Cartagena de Indias was founded on 1 June 1533 by Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia, in the former location of the indigenous Caribbean Calamarí village. The town was named after Cartagena, Spain, where most of Heredia's sailors came from.
For more than 275 years, Cartagena was under Spanish rule. On November 11, 1811, Cartagena declared its independence.
Cartegna was the biggest city of the Viceroyalty until 1811, when the Peninsular War, which became a War of Independence and Piñeres's Revolts, marked the beginning of a dramatic decline in all aspects for what had become the virtual capital of New Granada. In 1815 the city was almost destroyed. No census information exists for that time, only accounts of how the city became literally a ghost town. Only around 500 impoverished freed slaves dwelt the city, whose palaces and public buildings became ruins, many with collapsed walls.
Recuperation, though slow, did begin, but then stopped as a result of the general economic and political instability of the country at the time.
Several famines and cholera outbreaks in the mid-1800s decimated the city, and it was in danger of disappearing.
After the 1880’s the city began to recover from crisis and vigorous progress continued, though somewhat slowly, after the 1929 crash. Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Chinese and other immigrant communities developed in this period of time.
Between 1930 and 1970 the city showed great population growth at rates higher than the national average and higher than that of Bogotá, which boomed mainly because of internal displacement and the hope of work opportunities as centralization increased. By 1970, the population spurt was over, but population growth has been dramatic since the 1980’s with a mixture of privatization of the port infrastructure, decentralization of tourism, and, sadly, the fact that proportional to its population, Cartagena is the city that has received the most displaced people from the countryside with the escalation of civil war in the 1990’s in the Andean regions as refugees looked for safety in the Caribbean capital.
Today the city shows a continuing tendency for population growth that began in the mid-80’s. Birth rate and relatively normal death rates feed the ongoing economic expansion.
Cartagena has boasted "modern" urban development in recent years, with the construction of new skyscrapers. As of October 2007, there were 42 high-rises under construction, including an effort to create Colombia's tallest, the Torre de la Escollera, expected to be completed in early 2007, planned to stand at 676 ft (206 m) and having 58 floors. However, real development of the project, assisted by the strong Caribbean winds, led to its dismantling. A new, twenty-story building has been planned instead.
A conversation with a taxi driver informed us that even though Council approval was received for these many highrisers, development of the infrastructure of the city was not considered in context. Today, many residential highrisers are empty because water, sewerage and electricity are lacking.
The Downtown area of Cartagena has varied architecture, mainly colonial style and Italian style buildings.
Bocagrande (Big Mouth) is a much-sought-after area with many hotels, shops, restaurants, nightclubs and art galleries. It is located between Cartagena Bay to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west. Its particular appeal is in the beaches and nightlife around Avenida San Martín (Saint Martin Avenue), the backbone of the area.
The beaches of Bocagrande, lying along the northern shore, are muddy. There are breakwaters about every 200 yards, and the azure of the Caribbean is lacking as the beach is very nearly at sea level and there is a lack of proper waste disposal in the city.
Originally constructed for foreign oil workers, Bocagrande consists mostly of land acquired through land reclamation. Bocagrande is now considered the city's most popular area for tourists.
As the busiest container port in the country, and third in grain transportation, the city is well connected with the ports of the Caribbean main, and the rest of the world. The city is served with three open ports, and more than 40 private ports.
The city offers reasonably safe streets, but one always has to be "cautious and aware", friendly people and an array of things to do. The language is Spanish and the currency is pesos. Approximately 2,000 pesos was equal to US$1. It was quite strange working in hundreds of thousands of pesos.
We spent four and a half days in Cartegna and made the most of our short stay exploring the old city and Bocagrande, El Convento de la Popa, which is an old convent established on a mountain overlooking the city and the Museo Naval (The Naval Museum) and of course, the supermarkets and shopping centres to provision for our sail to Colon, Panama. Taxis were cheap and there were many reasonably priced restaurants.
At the entrance to El Convento de la Popa, a local had a young sloth on show. Sloths are extremely slow-moving mammals found in the rainforest canopies of Central and South America. There are two species of sloths: two-toed and three-toed. Most sloths are about the size of a small dog and they have short, flat flat heads. Their hair is grayish brown but, at times they look grey-green in colour because they move so slowly that tiny camouflaging algae grow all over their coats. Sloths eat fruit and leaves. We had never seen an animal such as this. I didn’t want to hold the sloth but was convinced to do so. After leaving the area in a taxi, I began to itch and noticed little black insects jumping all over me. It seems that the sloth had fleas!!
Early on 21 April 2010, we set sail for the San Blas Islands, a distance of 180 nautical miles. Winds ranged from 5 knots to 14 and then 22 knots. Our spinnaker and mainsail were hoisted when a gust of wind tore the spinnaker. We rushed out and were able to get it down, dragging some of it in from over the side. The spinnaker was bought second hand in the British Virgin Islands and was very lightweight. We thought that we were set for the Pacific but unfortunately, repairs are going to be needed in Panama.
