We woke up this morning to the hottest, most humid day in Cartagena yet. It’s the kind of heat that fogs up your glasses when you step into it from an air conditioned space.
We found another terrific air conditioned café and had more fresh fruit (papaya, mango, strawberries, blueberries), scrambled eggs and toast plus great coffee for breakfast. Yum! Then we returned to the artesan shops I’d found yesterday so Knox could weigh in on some potential local art purchases for the new house. We settled on some straw wall hangings, and a woven vase and woven round, platter -shaped wall decorations called enchapado en tamo, also known as taracea.
Nariño artisans (from southern Colombia near Equador) decorate wooden objects by covering them with the fine golden fibers of wheat tamo, gathered as stubble after the harvest. Some artisans prefer barley straw, since wheat tamo is stiffer and thicker than barley’s. Collectors still cut it by hand with a knife or sickle so the fiber comes out whole and undamaged. Dry stalks are selected, split open carefully, and flattened with a stone
Fibers are sun-dried, polished, dyed, then cut, arranged and glued strand by strand onto the wooden piece, and some are heat-darkened instead of dyed. Every “petal” you see on a piece is dozens of parallel straws laid at a slightly different angle, so the light catches each block differently. The black rims and vase necks are the bare wood.
After some packing and a nap, we met our friends at Casual Bistro Local in Getsemaní, the restaurant Chef Cristina had recommended. It’s a tiny place, including the kitchen, much like Cristina’s kitchen, maybe ten small tables, air conditioned (thankfully) and we thought it was fantastic, very similar use of local ingredients and spices, and amazing carribean flavors, very much like our cooking class.
After lunch, for our last evening in Columbia, we headed to El Baluarte San Francisco Javier, an outdoor restaurant/bar built into the top of the old walls in the Centro, so you climb up off the street and you have the Caribbean on one side, and colonial rooftops on the other. We had reserved a table, which turned out to be unnecessary; space was plentiful. We ordered sangría, there was a pleasant breeze, thankfully, given the heat and humidity, and the music was good, but the sunset never arrived. Too many clouds, mostly gray sky unfortunately.
After farewells, we walked through the walled city back to our hotel one last time, happy to once again arrive to air conditioning. Cold showers, some packing tonight. We fly home through Panama City early tomorrow.
All in all, we loved all that we saw and experienced in Colombia. The people, in particular, are warm and funny and have a contagious energy. We would like to revisit Medellín and Bogotá to get to know those cities more thoroughly, but the heat and humidity of the Columbian Carribean coast will not be in future travel plans. We’re glad we came, but I, for one, am looking forward to the Mendoza desert!
Day 12 photos/videos here:
alsur.blog 
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