Steve and Cathy's Blog

Unfortunately we won’t arrive in Cartagena (often referred to as Cartagena de Indias) until 11:00am, so we take advantage of the extra time and have a full breakfast in the Grand Dining Room.   As with all the meals, everything is perfectly prepared and creatively presented. In fact, our meals are so good, we take pictures of them! Steve has Swedish pancakes and bacon, Cathy has the “egg special of the day,” spinach waffle with poached egg, mornay sauce and Canadian bacon.” Yummy yummy!

We cruise into this harbor on a beautiful – but hot– morning.  Our excursion, Highlights of Cartagena, begins promptly at 11:45 and will last four hours.  We must be back on board at 4:30 for a 5:00pm departure.  This is not doing justice to all there is to see and do in this city, but it is an introduction.

Bocagrande Harbor and skyline

We board the bus and meet our guide Herbert.  It is a short ride to our first stop, and on the way, he tells us that Colombia is divided into 32 Departments plus the Capital District of Bogota, the nation’s capital, that Cartagena is the capital of Bolivar Department, and that this city of one million is the fifth largest in population behind Bogota (8 million), Medellin (3 million), Calle (2.5 million), Barranquilla (1.2 million).

Cartagena was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia, and he named the city after the city of the same name in Spain from where many of the sailors on his ship came.  He was assisted by India Catalina, who acted as a guide, interpreter and intermediary.  A statue to honor her was presented to the city in 1974.

Herbert tells us that Cartagena is actually comprised of five islands separated  by rivers and inlets.  As we drive around, we can see how this would be, although the area is so built up that the topography is not that obvious.

We arrive at our first stop, the incredible Castillo de San Felipe Barajas.  This fortress was constructed beginning in 1536 and significantly expanded between 1639 and 1657, and is considered to be the most important military structure built by the Spanish in their colonies.  Its principal function was to protect Cartagena, which had become the main port between Spain and its overseas empire, and thus it attracted much attention from pirates and privateers.

Here is a brief description from Wikipedia: “The fortification consists of a series of walls, wide at the base and narrow toward the parapet, forming a formidable pattern of bunkers. The batteries and parapets protect one another, so making it practically impossible to take a battery without taking the whole defense system. The castle is striking for its grand entrance and its complex maze of tunnels. It is the most formidable defensive complex of Spanish military architecture. It is 41 meters (135 ft.) above sea level.”

Because it is on a hill, it is a fair hike to get to the top.  Herbert gives everyone in our group a label with “Herbert” written on it so he can keep track of us while we explore the castle.  It really is impressive, and the ingenuity in its design, especially the tunnel system, is fascinating.  We are there for more than half an hour and the views of the city are stunning.

One of the views is of La Popa hill, where the convent of La Candelabra was built in 1606.  It was named La Popa because the shape of the hill resembles the poop deck of a ship.  Here is more on the history of this area from Wikipedia: “The religious complex dates back to 1607, when the original wooden chapel and palm of the Popa was erected, thanks to the preaching of the Discalced Augustinian friar Vicente Mallol.

A year later, the convent was built, initially called Santa Cruz, and afterwards it was given the name of la Popa, to have the shape of a galley, whose stern is the extremity where the church currently stands.

A wealthy Neapolitan, Don Fabricio Sánchez, paid the expenses, and once the ecclesiastical and civil procedures of rigor were fulfilled, Fray Alonso de la Cruz Paredes, of the order of the Augustinian Recollects, was named as superior of the convent of La Popa.

The chronicle says that while Friar Alonso de la Cruz Paredes in the convent of the Candelaria of Ráquira (a town of the Colombian Andean area), the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and ordered him to build a church on the hill closest to Cartagena, in order to return the Christian faith to this land, in which the legend says, inhabited an evil spirit, in the form of a goat, which the mulattoes worshiped under the direction of the native Luis Andrea, who ended his days in a cell of the Inquisition.

The friar fulfilled his mission and threw the animal from the top of the hill. Since then the Cartagena people call to the precipice, the Salto del Cabrón, in allusion to the goat.

By 1612 the convent was almost finished and 15,000 ducats had been invested in it, a very respectable sum at the time. The construction took about 6 or 7 years to finish.”

The only downside of the tour is that, at the fort, there are dozens and dozens of people walking up to you hawking souvenirs.  Herbert tells us not to initiate a conversation, or else we all will be bombarded with them, but it is hard not to make some contact.  The vendors are polite but pretty insistent, and Cathy especially is irritated but sympathetic to their situation.

We complete our tour and board the bus for a drive through the Manga neighborhood, which our guide tells us was once where the oldest families in the city lived.  It was also known – and apparently named after – the mango trees that grew there.  He also gives us a couple of pieces of trivia.  The number 11 is very important in Colombia, primarily because independence was declared by Colombia on 11/11/1811.  Also, the number 6 is important, but I’ll be darned if I can remember why.

We will spend the rest of our tour in the walled city, which is one of the best examples of colonial architecture in South America. There are 6.8 miles of walls built by Spain to protect the city from pirates.  The building of these walls began sometime in the mid to late -1500s as near as I can tell, and the construction took almost fifty years.  In the meantime, the French pirate Robert Baal and the English privateer Francis Drake were two of the more successful of their profession to rob and plunder the city, but by the second decade of the 17^thcentury, the walls made the city practically impregnable.

Museo Naval de Caribe

Within the walls is the area denoted as the downtown area.  There are hundreds of colonial and post-colonial (republican) buildings maintained in perfect condition, built along narrow streets or surrounding large plazas.  The official entrance of the area during its colonial period is at the Puerta del Reloj (Clock Tower Gate).

Our first stop within the walled city is this:

Las Bovedas is now a shopping area where some very nice local crafts as well as tons of ordinary souvenirs are found.  Here is a brief Wikipedia description of the building’s original purpose: “They were built as dungeons. They are located between the forts of Santa Clara and Santa Catalina.

“The cells in the dungeon now house shops, boutiques and other businesses along the stout walls protecting the old city of Cartagena, Colombia.

“The arcades deep in the walls were designed as storage vaults but were used as prison cells during the civil wars in the 19th century; at high tide, the unfortunate internees were up to their knees in seawater.

“The 23 bombproof vaults were built between 1789 and 1795, based on Antonio de Arebalo’s design. The 47 porticos were completed in 1798. The vaults were used by the Spanish Crown as a garrison, the same purpose used by patriot and republican forces.”

Cathy quickly tires of the shopping because of the crowds and retreats to the bus, but Steve hangs around to buy some stuff, take pictures of the young ladies posing and photos of some of the beautiful buildings in the surrounding neighborhood:

Our bus takes us through a few more next neighborhoods enroute to our stop.  Here are a couple of photos taken from the bus, including gorgeous Teatro Heredia:

This is the Teatro Heredia

Our next stop is this:

The plaza and the church bearing the name San Pedro Claver are memorials to a remarkable man whose life and worked are celebrated annually in Colombia.  The Wikipedia post on the man and his life are very well worth reading, so I am including several excerpts here: “Saint Peter Claver, S.J., (Spanish: Pedro Claver y Corberó, Catalan: Pere Claver i Corberó) (26 June 1580 – 8 September 1654) was a Catalan Jesuit priest and missionary born in Verdú (Catalonia) who, due to his life and work, became the patron saint of slaves, the Republic of Colombia, and ministry to African Americans. During the 40 years of his ministry in Colombia it is estimated he personally baptized around 300,000 people. He is also patron saint for seafarers. He is considered a heroic example of what should be the Christian praxis of love and of the exercise of human rights.  The Congress of the Republic of Colombia declared September 9 as the Human Rights national Day in his honor.

“Claver volunteered for the Spanish colonies and was sent to the Kingdom of the New Granada, where he arrived in the port city of Cartagena in 1610.  Required to wait six years to be ordained as a priest while he did his theological studies, he lived in Jesuit houses at Tunja and Bogotá. During those preparatory years, he was deeply disturbed by the harsh treatment and living conditions of the black slaves who were brought from Africa.

“By this time, the slave trade had been established in the Americas for about a century. Local natives were considered not physically suited to work in the gold and silver mines and this created a demand for blacks from Angola and Congo. These were bought in West Africa for four crowns a head, or bartered for goods and sold in America for an average two hundred crowns apiece. Others were captured at random, especially able-bodied males and females deemed suitable for labor.

“Cartagena was a slave-trading hub. 10,000 slaves poured into the port yearly, crossing the Atlantic from West Africa under conditions so foul that an estimated one-third died in transit. Although the slave trade was condemned by Pope Paul III and Urban VIII had issued a papal decree prohibiting slavery, (later called “supreme villainy” by Pope Pius IX), it was a lucrative business and continued to flourish.

“When he was solemnly professed in 1622, Claver signed his final profession document in Latin as: Petrus Claver, aethiopum semper servus (Peter Claver, servant of the Ethiopians [i.e. Africans] forever).

” … Claver preferred to head for the wharf as soon as a slave ship entered the port. Boarding the ship, he entered the filthy and diseased holds to treat and minister to their badly treated, terrified human cargo, who had survived a voyage of several months under horrible conditions. It was difficult to move around on the ships, because the slave traffickers filled them to capacity. The slaves were often told they were being taken to a land where they would be eaten. Claver wore a cloak, which he would lend to anyone in need. A legend arose that whoever wore the cloak received lifetime health and was cured of all disease. After the slaves were herded from the ship and penned in nearby yards to be scrutinized by crowds of buyers, Claver joined them with medicine, food, bread, brandy, lemons and tobacco. With the help of interpreters and pictures which he carried with him, he gave basic instructions.

“Claver saw the slaves as fellow Christians, encouraging others to do so as well. During the season when slavers were not accustomed to arrive, he traversed the country, visiting plantation after plantation, to give spiritual consolation to the slaves.  During his 40 years of ministry it is estimated that he personally catechized and baptized 300,000 slaves. He would then follow up on them to ensure that as Christians they received their Christian and civil rights. His mission extended beyond caring for slaves, however. He preached in the city square, to sailors and traders and conducted country missions, returning every spring to visit those he had baptized, ensuring that they were treated humanely. During these missions, whenever possible he avoided the hospitality of planters and overseers; instead, he would lodge in the slave quarters.

Claver’s work on behalf of slaves did not prevent him from ministering to the souls of well-to-do members of society, traders and visitors to Cartagena (including Muslims and English Protestants) and condemned criminals, many of whom he spiritually prepared for death; he was also a frequent visitor at the city’s hospitals. Through years of unremitting toil and the force of his own unique personality, the slaves’ situation slowly improved. In time he became a moral force, the Apostle of Cartagena.

“He was canonized in 1888 by Pope Leo XIII, along with the holy Jesuit porter, Alphonsus Rodriguez. In 1896 Pope Leo also declared Claver the patron of missionary work among all African peoples. His body is preserved and venerated in the church of the Jesuit residence, now renamed in his honor.”

We were quite taken by the story of this humble man’s life and how he lived out his Christian beliefs.  There is every reason that Cartagena considers him their patron saint.

Our next stop was Plaza de la Aduana (Plaza of Customs) where the city hall is located.  The city hall is named after Rafael Nunez. “Rafael Wenceslao Núñez Moledo (September 28, 1825 – September 18, 1894) was a Colombian author, lawyer, journalist and politician, who was elected president of Colombia in 1880 and in 1884. (Wikipedia).  When he served as president of the country, he elected to run the country from Cartagena, his home town, much to the delight of the residents of this city.  He is a revered person here.

From there, we found our way to the Plaza de Bolivar and the nearby Palace of Inquisition.  Here is a short Wikipedia entry about it: In 1610, the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established in Cartagena and The Palace of Inquisition was completed in 1770. Sentences were pronounced in the main city plaza, today’s Plaza de Bolivar, during the Autos de Fe ceremonies. Crimes under its jurisdiction included those of heresy, blasphemy, bigamy and witchcraft. A total of 767 persons were punished, which ranged from fines, wearing a Sanbenito, life imprisonment, or even death for five unlucky souls. The Inquisition was abolished with independence in 1811.”  Our guide Herbert shows us around the place, and fortunately the torture equipment that once was displayed was removed in 2015 when Pope Francis visited the city.  Herbert is skeptical about the claim that only five people died from their treatment, given its severity.

We are now walking rather than riding, and we walk past two other landmarks:

Catedral de Cartagena built in 1576

La Casa del Cabildo (Governor’s Palace), which is under reconstruction

We stop in briefly to see the interior of the Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria.  This building was started in 1577 and took 84 years to complete.

Our guide tells us there is an opportunity to walk around unaccompanied for twenty minutes, but 1) it looks like it might rain and 2) we are all wilted.  We ask if we can just walk back to the bus, which is parked about ten minutes away.  Herbert relents, but does shepherd us into an emerald store (no doubt he is required to do this) and we listen to a five minute presentation on why Colombian emeralds are the world’s best quality (they contain traces of chrome instead of the iron which oxidizes and alters the color).  Unfortunately, his audience is only thinking about getting on to an air-conditioned bus.

We do indeed return to the bus (Cathy opted to skip the Palacio de Inquisition and was already there).  We have to wait for a couple of fellow tour guests who were more intrepid than the rest of us.  We spot a beautiful bird outside the bus and guess it is some kind of hawk:

We arrive back at the ship just before 4:00pm, and the ship leaves at the scheduled 5:00pm. On our way out of the harbor, we do catch a last view of the Castillo de San Felipe Barajas, which you see at the beginning of this post.

We have had to leave Cartagena much too soon.  There is so much more to see in this beautiful and historic city.  But now at least we understand why those who have been here are so enthusiastic about it.  We are too.