From Barú we returned to Cartagena where we spend 4 days exploring this lovely, hot colonial city. We spent a lot of time walking the streets of the walled old city.
The wall was built during Spanish colonial times to protect the city from attack.
The colonial walled part of the city is focused almost entirely on tourism. There were a lot of tourists (mostly from elsewhere in Latin America, Europe, and the United States) but it wasn't overwhelming.
There are lots of sites to see in the city.
The independence leader, Simón Bolívar, was from Venezuela but he was very fond of Cartagena.
There are many very cute hotels in the walled part of the city. Most are old mansions or other buildings that are restored. Some have swimming pools - nice for the heat, gardens, and/or rooftop terraces. Although we would have loved to stay in one, they didn't fit our budget especially since we would have had to get 2 rooms (one for us and one for the boys). Instead, we found an apartment within the walled part of the city on Airbnb.
We spent a morning exploring Castillo San Felipe de Barajas - a colonial fort outside of the walled city. We saw how Spain spent significant resources to build this fort for protecting the city, which had been a target for pirates and the like. In 1586, Francis Drake and his men occupied the city for 2 months and charged a super high ransom not to destroy the city. The drink, mojito, supposedly had its origins with this raid.
After exploring the fort, we walked to a shopping mall to eat lunch at the food court. Then we walked home. Doing so exposed us to some of the less affluent sides of Cartagena. We saw homeless people, and passed someone on the sidewalk who looked like he might have been finishing some sort of drug. The walled city is lovely but it is a tourist reality.
Another morning activity was a visit to the Inquisition Museum. The inquisition was a legal tribunal that prosecuted people accused of blasphemy and other crimes against the Catholic faith. The inquisition used torture to get people to admit to such crimes and those found guilty were punished, sometimes horribly, such as being burnt at the stake. The Inquisition operated in Cartagena for 211 years (1610 to 1821), processing 800 people, and burning to death 5 people.
On another afternoon, B and I visited the Museum of San Pedro Claver while John and F went shopping. Saint Peter Claver (1581-1654) was a Jesuit priest who ministered to African slaves in Colombia for 40 years. It is estimated that he baptized 300,000 people. I wonder how many of those people understood Catholic doctrine.
On another morning we walked to Bocagrande (the modern part of Cartagena) for breakfast. It was a hot walk. We were all very grumpy by the time we finally found a Juan Valdez Café. We spent a while there, drinking our coffee and playing a card game before taking an Uber back to the walled city. We had thought about swimming at the beach in Bocagrande but it wasn't that nice and we were worried about getting hassled by people trying to sell us stuff. We wished our apartment complex had a swimming pool.
We had 2 fancy dinners in Colombia - 1 without the kids and 1 with the kids.