OK, straight to it. This time we organised a tour independently with the formidable Dora at Cartagena Tour, who we saw first commanding coaches out of her way by way of hard stares. She sent along the equally impressive Mercedes as our guide around Cartagena. Mercedes is a retired teacher of Belgian stock and she took our group of seven around the sights of this major port town.
I discovered new settings on the camera
We were told of the large populations of European immigrants here, like her parents who were cheesed off with the state of post-war Belgium and buggered off to South America. It seemed to agree with them and a ton of subsequent Germans, Spaniards and assorted continentals.
This dog didn’t move as three coach tours ambled past her. Found a good spot.
Evidently there were never any issues here with the cartels as the geography makes it useless for cultivation or shipping of cocaine. Apparently they are less of an issue anyway, as some very relevant people were recently shot. She said that most of that business has shifted to Mexico and Venezuela. I understand that one would best avoid Medellin, though.
The vultures are disconcerting, mind
Our group were minded not to spend our time shopping all that much so we spent more time walking around the old town, where the buildings are a distinct style of colonial southern Spain/Moorish design.
By the by: I suck at haggling. I wanted to buy one of the local variants of Panama hat and there are just a load of blokes selling them. I saw one guy offering them for $5, we agreed I’d only spend $10 at most (putting that cash specifically in pocket so I could ‘show’ I have no more) and ended up buying one for $20. This isn’t my area of expertise, I have to be honest. Might need to fix some fraying ends with glue, too.
Some of our fellow tour-goers went and bought some of the local emeralds, as apparently that’s a thing, and there is some manner of trade agreement allowing the 'Merkins to take them home duty free. Not really on our priority list, though, I’m far too busy being fleeced on hats.
The obligatory over-engineered fortress is impressive too.
And the visitor centre by the cruise terminal (that sold the same hats for $19, Gareth, you savvy bastard) had a little zoo attached to it. I’m pretty sure this monkey just had a moody face, as the others looked perfectly fine:
“Shit, I think I left the iron on”
“Senor, I haff a cousin in Wyoming. He says I must hurt you. You unnerstan’ this is jus’ business and I take no pleasure in what I muss do”
Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: Wir haben Cartagena in Kolumbien besucht. Viele Deutsche und andere Europäer sind hier nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg ausgewandert. Es gab weniger Probleme mit Drogen jetzt, dass sie viele des Kartellführer erschossen.
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