Cannons, Carriages, Chivas, Carts & "Cometas"

The cannons are a great place to hang out!

When I look out of my apartment, I have a direct view to the top of the old city wall. Of course, being the protector of Cartagena, the wall was armed with cannons, some of which are still there. The last part of the wall to be built was called "Las Bóvedas," 23 large vaults originally used to house military while protecting the city, but which are currently nice craft shops. My apartment is not far from Las Bóvedas, a popular tourist destination, and so I often get to hear the clip clop of the horse carriage tours that people take in the walled city; hearing that you could almost imagine what it might have been like when horses were the only mode of transportation. But then along comes the next popular way to tour Cartagena: the Chiva party bus with their music & cheering party people. Sure, I did a "Rumba en Chiva" during the November Parties last year but hmmm....never thought about the people who lived along the route :). Well they end by 10 or 11 so it's not really so bad, and they definitely DO sound like they're having fun!

Clip clopping towards Las Bóvedas

Beyond the clip clopping and the "rumbas", there's a lot more street life to listen to--the fruit & vegetable vendors pushing their carts and calling out their goods and prices (papaya! papaya! a mil a mil a mil a mil!); the newspaper guy telling you what paper he's hawking; the guy pedaling his pedi-cart selling rolls who bangs on the metal top to let you know he's there; there are actually different types of vendors who have different patterns of "banging", but I've yet to successfully differentiate one pattern from another--I need to pay better attention! I do, however, have my basket ready with a rope tied to it. When I hear someone coming by selling what I want, I can now go to the balcony, call down, negotiate the price, pass down my money and bring up my purchase. Haven't done it yet, but I'm prepared!!

Let's go fly a kite!

And it's kite season!! There are tons of "cometas"to be seen out my window recently. There have always been a few but it seems to be more lately. I had noticed them across the wall but it never occurred to me to see where the kite party was really happening til I noticed another friend's blog post about it. So I went out a different way & lo and behold, there was a huge kite party going on! I need to alter my route more so I don't miss out on stuff like this!

More kite flying photos here.

I'm in a horse carriage here!