Cartagena’s churches, parks, doors, and kites (Colombia)

As you walk around the old area of Cartagena, you will see beautiful houses with bougainvillea or other floral vines climbing walls and covering balconies. Vendors walk around selling hats, sweets, and cold water or beer. Women in colorful ethnic clothing pose for photos with bowls of fruit on their heads. The people-watching is amazing, but there are also fixed-location attractions that are worth a look.

Churches and museums

Several churches are scattered around the Old Town, La Matuna and Getsemani areas, all are nice, but don’t miss Iglesia Santo Domingo because it has hundreds of tombstones in its floor, and a few in the walls, which is unusual. Take a peak inside any of them that are open when you go by.

The Gold Museum (Museo de Oro Xenu) is a free museum, but generally you will be approached by a guide that will want to give you a tour for around 10m. Everyone I saw inside had a guide. Mine was clothed from cap to shoes in cobalt blue — this alone made it worth the cost. There are at least a hundred gold artifacts as well as labels and some descriptions in both English and Spanish. Items in gold included fish hooks, earrings, necklaces, head decorations. and figurines. It’s a very small museum but worth the visit if you are in the immediate area. I particularly liked the bat people figurines and the lost-wax filigree jewelry.

Parks and animals

The Centennial Park between the Clock Tower and Getsemani is definitely worth a stop because of the capuchin monkeys, sloths, red squirrels and iguanas. Bring a banana or some watermelon. It is best to visit the sloths in the morning as they sleep most of the day high in the trees.

If you have children, a visit to the Spirit of the Mangrove Park is a must. It is a free park just east of the old town that has number of climbing and swinging attractions for children, statues of influential Colombians, and mangroves. Turtles and iguanas roam the grounds, and you are surrounded by nature in the middle of the city.

Walls

The City Walls are a fun walk, especially the north-east area where it seems like every child (and several adults) in the old town is flying a kite. Also the view of sunsets from the wall is stellar. If you have the money, staying in one of the tall hotels there would not be a bad choice.

Market

I already discussed the Bazurto Market in this post. It is well worth a visit.

Door Knockers

One of my favorite things was all the old doors with fun door-knockers on them. In the past, the size and type of knocker indicated your status and occupation. Sealife meant you were a sea merchant (or a related service), a lion meant military or city protectors of some type. A hand meant a priest, and a lizard meant you were part of high society (nearly always royal). The bigger your knocker the higher your status within your category. My favorites include an octopus, a mermaid, and an owl. Another thing to look for scattered around all the areas is the graffiti/wall art. It is everywhere and some of it is really good.