Cartagena de Indias is the undisputed queen of the Caribbean coast, a fairy-tale city of romance, legends and superbly preserved beauty lying within an impressive 13 kilometers of centuries-old colonial stone walls. Cartagena's old town is a Unesco World Heritage site, a maze of cobbled alleys, balconies covered in bougainvillea and narrow streets filled with shops, bars and of course people. It is a living memory of the America’s Spanish conquest. Throughout its streets, ramparts and fortifications, it seems that still one can hear the fierce attacks by buccaneers and corsairs. As a wealthy city of trade, slaves and saints, oversized houses, churches and cloisters, whisper their over 500 years’ secrets and legends. After our visit last Christmas to Machu Pichu, we opted for a few days of rest in Cartagena. Not that we were alone, New Years is booked months in advance by celebrities, Palm Beach socialites and most of Colo. García Márquez, affectionately called Gabo set Love in the Time of Cholera in a fictionalized Cartagena (the movie version, starring Javier Bardem, was filmed on location here), and his house, Casa del Escritor, is the work of Rogelio Salmona, Colombia’s greatest architect. [Read more…]