In Cartagena we went on an organised trip which was very enjoyable and informative. We started off by all piling on the buses and taking a short trip into the city, driving past some interesting sites including a statue of a Red Indian squaw, commemorating the real life Pocohantas, who had strong links with this city.
Our first stop was at San Felipe Castle where we had a quick photo stop. There were the usual sellers wandering around trying to sell you their wares but they were not persistent or in your face like in some places, most were friendly and polite. One of these sellers was selling a guiro shaped like a fish which I really liked, it had a strange three pronged tool with which to play it but David had wandered off and I had no money on me. I like buying unusual instruments from around the world, on the cruises I had already found a steel drum and multi headed maracas to buy.
After the castle we headed to a building which was originally designed as dungeons but they are now used as shops, that's what you call recycling! They were lovely shops to wander around because even though they were touristy they had a lot of local craftwork in it , which made them different from what we normally saw. In one of these shops we saw the fish guiro in the doorway, this enticed us in and it was such a good price we bought it. As we walked through the shop to leave Christmas decorations caught our eye so we went back to the till and bought one. As we left the shop again an ornament caught our eye so we traipsed back to the till and bought that. This time as we left we kept our eyes averted, no looking around!
A short drive then took us to the old town area of the city which is now a UNESCO site. Our guide used to live in this area when he was a boy, at that time it was rundown and not seen as a good place to live. His parents decided to move out of the area and yet now it is a very desirable area to live and according to our guide, Justin Bieber wanted to buy a house there. The houses there are now worth a fortune so his parents are kicking themselves for moving out.
There are many fancy doors there, as our guide said they have door competitions. The fancier the door the more grander and important you are.
The guide told us a lovely story about these type of windows. In days gone by boys were not allowed to see their sweethearts without a chaperone. If there was a girl who caught his eye he was allowed to speak to them from the pavement opposite the window. The girl would stand in one window while her parents would stand in the other, so they could hear everything that was being said. At the bottom of the window is a small gap where the girl could put her foot, as the boy left he would dash across the road, kiss her toes through the gap and then run like the clappers to get away.
As you can see the streets are very narrow and pretty. They do not have gardens like we have but flowers were everywhere in pots.
We then walked to a place where the Spanish Inquisition used to stay, inside were many torture implements.
This is the chair for weighing witches. Any woman could be accused of being a witch, all it took really was someone to fall out with them and accuse them. Apparently skinny women in particular were seen as more likely to be a witch, as it was thought they kept themselves skinny to make it easier to fly. When a woman was accused, she would be brought to this room, asked a load of ridiculous questions, which we saw a copy of and weighed.
The ideal weight to be was exactly 38kg, if she was skinnier than that she was seen as a witch, if she was heavier she was still a witch and had the weight of the devil inside her. Even if she was the ideal weight she had to pass the question part!
There was a lovely square to wander around which had a lot of interesting statues in it. We were also treated to a display of national dance as part of the trip.
At the port there was a mini zoo which was free to wander around with many interesting animals to see. This iguana clambered into the tub to get some food.
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