Cartagena

Cartagena: The Colonial City That Was Built on Slave Labour and Is Honest About It

The walled city of Cartagena de Indias was the primary port through which enslaved Africans entered South America during the Spanish colonial period. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people were brought through Cartagena’s slave market between 1533 and 1810. The Jesuit priest Pedro Claver spent his life at the port meeting arriving slave ships and ministering to the people on board; he is now the patron saint of Colombia and his church, Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, is in the heart of the old city. The museum attached to it covers the history of the slave trade through the port with more directness than most colonial history museums anywhere in Latin America. This context doesn’t make the colonial architecture less beautiful. It makes standing inside it more complicated, which is the honest experience.

The old walled city (Ciudad Amurallada) is extraordinarily well-preserved, the most complete example of Spanish colonial fortification in the Americas, UNESCO World Heritage since 1984. The pastel-coloured buildings, bougainvillea-draped balconies, and cobblestone plazas are genuinely beautiful. In the evenings, when the heat eases and the light goes gold on the stone, the city is one of the most atmospheric places in the Americas.

The Old City

The walls themselves run 11km and can be walked along the top. The section from the Torre del Reloj (clock tower gate) northwest toward Baluarte de Santo Domingo gives the best views. The San Felipe de Barajas fortress on a hill outside the walls, built by the Spanish to defend against English and French attacks, is the largest Spanish fort in the Americas; the interior tunnel system is explorable and worth the €10 entry.

Plaza Santo Domingo is the most active of the old city’s squares, with outdoor café tables filling most evenings. The famous Botero sculpture of the reclining woman here has had generations of tourists positioned in the same joke photograph; this is essentially unavoidable.

Getsemaní

The neighbourhood immediately outside the city walls was historically working class and is now one of the more interesting areas in the city: street art covering entire building facades, craft bars and small restaurants, hostels, and a population that is a mixture of longtime residents and recent arrivals. The Palenqueras, women from the nearby African-descended community of San Basilio de Palenque who sell fruit on the street in colourful dress, have been a feature of Cartagena’s public spaces for centuries. Their presence in the old city and in Getsemaní is not costumed performance but an extension of an actual community that still exists and operates in Spanish and Palenquero, the only Creole language in South America.

Where to Eat

La Cevichería on Calle Stuart is the most-cited restaurant in Cartagena for seafood, particularly ceviche and fresh fish. Worth booking for dinner. For something cheaper and more local, the Mercado de Bazurto on the edge of the city is the real market experience, enormous, chaotic, and serving fresh seafood lunches from market stalls at prices that reset the tourist tariff.

Where to Stay

Boutique hotels in restored colonial mansions are the accommodation format that suits the old city: Casa San Agustín, Hotel Charlotte, and Sofitel Legend Santa Clara (a converted 17th-century convent) are the references at various price points. Getsemaní has hostels and cheaper guesthouses for budget travellers who prefer to not be in the expensive old city bubble.

When to Go

December through March is the main high season, with the driest and most comfortable weather. Easter week (Semana Santa) is spectacular and very crowded. The humid season (May-November) has lower prices and more reliable availability.