Cartagena: A City That's More Alive Than Ever

If you love architecture and history the way I do, Cartagena is exactly where you need to go: there's enough here for dozens of unforgettable memories. Looking back through my photos, I still can't quite believe I saw all of it with my own eyes.

Cartagena is recognized by UNESCO for its unique Spanish colonial architecture and the most extensive system of forts in South America. And it's no coincidence the city meant so much to Gabriel García Márquez: “Cartagena es una ciudad que han intentado destruir durante más de cuatrocientos años, y creo, está más viva que nunca” (“They've tried to destroy Cartagena for more than four hundred years, and I think it's more alive than ever”), he once said. The atmosphere, the mystery, the color of this city really do run through his books: Love in the Time of Cholera is set right here in Cartagena.

You have to go to the old town: bright Caribbean colors, narrow streets lined with old houses, a walk inside the walled city itself. Here you can drink wine and have dinner right on the fortress walls overlooking the sea, admire the colonial monasteries, take a ride through the streets in one of the quirky old cars. Once we stumbled onto a spontaneous performance by dancers from different Latin American countries in traditional dress in front of the theater, while people danced to hot rhythms in the square at the same time. It's worth wandering through the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas and down into its tunnels too. You can grab coffee in the square by the Botero statue, or track down one of the hidden, truly special little coffee shops tucked away in the side streets.

In the old town, every day brings something new, and from the fortress walls, surrounded by centuries of history, you can see the skyscrapers of new Cartagena rising in the distance, a completely different, modern life. And whenever you want, you can step away and lie on the beach, swim as much as you like. I definitely want to come back here again, to feel this atmosphere once more.

I live, I feel, I marvel...