10) There are a lot of entrepreneurial street vendors. From mobile coffee vendors to people sitting on stools renting out time on their cell phone, there were lots of people doing what they can to better themselves.
9) You can buy anything you want on the street. There are malls and grocery stores as well, but everything you need is available from a street vendor. Delicious food, shoes, and washing machines can by purchased from the commercial market square in the old town.
8) Walking around the city we felt very safe. In the harbor, unfortunately, cruisers are a target. Three locked dinghys were stolen in the week prior to our visit.
7) Although Cartagena is a metropolitan city, the countryside is poor. The Colombian government is in an ongoing conflict with a militant drug-financed guerrilla group known as the Farc. One church had photos posted of neighborhood police officers that had been kidnapped and are currently being held captive. All of them had been in custody for over 10 years.
6) Taxis have their license plates painted on their roofs so that they can be monitored/pursued by helicopters. Motorcycle taxi drivers have to wear vests with their license plate on them.
5) Cartagena was Spain's primary port in the western world. They spent massive amounts of resources fortifying and protecting the city, and much of South America's gold passed through its harbor on Spanish Galleons.
4) Colombia is one of the USA's closest military allies in South America.
3) Homemade ice cream that you can buy on the street (called paletas and costing approximately 600 pesos) is reason enough to visit Cartagena.
2) Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombian national and Nobel Literature Laureate) has a house in Cartagena.
1) Colombia es un lugar muy lindo, la gente es muy amable.
FTA
