Saturday, June 7, 2014

Colombia Cartagena: Day 2

Today was a True Holiday. With no formal meetings scheduled until tomorrow, the three of us in our little Canadian contingent spent the day like tourists. Left to our own devices, we each followed our own schedule until later in the morning, when we got together & arranged for a proper sightseeing trip with a taxi driver recommended by the hotel clerk. It was a good idea. We saw many historic locations & although I couldn't understand much of the Spanish, I was able to make out that the city is OLD. Many of the fortifications, churches, & other establishments pivotal to a colonizing population were built in the 1600's.

We spent some time wandering fascinated and lost inside the Old City. It is a magical place, enclosed in 9 km of walls, full of tiny shops strung together along narrow streets. The streets crisscross each other in an eclectic grid but they change their names with every block. We were looking for a couple of restaurants, possible dinner choices recommended by the hotel, but found it almost impossible to find an address. In the end we settled into a crepe restaurant & enjoyed another fantastic meal.

The food really is amazing. A food critic would go crazy here. It seems that every restaurant serves prize-winning food in incredible presentations. While eating our dinner we watched the restaurant staff prepare desserts on the counter across from us. The desserts of the house were constructed on a base of gelati, storybook creations with gelati of many different flavours arranged in artistic colour combinations & garnished with all sorts of fruits and nuts.

And have I mentioned the coffee??? I am not a coffee affectionado -- I prefer Tim Horton's to even Starbucks for heaven's sake -- but it's as if the coffee here has an extra dimension to it. It's not that it's strong: it's ... deeper somehow.

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