Cartagena

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As I'm wrapping up my Adventures in Colombia blog, I realize that I never posted any pictures from Cartagena. I only went there twice even though it was actually pretty close (about 2 hours away). My first weekend in Colombia, my mom, Dave, Elizabeth and I went to Cartagena. We all loved the bright colors, busy plazas and colonial architecture of old town. Built in the 1500's on the Caribbean, if Pirates of the Caribbean was real, it would have happened here. As in, there really were pirate attacks and stuff.... I thought we would have gone back more, but life happens, and often our weekends were filled with school stuff, or going to the beach, or we just decided to go somewhere new. Towards the end of the school year, Dave and I went back to Cartagena. This time we explored an old Spanish fortress complete with a system of tunnels! We also took a boat ride to a nearby beach, Playa Blanca.

A look at old town Cartagena

La plaza de los coches

Arranging sweets in el portal de los dulces.

Lots of windows with balconies and flowers.

Brightly adorned ladies sell fruit in a busy plaza- an icon of Cartagena.

Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas

A bird's eye view from the top of the fortress.

Canon stationed on top of the fort.

The system of tunnels within el Castillo.

Playa Blanca, a beach that lives up to its name.