Thanksgiving on a Bus

Cartagena, Colombia
10.3910°N, 75.4794°W

Sarah and I decided to split our time in Cartagena between two very different neighborhoods.

The first place we stayed was Getsemani, an area known for its colorful streets, numerous cafes, and proximity to Cartagena’s famously walled old town. The streets of Getsemani are filled with art – graffiti on the walls, sculptures on the sidewalks, old women selling their paintings and wooden trinkets on the curbs, and small studios lining nearly every block. There was so much to see from just walking around the streets!

Getsemani once had a reputation for being a rougher area, but in recent years has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Cartagena. Unlike some other more tourist-trodden areas of the city, the neighborhood seemed to be just that…a neighborhood. There were lots of local families in the streets, and groups of children playing outside of their homes along the narrow streets.

Our favorite area of Getsemani was around the Plaza de la Santísima Trinidad (Holy Trinity Square). There were lots of street-side cafes and at night plenty of great food carts and street performers. We lucked out one night when we scored a small table on a balcony overlooking the entire square (probably because we were the only ones getting dinner at 6:00 p.m.).

When Hillary Clinton visited Cartagena in 2012 as Secretary of State, Getsemani was the neighborhood she visited to dance (so you know it has to be a good time).

Hillary went to the Cafe Havana, a small bar known for great salsa dancing and really good bands. One of our cab drivers told us we couldn’t leave Cartagena without going for a drink at Cafe Havana, so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately, the doors don’t open until 8:30 p.m., usually the time we are getting ready for bed, so in preparation for the big night out I took an afternoon nap, had a cup of coffee with dinner and we headed there at the fashionably late time of 8:35 p.m. We were the first people in the bar (shocker!), but stuck around and had an amazing time. We didn’t think to turn our cameras on ourselves to document our salsa dancing, but trust us, it was fun.

Hillary didn’t come to Cartagena just to party, and neither did we. The Caribbean port city is full of preserved historical sites, mostly from the 16th and 17th-century colonial era. The Spanish made Cartagena a city in 1533, and the city’s architecture – especially within the walled part of the city – reflects Spain’s influence.

Independence Day

Cartagena was one of the first cities in Colombia to declare its independence from Spain. The people of Cartagena take enormous pride in this, and because the city’s independence declaration was on November 11, 1811, the number “11” is an important one to the locals.

Sarah and I happened to be in Cartagena on 11/11, so we figured we should help them celebrate. There was a big parade on Santander Avenue, which runs alongside the Caribbean just outside of the walled city. We spent the morning walking around the inside of the wall and then exited to the outside to watch the parade go by and have a few Aguila beers.

As we emerged from the city wall onto the grassy strip of land separating the wall from the road, we quickly learned that aside from lots of brightly colored costumes, music, and dancing, there were a few unique ways the mostly young crowd of Cartagena’s were celebrating their independence.

The first was by throwing Buscapies at your feet. Buscapies are tiny firecrackers that sound like huge firecrackers. Like New Zealand jet boats and overnight Vietnamese trains, these random explosions at our feet weren’t really Sarah’s jam. Not to mention that the other two popular activities for the young folk to do during the parade were, 1) spray you with foam from specially-made foam-shooting cans, and 2) smear dye on your face, arms, and any other exposed body parts. So we took some pictures and left for the nearest bar.

Bienvenidos a (Little) Miami

For our first few days in Getsemani we stayed in a private room at a hostel that was right in the middle of everything. It was great to be in walking distance to most of the city’s attractions but were looking forward to being in an area closer to the beach and away from all of the downtown city noise. I was also looking forward to moving to a place where the bumps on my head from entering and exiting the hostel room’s bathroom would have time to heal. The Cartagena neighborhood we decided to move to after Getsemani was a beachside community called El Laguito. Laguito, an extension of the Bocogrande area sometime referred to as “Little Miami,” is on the southern tip of the city’s peninsula. The modern, tall apartment towers lining the beaches does give the area a Miami-like feel, as does the hot and humid weather.

El Laguito was a mix of locals and tourists, and a lot of locals trying to sell things to tourists. Outside of the Airbnb we rented, which was on the 7th floor of a building overlooking the saltwater lake in the center of Laguito, we were regularly asked by a line of locals if we wanted a taxi, a boat ride to a popular beach called Playa Blanca, or to dine at one of the many local restaurants. While it did seem as if we were constantly walking around repeating the words no gracias over and over (and over) again, the people were almost always polite and friendly. And of course, we did end up in many of the cafes and restaurants we were invited into, usually eating some form of seafood, arepas and lots of patacones (fried green plantains). Sarah even came up with her own patacones con pollo recipe, which was amazing too!

Thanksgiving on a Bus?

Our last Thursday in Cartagena was Thanksgiving, the first big holiday away from home. We both love Thanksgiving, and it certainly felt strange to be so far away from family and friends. I did a little Googling to see if we could find a place in Cartagena to have turkey, stuffing, etc. but came up empty. Rather than feel sorry for ourselves, we decided on the next best thing….drinking rum on a chivas bus.

The chivas buses are brightly colored re-engineered buses usually used for public transportation. In Cartagena, they travel around packed to the brim with tourists, taking them to some historical sites and many bars. On the bus, you are served rum drinks and entertained by musicians playing traditional Colombian and Afrocolombian music. It’s really fun and was a great way to spend Thanksgiving night.

One last item on the Colombian checklist….

As noted in our Bogota post, hot chocolate and cheese is a popular drink in Colombia and especially in Bogota. Before our next stop, Peru, we had to fly from Cartagena to Bogota and the only to-do item on our list was to find ourselves some hot chocolate and cheese. We ended up stumbling across a place in the Chapinero neighborhood of the city and sat down for a gluttonous afternoon snack.

It was really good, but we both agreed to fight off any desires to make this a regular afternoon snack (hot chocolate and cheese won’t be making it into any of any of Sarah’s nutrition plans either). Bellies full, we said goodbye to Colombian and made our way to the airport, hopeful that the chocolate goo in our stomachs wouldn’t slow us down on our Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu.