Cartagena de Indias is "espectacular" (como dicen allí).

Site Visit Trip Report, Cartagena de Indias, October 12-October 19, 2002

Submitted by: Darlene Hull and Hortensia Calvo.

We arrived in Cartagena de Indias on the weekend, on Saturday October 12, to allow a couple of days to wander around and explore at leisure (i.e., check out points of interest for SALALM members) before starting our agenda of scheduled meetings regarding conference details. On a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon we started our site visit by thoroughly exploring the ciudad antigua, Cartagena's historic colonial district enclosed by massive stone fortresses built by the Spaniards in the seventeenth century. Founded in 1533, Cartagena is one of the oldest cities in the Western Hemisphere. During much of the colonial period the city served as the main distribution center for gold and other merchandise, as well as African slaves, between Spain and South America. The bulwarked wall was subsequently built around the town to protect it from attacks by pirates. After Francis Drake sacked the city in 1586, the system of walls, ramparts and fortresses was enlarged and strengthened. The Spanish Crown also commissioned the Fortress of San Felipe, called the mightiest example of Spanish military engineering in the New World, and repaired and rebuilt seven other forts spread around Cartagena's inner harbor.

The ciudad amurallada is one of the most well restored Spanish colonial cities in the hemisphere, with narrow streets adorned by marvelous wooden balconies speckled with tropical flowers jutting from stucco buildings painted in a rainbow of colors, from terracotta to lavender to ocean blue. It seemed that around every corner we found a charming little plaza with its own distinctive nota: At the Plaza de Santo Domingo, two blocks from the Hotel Santa Teresa, a group of young dancers performed to the heavy percussion beat of the mapalé, an African-inspired rhythm from the Colombian Caribbean, as spectators gazed on from the tables of the bistros and cafés that line the plaza; at the Plaza de San Pedro, a block from the Hotel in the opposite direction, an older, more subdued crowd enjoyed dinner by candlelight at the outdoor tables of the Restaurante San Pedro. We wandered from plaza to plaza, noting restaurants, cafés,

nightspots, places to shop, and other points of interest. Tough job. The old walled city is full of life. By day the streets bustle with shoppers, business people, tourists and street vendors, by night the place fills with young and old alike seeking a nice meal or a favorite disco. That first evening we also took a quick self-guided tour of the Hotel Charleston Santa Teresa, the site for the 2003 SALALM conference (Darlene says WOW!) and enjoyed fritos appetizers (small corn fritters stuffed with ground beef or white cheese, tostones (called patacones in Colombia), yuca, and black-eyed peas fritters) and an ice cold coconut/lemonade drink, a specialty of the Hotel, called Coctel Santa Teresa: espectacular, with or without alcohol. Just to be thorough, for the benefit of SALALM members who like all manner of delicious drinks, we tried the Coctel Santa Teresa with a bit of local rum. We recommend it, though the waiter told us that the coctel is good with vodka, too. We returned for more of those. We headed back to

Hortensia's mother's house at about 10:00+pm just as the real crowds were starting to pack all the popular spots and live bands were beginning to play in plazas and bars. (Didn't stay for night-time activities. We are saving ourselves for the real thing in May.)

On Sunday we embarked on a recorrido of Bocagrande, a modern part of Cartagena that has grown over the years as an important residential and commercial district. This is a good place to find other shopping digs, particularly for books and music. The best bookstore in town, La Bitácora, is located here on the main strip, Calle San Martín. We purchased our "hot-off-the-press" copies of Gabriel García Márquez's new memoirs, Vivir para contarla, and advised the bookstore owner of conference dates so she would have plenty of books and journals in stock for SALALM customers. Darlene also purchased several current issues of journals, including: Cambio, García Márquez's cultural magazine (current issue dedicated exclusively to Gabo and his memoirs); Semana, one of the primary news weeklies; El Malpensante, a key literary journal; Revista de Estudios Sociales, published by the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de los Andes y Fundación Social, Bogotá; Aguaita, revista del Observatorio del Caribe Colombiano promoting Colombian Caribbean culture; and Número, a cultural and literary journal published in Bogotá.

Not too far from the bookstore is a good music store, Discos Cartagena, with a knowledgeable staff to assist in Colombian and Latin American music selection. Just up the street, located in the front of the Hotel Almirante Estelar, is a good coffee shop, The Coffee Shop. They receive their organic beans direct from the Sierra Nevada region and roast the coffee on site. A great, shady place to sit, relax and watch people go by. We also tried a shot of their coffee wine -- strange but interesting. Though Cartagena is not in the emerald mining, leather or coffee producing regions, all of these products can be purchased there. There are some wonderful jewelry stores (Colombian emeralds and silver are gorgeous and well priced. Hortensia knows some very good places.) Also many stores selling handbags and other leather goods, from upscale boutiques to more touristy stores. There is also a variety of restaurants in the Bocagrande section, many of which have been operating in Cartagena for many, many decades and are frequented by locals. A varied list of restaurant selections will be included in the conference packets, but just to whet your appetites, in Bocagrande alone there's Chef Julián, which specializes in food from Spain (the arroz a la huertana and paella are spectacular), the Restaurante Arabe, founded by Lebanese immigrants in the 1950s, with a Middle Eastern menu, and Chef Maurizio, an Italian restaurant with some of the best homemade involtini outside of Italy -- more later on restaurants elsewhere in the city. Cartagena's local cuisine is varied: lots of fish (especially red snapper called pargo in Colombia) and seafood (conch, oysters, lobster, and, when in season, crab claws with vinaigrette) prepared in a variety of ways and served with many different kinds of herbed sauces or coconut sauce. One of the most distinctive things to try is arroz con coco (either the light kind or the dark one made with raisins), to be eaten with meat, fish or poultry; different varieties of sancocho (a tasty stew made either with different kinds of meats, yuca, ñame, corn, sweet potato, calabash) or sancocho de sábalo (made with fish and coconut); also typical are many different rices with seafood (try the arroz con chipi-chipi or the arroz con coco y langostinos). Hortensia's favorite desserts are the pie de coco, pie de limón, and tropical fruit ice creams. Restaurants range from expensive (nowadays, about US$40-45 per person, including wine, dessert, etc. for the most upscale, which is a steal for New Yorkers) to moderate to cafés, bistros and restaurantes de comida criolla, which can be either upscale or not and feature dishes from Cartagena and from the Andean region, such as the plato paisa (beans, rice, beef, plantains) and the ajiaco bogotano, an aromatic stew made of several kinds of potatoes, chicken breast, corn and a local herb, guascas (no, it's not mind-altering) and served with a dollop of cream, avocado slivers and capers. For breakfast, try café con leche with slices of warm bollo de mazorca. There's a wonderful cookbook on the cuisine of Cartagena, Cartagena de Indias en la Olla by Teresita Román de Zurek, which has also been translated into English, that Hortensia recommends for those interested in the local cuisine.

We toured other Cartagena neighborhoods as well such as Manga, where we purchased typical sweets (coconut, guayaba, mango) and saw exquisite Moorish-style mansions from the early twentieth century. We also ventured out to Pie de la Popa, a lively popular neighborhood at the foot of the Cerro de la Popa that overlooks the city, where we were invited to eat fritos off the street corner (Darlene has not done that since she lived in Mexico in the early 70s). We visited the Fuerte San Felipe (another spectacular view) and noted the many horse-drawn carriages rides touring the city as well as the colorfully painted chivas (bus tours), some of which offer music and a beverage of your choice. We even found time some evenings to take a long power-walk on the paseo peatonal in Bocagrande that runs right along the perimeter of the bay. It's a 5-minute ride from the

Hotel; a brisk walk from end to end takes about 20 minutes. A tranquil pathway underneath palm trees yet regularly used by joggers, in-line skaters, kids on bikes, etc.

Two words about distances in Cartagena: they're short. The ride from the Aeropuerto Internacional Rafael Núñez to the Hotel Santa Teresa is 10 minutes (straight on the Avenida Santander bordering the Caribbean Sea); the ride from the Hotel to Bocagrande is 5 minutes, as is the distance to the nearest beach. From the Santa Teresa to Manga is another 5 minutes, and a bit less than 10 to the Pie de la Popa. You can, of course, walk to and around all these places but you might want to do it early in the morning or towards sundown. It can get hot at midday! Taxi fares are 4,000 pesos (about US$1.50) from the hotel (centro) to anywhere in Bocagrande, and 8,000 pesos (about $3) from the airport to the hotel.

We spent a bit of time each morning in the lovely sala of Amelia de Calvo, with a fabulous view of the bay, brainstorming and producing agendas and documents for each day's meetings and explorations (thank the "gods" for portable computers and printers!). The rest of the week was filled with visits to conference meeting and lodging facilities and meetings with local hosts. We conducted a detailed tour of the conference hotel, the

Charleston Cartagena, Claustro Santa Teresa with the Banco's special assistant in Cartagena and the events manager at the hotel. Copious notes were compiled on meeting room names, locations and capacity. We discussed table arrangement possibilities for librero book exhibitions space as well as coffee break locations. Libreros' exhibits will be in the former capilla of the Santa Teresa, a large renovated seventeenth century room that served as the chapel when the convent was first built in the 1600 (no se preocupen; tiene aire acondicionado, amigos). We also visited a variety of guest rooms in both the colonial (17th century) and republican (19th century) sections of the hotel, ending with a visit to the fifth floor rooftop patio/pool area where the welcoming reception will be held on Friday night hosted by Duke University. The view from the rooftop is truly breathtaking, even more beautiful than the picture in the brochure Hortensia showed me in Ithaca! What a gorgeous view of the ocean, the red tiled rooftops of the colonial walled city, the bay and marina, as well as the buildings in the modern part of the city. The interior of the hotel and rooms were beautifully designed by Lina Botero, daughter of Colombian painter Fernando Botero, and feature a kind of understated tropical elegance with lovely arrangements of fresh ginger flowers and birds of paradise everywhere. [Advanced information on room reservations: The hotel allows for double occupancy at half price, but there are a limited number of rooms that have two twin beds; most rooms have one queen or king size bed. Most hotels in Cartagena have similar room arrangements. The special room rate for one night is US$102, tax included. Most everything in Colombia right now is very inexpensive for someone earning in dollars, so even if you foot the whole bill for a single room in the hotel, the remainder of your expenses will be relatively low.]

We also toured the classroom in the ciudad antigua where the pre-conference workshop will be held on May 23. The classroom is located on part of the Centro campus of the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, who has generously allowed us to use this facility at no cost, and has also agreed to provide two coffee breaks for the workshop participants. We visited the Biblioteca Bartolomé Calvo (Cartagena's public library) and the Museo de Oro where the opening and closing sessions will take place, respectively. All are a very short walk from the hotel. Other conference event facilities visited include: the Restaurante Club de Pesca, situated on the pier of a private marina at the entrance to the Manga neighborhood, where the planned host reception will take place on Sunday evening hosted by the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango. The libreros' reception will be at the Plaza San Pedro/Restaurante Café San Pedro on Monday night. Be ready to dance the night away!

We also had a very productive and important meeting at the host institution, Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Seccional del Caribe's beautiful new campus just outside the city. We met with the Rector, Dr. Haroldo Calvo Stevenson, a prominent architect from Cartagena, Dr. Alberto Samudio, and the Dean of Graphic Arts, Dr. Angela Upegui. We discussed the conference schedule and content, keynote speaker possibilities, and many other logistics. These folks are very enthused about SALALM in Cartagena and are being extremely generous with offers to participate in conference panels as well as to connect us with other scholars, librarians, and organizations to promote conference attendance and participation.

Other useful information: Darlene arrived on COPA airlines via Panama City and Hortensia on Aces (now part of Alianza Summa, along with two other Colombian Airlines, Avianca and SAM) via Miami. See http://www.summa.aero/ for flight information to Colombia. Avianca and the other airlines of Alianza Summa fly from Bogotá to Cartagena almost every hour. Flight time from Bogota to Cartagena is 55 minutes. Both Avianca and Aces (probably SAM too?) have daily flights to Cartagena from Miami, one leaves around 2:30pm, the other at around 3pm. Flight time to Cartagena from Miami is 2hrs 45 mins; cost of RT flight is around US$420. There are also daily flights to Bogotá and other Colombian cities like Medellín and Cali from all major cities in Latin America, the US and Europe. Avianca serves New York, Los Angeles and Miami to Bogota, and also Madrid and Frankfurt, as well as Buenos Aires, Lima, Rio, Caracas and other cities. But many other airlines also have direct flights to Bogotá: Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France, American Airlines and Varig are

some. A NOTE OF CAUTION ABOUT HEARTS AND ALTITUDES: Bogotá is 8,600 feet above sea level. If you have or have had a heart condition, better skip Bogotá and either fly directly to Cartagena via Miami or fly to Medellín or Cali and from there connect to Cartagena. However, for those who might want to spend a few days in Bogotá before or after the conference, there's lots to see and do.

A SPECIAL "POSTDATA" FROM DARLENE: I want to publicly thank Hortensia and her family and friends for all their generosity and friendship during our site visit: Amelia, Haroldo, Stella, Nora, Carolina, Cousin Moni and Jairo, Eulalia, Quique, and many others. After just a week in Cartagena I feel as though I know the city (and los cartageneros) well enough and have sufficiently become enamored with both to show the place off, with great pleasure, to my friends and colleagues of SALALM.