Cartagena – From the Quiet of the River to Party Town

A Very Different Colombia

Cartagena is probably the most touristy place we’ve visited in Colombia.

It feels bigger, more modern, more polished and definitely much more geared towards visitors.

But I actually really liked the atmosphere.

There are great restaurants and bars, music everywhere and plenty of lovely places to sit and watch the world go by.

After a few days of fairly simple rural Colombia, I have to admit that a good restaurant and a large G&T were not entirely unwelcome.

So Much History

What I hadn’t realised before coming here was just how much history Cartagena has.

There are churches, old colonial buildings, huge city walls and layers and layers of stories connected to the Spanish, the port and the slave trade.

We visited Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, which, despite being called a castle, is actually a fort.

And it’s enormous.

The views over the city are beautiful, but for me the most interesting part was understanding why it was there in the first place and just how important Cartagena was as a port.

There are tunnels underneath, massive stone walls and viewpoints across both the old city and the newer parts of Cartagena.

Definitely worth doing — although I’d go early because, like most things here, it gets very hot.

The History of Slavery Feels Much More Real Here

One of the things I found particularly interesting was the connection back to what we had already learned at Palenque de Benkos.

Cartagena was one of the major ports where enslaved Africans were brought into South America.

So after hearing the stories in Palenque about escaped enslaved people creating their own communities, seeing Cartagena gave us the other side of that story.

We also visited places connected with San Pedro Claver, the Jesuit priest who worked with enslaved Africans arriving in Cartagena.

It made the history feel much more connected.

And I think when you understand some of what happened here, you look at those beautiful old buildings a little differently.

The Buildings Are Gorgeous

The architecture is fascinating.

Colourful balconies, huge wooden doors, churches, plazas and courtyards hidden behind entrances that you could easily walk straight past.

Some of the nicest restaurants and bars seem to be hidden away behind fairly ordinary-looking doors, and then suddenly you walk through and there’s this gorgeous courtyard inside.

Cartagena does that very well.

Old City Meets New City

Another thing that surprised me was how modern parts of Cartagena are.

From the fort you can look one way and see this beautiful historic city, and then look another way and see high-rise buildings and a very modern skyline.

It’s quite a contrast.

After travelling through the smaller communities along the Magdalena, this was probably the first place where we really felt like we were back in a major tourist city.

And actually, I enjoyed that change.

Worth Staying an Extra Night?

I think so.

A lot of passengers decided to stay a little longer after the cruise. There’s enough here to justify another night, especially if you want to do more than just race around the main sights.

There are also some really good tours outside the city — food tours, island trips, mangroves and local communities — so I think Cartagena would be an easy place to spend another day or two.