As we wound down our time in Cartagena, we continued to enjoy the fantastic nightlife in the old city, particularly in the Getsemani neighborhood which is just outside the original walls but within the extended walled city. We walked through Getsemani’s narrow streets where families turn the streets into pedestrian-only bars and restaurants, either serving from the home kitchen or placing a mobile drink cart outside the house. It becomes quite the scene as all have their own music playing. A fascinating tidbit: apparently there is a big art festival every February wherein many of the street murals are painted over with something new.
On Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), we took our friend Karyne, of SV Tesorini, to do the Seven Churches pilgrimage around the city. Basically, they decorate seven churches and you can visit them at your own pace. We arrived at the first, Cathedral de Santa Catalina, and we caught the last part of a full church service. The rest of the churches just had music playing, from an indigenous choir to a simple violin, and of course various chants from the rosary. The first picture is of a side altar in the main cathedral. Note the fancy table setting for the last supper. There were several versions of this during the night. It took us a full five hours to get to all the churches and we arrived at the last one just before midnight, when it closed. Two of them were well outside the old city. By the time we got back to the boat we had walked over seven miles.
Ok, we may have walked past a great bar when we were really thirsty… But check out what we got!
Bright and early the next morning, we were back in the walled city for Good Friday and the Stations of the Cross procession through the streets where they carried a large paso (float) of Christ on the cross and another of Mary. This was very interesting and a first for either of us. It began with the two pasos being carried out of a church while a group reenacted the scene of the crowd asking Pilot for Barabbas over Jesus. There were perhaps two thousand people moving down the narrow streets with the procession in front of us. They would stop every so often and a priest would speak briefly via loudspeaker, followed by a prayer. A couple of times they reenacted scenes of the Passion. The guy portraying Jesus and the lead Roman centurion were excellent. They joined the procession at a stop in front of the cathedral and it was quite moving. The procession was led by a large youth band and ended three-plus hours later where it started as they reenacted the three crucifixions. With little sleep, lots of heat and the emotional toll, we were wiped out!
We capped off Semana Santa with Easter service on Sunday morning. Oddly (we thought), there was no sunrise service, just a 5k run. We planned to attend the big cathedral service at 11 am, and arrived early to be certain we would have a seat. To our astonishment, it was going to be just a normal service. There were no elaborate flower decorations, little music and few people. We were expecting a high church service, needless to say, so were rather disappointed. So, we went to the other nearby church thinking maybe that one would be really grand but no, just hot as blazes inside. Quite different to the Easter services in the states with trumpets, music, flowers and joyous atmosphere. Apparently the seven churches event on Thursday was the big shindig.
Before leaving Colombia, we checked out the gold museum (indigenous artifacts), had the boat pressure washed–including the mast!–to remove the nasty grime, cleaned the AC water strainer for the 200th time, and had a last hurrah with friends at yet another excellent restaurant. In all, we counted 50 food or drink places we patronized and that just scratched the surface. Our marina was surrounded by excellent medical facilities, even a specialized glaucoma clinic. For peace of mind, I got my glaucoma checked the day before we left and my pressure was good. As we departed we passed two Colombian submarines that we had heard suddenly appeared in the middle of the anchorage a few days before.
We left South America through a tiny gap in the Spanish defenses. In order to make any attacking ship run the gauntlet of forts at Bocagrande before getting to the city, the Spanish sank huge baskets of sand in a line across the Bocachica entrance in the 1770’s. They then piled many tons of rock on top until they had built a complete wall just below the surface. Today, a gap of maybe 75′ has been cut to allow boats our size in and out in good weather. You can see it marked by the red and green buoys in front of us, below. Looking back, you can see just how wide this wall really is, quite impressive.
Next stop, JAMAICA!
