it was Tessie’s birthday. My god-daughter turns 5, so when I worked out the time difference it was 7.50am in the morning and the perfect time to call before she goes to school. Since I now had a Colombian sim card I just used my mobile to make the call and after a few attempts I got through and it was so good to hear their voices. I spoke to the birthday gal first, then Zoe and finally Shelly. I wasn’t sure how much credit I had left but I got 6 minutes (amazing how much can be said in that time) before I said I had to go for the tour briefing. As I hung up the phone I received a text from the phone company that I was low on credit, so for 5AUD I got a 6 minute call and about 10 text messages sent out, so it’s pretty good value. I still can’t receive any messages which is frustrating, but I am not the only one in that boat. Mark can get them but can’t send them. Stupid phone companies. Billy was the hotels resident character/tour desk person and he ran through the 3 main things to do while in town. One was to visit the islands for the day, a volcano trip to soak yourself in mud and the city tour. I figured I could my Caribbean experience while I am in Barbados, so I skipped the islands option, I’m not into soaking myself in mud but the city tour sounded interesting as there was a lot to see in this wonderful city so Sharon and I both booked onto that for tomorrow afternoon. It was only 55,000 which is like 25AUD for 4 hours and includes all the entrance fees. Can’t go wrong with that I say.
Mark then walked people into the old town, but Shaz and I thought we were going tomorrow, so no need to go tonight, so I am proud to say we walked the 10 minutes to McDonalds and had a Big Mac and chips for dinner and it was delicious and for 22,000, McDonalds seems to be the same price the world over. No matter what country you’re in, the conversion always works out to be around 7AUD for a meal. It was a new Macca’s by the look of it and they had a refill soft drink station and 4 different sauces you could fill little cups with and extra gherkins and onions if you wanted, all at a self-service bar.
We were in town with a lot of important people tonight. Some of them were leaving town, but security was at an all-time high, so for us this was probably a good thing in regards to our own safety and getting primed for a theft. I had a friend that was here a few years back and they went to check into their hostel and weren’t allowed to as the night before all the people had been marched into the courtyard of the hostel and robbed at gunpoint. Yeah there’s enough security here to keep the heads of state safe, I think we will also be okay! So who was in town?
Antigua and Barbuda, Winston Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister
Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, President
Bahamas (Commonwealth of), Hubert Alexander Ingraham, Prime Minister
Barbados, Freundel Stuart Jerome, Prime Minister
Belize, Dean Oliver Barrow, Prime Minister
Bolivia, Juan Evo Morales, President
Brazil, Dilma Vana Rousseff, President
Canada, Stephen Joseph Harper, Prime Minister
Chile, Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique, President
Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderon, President
Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, Dominica (Commonwealth of), Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister Ecuador, Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, President El Salvador, Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena, President Grenada, Tillman Thomas Joseph, Prime Minister Guatemala, Otto Perez Molina, President Guyana, Donald Ramotar, President Haiti, Michel Joseph Martelly, President Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, President Jamaica, Portia Simpson Miller, Prime Minister Paraguay, Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez, President Peru, Ollanta Moises Humala Tasso, President Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, President Saint Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Llewellyn Douglas, Prime Minister Saint Lucia, Kenny Davis Anthony, Prime Minister Mexico, Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa, President Nicaragua, Jose Daniel Ortega Saavedra, President Panama, Ricardo Alberto Martinelli, President Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama II, President |
Not a bad line up I must say. So as Sharon and I walked back to the hotel we felt like we were in safe hands. We stopped at a supermarket to get some water and I bought 10,000 (5AUD) of credit for my mobile phone. A call is well and truly over due to Zeme, so I will do that in the morning to try and catch him in the afternoon in Africa as he is still on tour till Friday. Back at the hotel Sharon and I have finalized Scotland and we are now booked for the 20th August-01st September. I booked through Sharon’s agent in New Zealand for the ease of booking us together and I advised my credit card details tonight, so it’s locked, booked and paid for. Nothing like a last minute additional to the world Odyssey. I’ll have to make sure I tell Cheify, she will be very jealous I am heading back to her home country.
So with only the city tour booked for tomorrow afternoon, it is great to have 3 nights in a place and some free time and hopefully some beach time, as our hotel is only located one block away from the beach. Sounds like heaven doesn’t it!
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