Portrait of a City: The Life and Times of Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena from above. December 2015
She was born long before there was written record of her. In fact, evidence points to her being around 5,000 years old. Cartagena, Colombia; the birthplace of Magical Realism, immortalized by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s classic novel Love in the Times of Cholera. You may recognize the name from the plethora of travel magazines that have recently included her in their lists of top new destinations over the past year; however, few people know the long history of this city. From her long love affair with pirates, such as Sir Francis Drake, to her one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed knight in shining armor Cartagena has seen her fair share of characters. She has stood the test of time, has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over, turning her into the magical place she is today.
Her features made her extremely attractive. With curved snake-like inner and outer harbors, various inlets, and vast marsh lands she was perfectly self defended. Before the Spanish arrived she was an indo-civilization named Calamari, in fact, ancient artifacts dating back to 4,000 BC have been found in her possession. She was originally named “Calamar”, which means ‘Land of Crabs’, a shortened version of the name for the people who originally populated the area. The Calamari people had long since abandoned her by the time Pedro de Heredia arrived in 1533. He immediately fell in love with her and decided to name her after his beloved Cartagena, Spain. He realized that her tight channels and inlets made her a perfect naval port for Spain, and more importantly, ideal for storing and protecting treasure. So much so that a shipwreck containing $18 billion worth of treasure was discovered off her coast more than 300 years after it sank. Yet, her colonization was not without its challenges; in 1552 a ferocious fire consumed many of her wooden buildings. From then on, all construction was solely stone, brick, and tile. This has aided to her preservation, beauty, and chic boutique hotels in 400 year old buildings.
Catedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandria. December 2015.
Her relationship with Spain soon became troublesome; her numerous visits from galleons carrying untold treasures quickly made her a target for pirates, buccaneers, and privateers alike. They salivated at the thought of her gold. Although she rejected most pirates looking to woo her with their sharp swords and spilled blood, one unfortunately succeeded and held her ransom for 10 million pesos. After ruthlessly plundering Hispaniola (current day Santo Domingo), Sir Francis Drake set his sights on Cartagena. Her now famous forts had not yet been built, leaving her vulnerable to attack. Drake’s bloody siege with 10,000 men ended after three days of plundering when the Spanish government paid her ransom.
Castillo San Felipe. January 2015
This attack is to thank for the forts surrounding the old city that have now been turned into outdoor bars and concert venues overlooking the ocean. These forts protected Cartagena from countless failed attacks. After 200 years of safety, her defense mechanisms were truly put to the test by another Englishman, Edward Vernon. He decided to attack her in 1741 and amassed a massive army of 25,000 soldiers and 186 ships. Vernon was so confident in his success that before the attack he sent a letter to King George II of England, claiming he had defeated the famous Spanish port. The king was so overjoyed that he even had coins minted with Vernon’s likeness and was prepared to circulate them upon his triumphant return. In true poetic justice, Vernon was defeated by the one-legged, one-armed and one-eyed Spanish officer named Blas de Lezo who led a measly army of 2,500 untrained, ill-equipped men. Don Blas lost his other leg in the battle and eventually died, but not before rescuing his beloved Cartagena and becoming her biggest savior. His pegged-legged statue currently stands in front of Cartagena’s most famous monument and biggest defense, the San Felipe Fortress. Ironically, in 2014, Prince Charles of England unveiled a plaque at this same fort to commemorate the deaths of the English soldiers who died during this battle. Unsurprisingly, it was vandalized and removed within a week as many Colombians saw it as an insult to their history and hero, Don Blas.
As Cartagena continued to flourish, her relationship with Spain became even more problematic and the call for her independence began to be whispered on the lips of Cartageneros. She became the first city in Colombia to declare independence from Spain in 1810. Of course, the Spanish were not ready to part ways with the jewel of their empire, so five years after she declared independence, they subjected her to another bloody attack. Forces were sent by the Spanish monarchy in order to quell any thoughts of independence and revolution. More than 6,000 inhabitants were killed from starvation and disease. Yet in a testament to her incredible resilience, Cartagena housed the infamous unifier and liberator of most of South America, Simon Bolivar. He officially liberated her for good in 1821 and rightfully named her: "La Heroica," The Heroic City.
Arepas Con Queso. January 2016
Upon recovering and reestablishing her place as a crucial port and shipping center she once again began to attract foreigners. This time it was Jewish, Italian, French, Turkish, Lebanese, and Syrian immigrants who settled her. Their influence is felt strongly today as their descendants have opened restaurants and hotels all over the city. Unfortunately for Cartagena, this influx of immigrants did not help her from becoming forgotten. Locals moved out of the old city in the 1930’s and into fashionable suburbs that were once marshlands. The old city became a white washed slum. Gone were the days of the multicolored Spanish mansions. Thankfully, in the 1950s a long and arduous restoration process began to restore the old city to her current colorful splendor. In the 1980's she became a Unesco World Heritage site but she was still relevantly unknown to the rest of the world as tourists wanted nothing to do with the country that was home to the infamous Pablo Escobar. It was not until the early 1990s, right after his death, that her first hotel in the old city opened in an abandoned convent and was named: Hotel Santa Clara. Since this opening she has slowly started to see an influx of restaurants and hotels who have rediscovered the beauty they had forgotten about. Travel magazines began to take notice as well, and soon there were celebrity visits, and even a scandal with President Obama’s secret service refusing to pay prostitutes on their overnight stay. Today, Cartagena is a beautifully preserved piece of history, you are transported back in time when sitting outside of a restaurant having ceviche or buying fresh mango or arepas con queso from street vendors and hearing the click- clack of horse drawn carriages go by. She has become a craze among travelers from all walks of life and from all corners of the globe and is slowly returning to her status as a crown jewel of the americas.
Street Vendor Selling Mango. January 2015
