We left for the airport around noon and took a 3 pm flight to Cartagena, about a 90 min trip and a drop in altitude of 2,545 meters (8,350 feet). The airport is small and you get off the plane directly down the portable stairs and onto the tarmac. At 4:30 in the afternoon, the heat and humidity here hits you like a ton of bricks! Luckily we had no wait for luggage and got a cab easily to take us 15 minutes to our hotel just inside the walled city. We’re staying at a boutique hotel in a renovated historic home.
In the evening after a nap, we walked a few blocks and found a beautiful Greek Columbian restaurant and had a fantastic meal of tapas and fresh branzino. On Friday night they’re hosting a representive of Catena Zapata, one of the most well-known wineries in Mendoza, for a tasting and pairing event.
The walled city is a compact grid of about a dozen blocks by eight, enclosed by stone wall ramparts thick enough to walk on top of. Inside, the streets are narrow, and there are lots of two-story houses, some residential, some with businesses on the ground floor, in all sorts of colors: reds, yellows, indigos, greens, with heavy wooden doors, iron knockers, and some carved wooden balconies with bougainvillea everywhere. Every couple of blocks the streets open onto small plazas with shade trees and benches or café tables.
On Wednesday, we got up early and found a coffee and breakfast spot after a short walk. We then resolved to do a bit of shopping because there are endless boutiques for men and women, some quite touristy and many featuring specific local designers. The area inside the wall is very tourist-driven in general with vendors constantly trying to sell you something or bring you into their establishments. Knox did have some luck finding a pair of alpargatas, a belt and a linen shirt. By 1 pm, the heat and humidity was becoming too oppressive, so we retired to have a long siesta and wait for the temperature to drop in the evening.
We met our friends for dinner at a restaurant in the neighborhood Cristina the chef recommended called Manga, outside the walled city. Afterwards, we headed to Cafe Havana in another district, Getsemaní, where we had tickets to see salsa. Café Havana is a Cuban-style salsa bar that helped kick off Getsemaní’s revival when it opened in 2006. They have live salsa every night, and bands rotate every couple of hours. The walls are covered in memorabilia of Benny Moré, Celia Cruz, and Omara Portuondo. A late night but great fun watching the local salsa dancers! Certainly, this was more pricey and touristy than the place Cristina recommended to us, but that one is unfortunately only open on weekends and we leave early Saturday morning.
Days 9 & 10 Photos/videos here:
alsur.blog 
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