The culture and people of this city is amazing, as is the food!!!!
Part 1- Cartagena
Cartagena is a very hot and humid but an amazing city. With so many types of people coming into this port city through time, they have blended amazing ingredients with all different types of spices. I had a chance to take a couple cooking class through Cartagena Connections which is a company that specializes in different excursions such as cooking classes, craft beer tasting, market tours, rum and chocolate tasting as well as street art and food tours. They have been an amazing company and an easy way to get through to them is on whatsapp at the following number +573135529647 (ask for Juan).
In the cooking classes we cooked different ceviches as well as red snapper and Black Coconut Rice.
Street Art are some of my favorite things to photograph, from the street art in Greece, to Hong Kong, to China, and to the little down island of Djerba, Tunisia. Usually street art expresses struggles people have encountered, or perhaps a political statement or even self expression. The street art in the Getsemani area where I stayed had a lot of self expressive street art as this area is where a lot of the lower income people have lived and used to be a very seedy area, but in recent time to attract tourism, it is one of the most popular places in Cartagena if not Colombia for tourism.
Walking about the Getsamani and the Historic Central area behind the walls, you can find people going about their everyday lives. Most people sell drinks or food on the streets and you can find them going about doing this stuff almost all hours of the day. The people here were very friendly and also very photogenic because of the colorful backdrops in these areas.
There is a place in the central park that has sloths, iguanas and Tamarin Monkeys. They ended up there protected from poachers some years ago and live up and around the trees!!! It is like a safari all in a central park….
One of my favorite things to do in any given city for photography is markets. Here is where you learn about the culture of the country and how most of the populace shops and lives. The Bazurto Market in Cartagena which is just outside of the tourist area by about 15 minutes shows everything I love to see in Markets. The fishermen bring their fresh catch in and it is sold all over, from small sharks to manta rays to red snapper and lobster, you can find all kinds of Caribbean sea food. The other parts of the market are the different meats, as well as fruits and vegetables being sold. Two walks through this market showed me just about everything including the people who are cooking food as small shack restaurants line these small alleys.
As Cartagena is a very photogenic city besides the market and the street art, the buildings are beautiful. In the Getsamani area, you can find small alleys of people opening up their homes for restaurants or bars as walking down them after dark, you can barely squeeze by all the chairs set out. A lot of the alleys or streets here are decorated with the street art as seen before as well as umbrellas or flags to give it a very different feel.In the walled area of the historic center is a little more upscale, but some great colors on the different buildings….
Finally all the two cooking classes, Craft Beer Tasting and Rum and Chocolate tasting were done in a beautiful building called Cafe Lunatico. The two owners, have done an amazing job with their classes as well as their different activities they do. I have never done a rum and chocolate tasting, but this was one of the most fun activities I have ever done in which we tried 8 different rums with explanations about them and how they are made and paired them with different chocolate…..
