Food in Colombia

Los Angeles and Ceiba Juice Bar in Cartagena

Flowers in Colombia.

Minca, Colombia.
June, July 2009.

Pozo Azul - In Minca

Minca

View from Sans Souci in Minca

Back to Cartagena

Went back to old haunts today at Pie de la Popa. Showed Swiss pals, Sebastien and Ulf how to catch a bus to Caribe Centro, the annoying, huge shopping center here, in Cartagena. My goal was to get them over to my favorite cheapo bar in town, the panaderia on Calle 30 and it worked like a charm. We drank more than a few and solved all the world's problems.

Ulf was looking for a camera case to use underwater while Sebastien wanted to buy a better camera than Suzanne or one like hers. Neither was successful so we walked to the bar and had many cheap, cold beers. Then walked back to the old city from there.

Minca; a Cat Named Maus

Still eating the homemade granola made by Cris, owner of the San Souci, in Minca.
Cris' dog, Rufus is the only Minca dog known to have climbed to the Lost City, located 4 days walk above Minca.

Rufus followed us as well, but only to Pozo Azul (Blue Well) and into Minca. Good companion, though. Pozo Azul is a once sacred spot for the indigenous people of the area but on weekends is frequently filled by bikers and dune buggy enthusiasts, none with any special interest in preservation of special love of place; more an excercise in noise, speed and beer.

A cat named Maus: Cris also has two cats. One named Maus, the other named Max.
neither cat has made it to the Lost City.

At any rate, Minca is the only place near the coast where you can beat the heat. Just 10 or 20 miles inland, it's high enough to have the temps a bit lower. On the negative side, instead of light rains you get heavy incapacitating rains, in the afternoon, enough to wreck havoc with the power lines. So, much of the time there was no power in Minca, which wasn't too serious a problem, though we were occasionally forced to eat cucumber and carrot sandwiches when the restaurants and stores were closed, due to lack of power.

One more negative about the climate is that while you beat the heat by going higher, there's still no hot water, so it gets pretty hard taking cold showers. But it's do-able, as it's seems you're always climbing hills and sweating. Nearly as much as back on the coast.

Parque Nacional Tayrona

Tale of Two Cities:
Meeting Heather on Arrecifes Beach in Tayrona National Park, says she hates Bogota because she was robbed there twice in two days. Both times near her hostel in Candelaria. Next day, same place, I meet Luz, who loves it there, in Bogota. Asked about the music, she says she loves Sidestepper and likes Bomba Estereo and a bunch of other groups. Says Candelaria and Chapinero are the fun neighborhoods, especially for music. Staying in Cartagena, am disappointed because I thought being the home of Cumbia might be a good place for music. It's good good salsa burg, the Cafe Havana is great, vallenato exists, but musically, the best musicians or the ones open to experimention and mixing it up have left for points north and south: Mexico City, New York, LA. Peru and Argentina have better.




And what's up with Cabo, supposedly the best beach in Tayrona? Hated it! Left as soon as I could walk out. Overcrowded, no showers, awful, sardine-like hammock spaces and god help you if you get one of the good ones. Ever get sick in a three story hammock shelter with no lights, bad steps and no bathroom? Good luck. One more thing. When I went to get my hat wet, cause it's hot, very hot, a woman says, don't waste water, there's not enough. So, there's a water shortage, too. Hekuva place. Pictures look good though, but the other beaches are better, even some outside the park.

Taganga

Leavin' Cartagena, which by the way is not the real Colombia

Did some last minute fact checking. The cat´s name at Gato Negro Restaurant is Pook.
Dog´s name is Pepita.


Other than that, goin to Minca tomorrow. After that Tayrona National Park. Gonna sleep in a hammock with the snakes, bugs and skeeto´s. Should have some nice pix, but won´t upload for another week or two. Oh yeah, the Tayrona beaches are s'posed to be spectacular, probably a lot better than the glossy, hi-rise crapola at Playa Bocagrande in Cartagena.

Three more days passed, a minute passed...

Big news here: Switched from chamomile tea to lemon grass. Woohoo! Sure is wild here. That´s manzanillo to yerba buena for those Spanish-deficient, needing something for ailing stomaches. Stuff really works.

In Cartagena went to Pizza In the Park last night. What a cool idea. You order pizza, sit in the park and they bring it out to you, drinks and all. Chairs, too.

Oh yeah, went to the Castillo de San Felipe. It´s the largest Spanish built fort in the western hemisphere, ever. On closer inspection they used huge chunks or coral that you can still see. Bastards must´ve destroyed hundreds of coral reefs for that endeavor. Fort took a hundred years to build. The tunnels underneath were built for short people so the Brits and French couldn´t travel quickly underneath.