Tag: old town

Wandering the Cartagena – Without a Home for an Afternoon

One of the hardest things while traveling around the world is the days when you are in-between places. There is this strange time where you need to check out of your hotel and before you can move on to the next location. Most hotels will allow you to keep your bags in a back room during these times in limbo, but then you have to wander out from that hotel into the strangeness of the town that you find yourself in.

Now, I know it sounds strange that you might be without a hotel room for a couple of hours should feel weird while on vacation. But there is something a little unsettling not having a place to go back to whenever you want to. I know that my stuff will be safe because I have never experienced a problem when living life like this, but it does not feel right to have all of it hidden in a dark corner of some closet with piles of other people’s luggage.

Despite this unease, it is still a nice way to take in a city for the last time before moving on to your next place during vacation. The latest place where I have found myself in without a home has been Cartagena, and so far, it has been a lovely place to visit and get to know. I spent the first night of my most recent vacation there before heading off to one of the islands, so the original plan was not to get to know the city first, and then experience this day at the end, but to have this day before going off to the most relaxing part of the trip.

We were staying close to the old part of the city which has been around since Sir Francis Drake raided the city and forced the inhabitants to build a wall to prevent from it ever happening again. The colorful city that these walls hold have a feel of Europe combined with Africa all combined with a Latin America vibe. I have never experienced anything like it before, and it was fun wandering around its windy streets knowing that I would have to cross the wall if I was willing to escape. And if I was bored, I could walk along the wall itself, and see how they were able to defend themselves in the 16th century from pirates and unfriendly nations.

It was not an ideal way to spend a day, but I was able to make the most out of the experience. It gave me hints and clues about what I wished to do when I finally made it back after my island experience. I was able to get a brief overview of one of the world’s more interesting cities, and it would not have happened if I was not without a hotel room during that day. The experience will happen again where my luggage has place to stay but I do not, and I hope that I find myself in a place like Cartagena the next time that it does.

Our Time in the Old City

There is no reason for us to quicken
Up the pace of the day we are living
For there is nothing that can be taken
When the moment is all about giving.
We’ve found ourselves in the heart of old town
With windy paths waiting to be explored.
If the choice is bad, we can go back down
To find one our memories will adore.
There are rest’rants with food to be eaten,
And mementoes chirping from the store fronts.
Though the many streets have been well beaten,
It feels like we’re the only one who hunts.
This day and this city belongs to us,
And where it takes us, I will put my trust.

Santa Catalina Monastery – Arequipa, Peru

Sitting on a whole city block in the middle of the old part of the city of Arequipa sits the winding streets and bright walls of one of the oldest European claims in South America, the Santa Catalina Monastery. This is a must-see sight if ever visiting Arequipa, and when you do, plan to take a couple hours to explore all that it has to offer. I would also recommend that you make it one of the first things you do in the morning to avoid the heat of the day and the large crowds that eventually make their way to this place. It is nice to be one of the first people of the day to walk through the location because it will make you feel as if you have the place to yourself.

The monastery is a nunnery that is still in use today even though it no longer boasts the number of nuns that it held during colonial times, and it is a rare sight to see the nuns who live in the corner of this historic sight. At its height, there were about 500 people living on the grounds. Some of the women that lived here were given their own rooms if they came from a wealthy enough family to pay for this luxury; whereas, many of the other women found themselves to be a part of the big dormitory that sits in the middle of the monastery. Even with all of these people in this place, it would still feel rather large and it has easily enough space to accommodate all of them.

Not every woman that ended up in the monastery ended up becoming a nun. Many of them arrived when they were as young as twelve years old, and they were brought here to learn from the nuns, and prepare for a life outside of the monastery. They would live beside the nuns, and learn from them. As I was walking around the grounds, I found hints of this lifestyle in many of the corners, and the place itself reminded me of a large campus where I could imagine students, and nuns alike moving from place to place as they completed what needed to be done.

One of the most interesting spots on the grounds is the place where they did laundry. It was based upon an irrigation design that was brought over from Africa. Water would constantly flow down this little groove in a wall, and when someone wanted to divert it into the basin that they were using, they would place a rock in the path of the flow to have it go through the pipe that would lead to their basin. These basins were made out of old wine pots that were used to ferment the beverage. They could no longer be used for wine, but they made the perfect sink for washing clothes.

There are also magnificent gardens on the grounds that they could tend to so there could be some beauty added to the place. This is even more impressive due to the fact that the monastery sits in the middle of a high desert where a patch of green is hard to come by. Still, the nuns were able to create this zen paradise in the middle of this kind of environment.

If that was not the place where they wanted to spend their time, there was also the fountain which could be found in the middle of everything. I was told that it was the place where they would go to get their water, but I did not think that the green water that was found in the fountain while I was there would be worth drinking. Despite that, if you look closely enough into the water, you can find small koi fish swimming around in it. They are not as large as some of the koi ponds I have come across in my travels in Asia, but it was a nice addition to this little spot on the grounds.

Santa Catalina Monastery is a great place to visit, nestled in the heart of the old part of the city. It is easy to spend a morning there after breakfast, and you will have explored it thoroughly enough just in time for a great lunch in the neighborhood. It is worth walking through with a tour guide and they are only ten soles, or two and a-half dollars per person for an hour guided tour. They do have both English, and Spanish guided tours, and I think that I even heard French while I was being guided around. They have the ability to point out the nuances that would be missed if you went by yourself.

Otherwise, until next time, keep getting out there and see what the world has to offer.