Cartagena, a Classy Place

The walled city of Cartagena originally comprised three districts: El Centro, San Diego, and Getsemani. The El Centro and San Diego areas were home to Cartagena's upper and middle classes. Getsemani, separated from it's richer neighbors by a channel, was where the poorer Cartagenians lived. You can see this on a map by clicking on the the link that follows. NOTE: the area shown on the map as "La Matuna" was originally a channel before it was filled in the early 1900's. http://www.cartagenatravel.com/english/images/map01.gif

To a great extent these broad distinctions survive today. So too do the finer distinctions of class as mirrored in the city's architecture. By asking someone about certain architectural details of their home, you can determine clues about their social status. For example...


Buenos dias, senora.
Do you live in a "high house" with multiple stories and high ceilings,


or a single story "low house"?


A high house, you say.

But is your balcony very long, or only a few pillars wide?

Four pillars wide, you say. That is quite impressive.

But tell me, is you door very massive and covered with many metal buttons...




or is it somewhat more modest?






Very massive with a great many buttons, you say. Very good!




Tell me, does some one stand guard at your doorway,





or sleep in it?








A tall guard stands by your door, you say.



You must be very rich to have a guard standing in front of your massive door covered with many metal buttons under the impressive, long balcony of your high house. However, in a country that seems to place great value on big knockers there is really only one question that matters.














Are they originals,
or fine reproductions?

The Charmers of Cartagena by Our Side

  

The New Cartagena---Boca Grande

  

The Sunlit Skyline of Boca Grande...our View from the Docks

 
 
 
  

Child's Play in and around Plaza Santa Domingo

  Sitting as still as statues we see these two boy fishermen. One day we walked passed a stoic blackened fisherboy in La Matuna who was standing upon a pedestal in a casting pose for nearly an hour. As we crossed the construction site nearby, I hurried back and placed several coins in his tin. He immediately moved...and slowly casted and pulled back his rod. Soon everyone around was dashing nearby tossing in coins. I stood before him gawking and his glance rivoted mine, and bowing his head, his cast reeled in my hand in his to kiss it.
 A mime speaks many words silently to his listeners,
  but his smile tells what words can't.
  We had just met these two beaming chidren and already their smiles have captured Rick. 

Xiomara

Meet Xiomara our tour guide for the day and soon to be good friend.

  Cruising is much like throwing a pebble into a pond and watching the rings expand outward. Instead of water, the rings are ever expanding circles of friendship. It was through our friend Peter, whom we met while cuising in Halifax last summer, that Xiomara became our tour guide for the day.

 
She practiced her English with us and we our Spanish with her, as she led us thru the Palacio de la Inquisicion.


 
Xiomara cheerfully answered our many questions about the history of Cartagena and of the time when witches and other heretics were tortured and executed.


   By the end of the tour a new circle formed.

Xiomara introduces us to Angelica

  Hard to believe, but this basin of fruit is truly balanced on Angelica's head! It is not glued, pinned or anchored there. Angelica lifts and places it upon her own head above a soft mounded towel for comfort. From early morn on, 58-year-old Angelica sways down the street carrying her fruit stopping only when a customer wishes a fruit salad.
 
 Though the sun was very bright and hot, it paled to the radiant smiles of Angelica and Xiomara that made our day so wonderful.


With a large butcher knife, Angelica carves out the sweetest salad of pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, mango to name only a few.
  

Buying Fruit...

couldn't be easier on the dock at Club Nautico!  

Gazing at one of the Fountains of Plaza de Bolivar

  

Balancing upon her Head

  With a basin full of fresh tropical fruits perched on her head, this lovely lady of Cartagena waltzes past a nearby doorway, which is about the size of a garage door back home! 

The Streets the Ancient Walled City of Cartagena

 
 
 
  

Staying on the Docks of Club Nautico, Cartagena

 
 
 
  

The Skyline of Cartagena to Welcome us

  We were happy to see that the Rhodes designed Alert had beat us in. 

A Waterspout Whirls out of a Black Cloud

  We had plenty of wind while crossing the Caribbean from the San Blas to Cartagena, Colombia. Passing through a series of squalls as we near Cartagena, Rick wasn't too surprised to see this waterspout drop out the dark clouds. If you look at the upper left corner of the photo, you will see how the tight funnel curves from the cumulonimbus cloud to the turbulence over the water. 

Lisa, Master Mola Maker, meets us in the San Blas

 We are sure that you remember Lisa who is female by gender and male by sex. A Kuna, Lisa was the third of male children. Since there were no girls to handsew mola, Lisa was raised sewing them from the time she was four. As a young adult, she felt misplaced among the boys chose female hormone injections when she traveled to Panama City to sell her mola. Once when she returned with a young male friend, her mother did not recognize her. Since the village would not accept her homosexuality, her friend was admonished. Lisa loved her people more and chose her Kuna village to her lovelife. Lisa stopped by to celebrate her 43rd birthday and bring a molamade sundress and t-shirt to me. 

Winged Swallows Stow Aboard with no land in Sight

 
 
 
   So this letter was sent to Bernie & Evonne of s/v Australia 31, avid birdwathers: The first one was riding the windvane like a carnival ride, then lit upon the lifeline. Then another showed up beside the first that the "squatter" pecked down out of reach. Then Rick fed them water from a bowl and they perched on his hand to drink. Then a third flew in to sit upon the main halyard under the dodger thinking it could fly thru the clear shield. None seem stressed or upset, just exhausted. We have not seen land for at least 7 hours but loving their company. Rick just reported that "one just shit on my cushion, that lil' bastard!" They are now all three on the dodger top not an inch apart. They are not like any bird in our book, similar to the cliff swallow but with no distinct white collar. Shall I scrutinize one's rectal orifice for identification in your Birds of Panama book? Here flies in another, this one a bit smaller---with a definite chestnut collar, possibly a cave swallow? They were delighted when we unzipped the dodger window so they could fly in and out. Will this be a problem when the immigration officer comes aboard tomorrow? Our crew list only shows two passengers. Awaiting a swift reply, Terry

A Cuyuco load of Ngobe head to Bocastown

 It will be miles before they arrive but this sturdy seaworthy canoe dug out from a single tree will get them there. Traveling from Bahia Almirante, they go to pick up fuel and family members. Once a teen paddled by our boat while on anchor off Bocastown. He was looking for work. He paddled back the following morning at the agreed time to scrub the hull and our cockpit with us. We had peanut butter sandwiches and limonade when he told me where he lived----over 15 miles away! 

Isla Bastimentos Village of Salt Creek

 We came by dinghy to see a trail where the two and three-toed sloth occupy the same niche with white-faced capuchin monkeys. There would be cayman rising in the creek but we were awed by the children once we arrived.
 
 The youngsters split the tough husk of a coconut by slamming the sidewalk. Then they scoop out the pipa with their tiny strong hands.
  

Children Having Children in the Ngobe Village of Salt Creek

 The classroom empty for the afternoon a the children care for siblings at home. A girl may have her first when she is twelve as Saulita did.
  Saulita is now pregnant again and can barely lift her nine-month-old baby lying in his hammock. He weighs about 36 lbs, has no toys but stares at the ceiling all day.
 
 A toddler herself gladly carries her baby brother. Their mother may be a half mile away. The village on Isla Bastimentos has no crime, spreads along a single weaving sidewalk that continues to cross the island to the beach on the Caribbean. The huts that house over a thousand people pepper the hillside and rain forest along the way. There is only one tiny tiende, a church and a single classroom. All were closed on the afternoon while we were there. 

Private Island Outside Linton, Panama

  

Child at home in Bluefields Village

  

The Needy Cauchera Family paddles out to say Goodbye

  

Terry spends time with Latino teens of Cauchero

  

Rick has found some Ripe Cacao Seeds

  

Visiting A Latino Family in Cauchero

 
 
 
   Evonne of Australia 31 rests and cools down after a morning of hiking the rain forest.

Returning from the Finca

  Carrying upon his back nearly 200 plantains, Raoul smiles after a mile's walk from his rainforest finca overlooking the shores of Laguna de Chiriqui, Panama nearby the village of Cauchera 

View from the Edge of a Rain Forest

 
 
 
 After the dense lush darkness of hiking the rain forest of the Cauchera finca of our new found friends, we see our boats on their anchors in Laguna de Chiriqui, within the province of Bocas del Toro, Panama 

The View of Laguna de Chiriqui, Panama from Cauchera Finca

  

Smoking Red Snapper outside Cauchero Home

  

Chocolate Treasures still buried in Cacao Seeds

Hiking the hills of Laguna de Chiriqui with our guide, Lisandro, who is agile at tree climbing, we have found chocolate long before it is processed into convection.

 
 When the pods are brown, they are overripe, but just before that point, they are ready to split to expose the pulpy seeds. The surrounding gelatinous pulp is acidic and chemically wears down the seedcoat which then dries.
 
  Once fully dry, the seeds may be ground to what we know as cocoa powder. So you see, these beans are are long way from Nana's brownies!

Getting Involved with a Needy Ngobe Family of Cauchera, Panama

 
 
 
   Nearby the diving resort town of Bocas, there are pockets in Leguna de Chiriqui where wealth and education have never found their way. Here, under one roof within a single room, live a Ngobe man, his wife, his four daughters, two sons AND 16 GRANDCHILDREN! There were no spouses of the young mothers of ages 16-27. I begged the fifteen-year-old, the youngest girl and not pregnant as yet, to find no boyfriend soon, but to go to school. I realized that the women could not count when I taught them to play dominoes aboard in our salon. When we visited their home with no running water, bathroom or electricity, I saw the youngest infant clung to his mother's hips with west feet. This child would never walk. What I did not realize was that the old man was father to them all and that a boyfriend was never an issue.

Healthy Happy Children with Rick in Ensenada Popa, Laguna de Chiriqui, Panama