March 11, 2023: Cartagena (Author: J)
(Photo: buildings in the historic center)
We decided not to preplan our time in Cartagena other than to make dinner reservations. That meant that we were able to forego alarms for the first few days of the trip. On our first full day in the city, I woke up first, as I usually do, and made use of the shower without an audience. Privacy is not easy to come by in a room with no doors or walls around the shower and only a glass partition around the toilet. The lack of doors on bathrooms in our hotels in Colombia became a running joke for us.
By the time I was ready, the rest of the family was starting to stir. When everyone was dressed, we slathered ourselves in sunscreen and headed downstairs for breakfast, which was included in our room rate. The breakfast at Hotel Bantu consists of a small buffet of fruit, breads, meats and cheeses, and a few hot items. There are also eggs cooked to order. Our server explained all of this to us in Spanish but switched to English when I merely nodded in response instead of ordering eggs. We found that almost everyone working in the tourist areas of Cartagena spoke at least some English. Their willingness to listen to my mangled Spanish seemed to be inversely proportional to their comfort level speaking English.
After breakfast, we walked to the Exito supermarket just a few blocks from our hotel to use the ATM and purchase some bottled water. Then we walked to our first destination of the day: Parque del Centenario. The sidewalks of the historic center were much less crowded than they had been the prior evening, which gave us a chance to look around and soak in the ambiance — the colorful buildings; the tiny, sculpted animals on every door; the smell of urine rising from the cobblestone streets. I was charmed. I say this with no sarcasm. I loved Cartagena. Not the pee smell, of course. But no place is perfect.
(Photo: squirrel in Parque del Centenario)
Parque del Centenario is a small park just outside the city walls. It was at the top of our Cartagena agenda because it has the one thing P most appreciates about a destination: monkeys. My understanding is that the monkeys who live in the park were rescued from the illegal pet trade and released into the park. They are a mixed family of cotton top and white handed tamarins who live a semi-wild lifestyle in the city. They are free to roam, but it seems like they are fed to encourage them to stay in the park. I inferred the bit about feeding based upon the big pile of fruit on the ground in the center of the park.
Even though the park is not large, spotting a few tiny monkeys still posed a challenge. Fortunately, a park employee who saw us scanning the trees approached us. “Sloth?” he asked. “Sloth. Si! Sloth!” we replied. The park worker led us to a tree containing a three-toed sloth. We took some photos. “Mono?” he then proposed. Finding the monos required climbing up onto the landscaped areas of the park, something that the park employee assured us was okay. He then pointed out a tree that contained an entire family of monkeys. P happily watched and photographed the monkeys for quite a while. I don’t know what the proper etiquette is in this situation, but D did tip the park employee; he had made our son’s day, after all.
(Photo: monkey in Parque del Centenario)
(Photo: a boy who really likes monkeys)
After the monkeys scampered out of sight, we made the short walk back through the city gates and continued our stroll. At the gates, we bought a limonada from one of the vendors. It was refreshingly cold, but too sweet for our taste. We wound up discarding most of it. We walked aimlessly for a bit, stopping to peek into buildings that interested us. But P soon began to complain that he was hot. We rejected his suggestion to return to the hotel but did agree to find some air conditioning. The Palace of the Inquisition appealed to D, so we headed in that direction. We found the building easily enough but could not figure out where the entrance was. After being turned away by a security guard at one of the doors, we decided to visit the Naval Museum instead. It was a short walk from the Palace of the Inquisition and featured a clearly marked entrance.
(Photo: Cartagena Cathedral)
The Naval Museum is split between the colonial maritime history of Cartagena and a history of the Colombian Navy. It’s a great choice if you are traveling with kids because many of the exhibits are interactive. The woman selling tickets warned us that the exhibits were entirely in Spanish, but we did not find that to be a problem. First, there are English descriptions on some of the exhibits. Second, Google translate makes it easy to convert Spanish descriptions into English. We spent an enjoyable and refreshingly cool hour or so in the museum. Then, we ventured back into the humidity and started off in the direction of our hotel.
(Photo: fun in the Naval Museum)
We planned to break up the less than ten-minute walk by stopping for lunch along the way. That proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated. The route we took did not bring us past any food carts and many of the restaurants were either closed or too fancy for a quick lunch. We eventually found a pizza place with outdoor seating. The restaurant seemed to cater to cruise ship passengers, which meant that it drew vendors and street performers by the dozens. Because we were eating, we could not escape their sales pitches, but we still found that a firm “No, gracias” did the trick. Only the sunglass seller persisted after “no.” An “adios, senor” in a decidedly impolite tone encouraged him to move along.
After our quick and adequate meal, we reoriented ourselves and realized that we could see Hotel Bantu from where we had been sitting. But, before returning to the hotel, we had an emergency to attend to. We had now been on vacation for nearly 24 hours and P had not had a single mouthful of ice cream. Thankfully, Amore Mio Gelateria was just around the corner. This is a cute little place to stop for an afternoon treat. The staff are friendly, the gelato comes in an array of flavors, and there is an upstairs seating area with big windows for people-watching. With our ice cream intake at an acceptable level, we finally returned to Hotel Bantu for more pool time. I wasn’t particularly in the mood for swimming, so I hit for the hot tub instead. To say that the hot tub was not hot is a spectacular understatement. It would take several degrees of warming to bring the hot tub to the temperature of the pool. Still, it was the hottest hot tub we experienced in Colombia.
After our swim, we relaxed in the room for a bit. P and I played cards while D read. Then, it was time to dress for our dinner reservation at Cande. I decided to book a meal at Cande after seeing it featured on several YouTubers’ travel vlogs. The ambiance, which includes live folkloric dancing, looked like fun. It was. To my surprise, P listed this as his favorite dining experience in Colombia. He says, “Dancing is cringe, but watching other people dance is nice.” The only negative thing I can say about Cande is that the portions are too big. After our stuffed eggplant and mote de queso (a cheese and yam soup) appetizers, we barely had room for our main dishes. We did manage to end our meal with a shared dessert of banana cake with kola ice cream. P was quite taken with the ice cream because it looked and tasted like a frozen Kola Roman, the red soft drink that P had sampled the evening before. After a leisurely meal, we walked back to Hotel Bantu for more relaxing.
Travel Monkeys 