CARTAGENA August 16, 2022

Gulliver’s Travels is one of my favorite books. Swift was both scatological and religious at the same time, an 18th Century version of Monty Python. I had read the children’s version where Gulliver goes to Lilliput, gets tied down but then had to wait another twelve years before reading all four books, unexpurgated. I grew up in an age of censorship, when the only reason to read Chaucer was to discover the bit about Absolom letting “flee a fart” which was exciting in the 50s when references to farting were universally unacceptable.  At school we studied the “school edition” of Shakespeare’s King Lear where there was no mention of allowing “copulation” to thrive in any shape or form so Gulliver’s Travels became a touchstone for reality.

 

Like Gulliver’s, though less dramatic, our travels are exposing us to different societies and ways of thinking.  Swift deliberately named his hero Gulliver to illustrate the process. Swift wanted to show how Gulliver himself was gullible and could be easily fooled. When Gulliver washed up in Lilliput he naturally  thought of himself  a superior to the Lilliputians because he was bigger but in the land of giants when he was smaller, he objected to being treated as a pet and insignificant. In Book 4 he thinks of himself as a horse and rejects his human form which he takes to represent the primitive Yahoos and then cannot adjust to life back in England. We’ve only been in Colombia for ten weeks.  We are barely scratching the surface of the society and any conclusions would seem superficial. We can only give our version of events and places and hope that we are too are not gullible.

 

Politically what is going on in Colombia is unprecedented. The country has elected a socialist president who has made remedying the plight of the rural poor a priority.       Understanding the politics of the country without speaking the language fluently has been difficult for us and all we have been able to describe are our own travels and the wonderful people we have met.  Press reports  of private militias and extra judicial killings are disturbing.  Likewise reading accounts of Colombian farmers turned off the land which they may have farmed for generations by a combination of financial interests, corrupt politicians and crooked lawyers is heart rending. Because of rural poverty the recruitment of  teenagers by paramilitary groups is horrifying. Universal access to the internet and cellphones are changing everything though.  Hopefully the new President can institute changes which will break the cycle of poverty and civil war which are so much of Colombian history. When I looked at the faces of Colombian military leaders under the former president I was not filled with a sense of  optimism. We can only hope that the new President gets the opportunity to make the democratic system work and the Constitution hold.  If the citizens of Medellin by joint effort and co-operation can rid themselves of  Escobar, make some of the Colonias (the slums)  into tourist attractions, then there is surely hope.

 

We are now  in Cartagena…an amazingly interesting place with 400 years of dramatic history. The heroic defense of Cartagena in 1741 against the British  prevented the area, then part of the Spanish Empire, from becoming another British Colony. A massive armada of British ships was sent to Cartagena to deal the Spanish Empire a decisive blow. It failed badly, despite the anticipated victory being celebrated by the casting of a victory medal even before hostilities started. The British do like medals.

 

When I was at school, I didn’t learn anything about the American War of Independence and who on earth ever heard of the War of Jenkin’s Ear?  The attack on Cartagena in 1741 by the British, with the help of American colonists was a big and impressive affair. It was a combined naval and land assault and had it succeeded the inhabitants of Cartagena may well have been speaking English today like those of Belize. As a young boy I was fed a diet of English victories and nowhere was there a mention of The War of Jenkin’s Ear. The whole thing  was a very British venture which, like the Fall of Singapore,  was a mighty cock up from beginning to end. In the fight for Cartagena the British lost 407 ships and suffered 30,000 casualties. If anything could go wrong, it did. It was a fiasco. And Spain kept its empire.

 

Of the many interesting facts I learned about the operation was that Mount Vernon, Washington’s ancestral home in Virginia was named by Lawrence Washington, George Washington’s half-brother, who served as a naval officer in the War of Jenkin’s Ear under the command of  Sir Edward Vernon. Such was his admiration of the English commander .

       

Our first visit was to the Maritime Museum, a smorgasbord of Cartagena’s maritime past. The first exhibit was a dummy in a glass case, smartly dressed in early 16th century garb falling backwards as he was  pierced through with some rather hefty arrows. Clearly, he did not survive the experience.  Juan de la Costa, who had originally traveled with Columbus, got a little overconfident after an initial victory against the local population and went inland to the village of Turbaco and got clobbered with aforementioned poisoned arrows. Subsequently a successful  expedition was mounted to revenge his death and any inhabitants of Turbaco, unlucky enough to be found, were put to the sword. Whoever set up these early exhibits thought dummies were interesting. There was a pirate scaling the wall and a lady recently deceased from cholera lying inertly in a glass case. In another display case there were neat models of Carib villages and pottery artifacts  illustrating how the people lived before the arrival of the Spanish.  No mention of their gold artwork or how their culture and  civilization was destroyed by colonization. No mention was made anywhere in the museum of the gold and silver “collected” from the area for two hundred years and which was the primary motive of the colonizers and the attacks on Cartagena.

 

Much was made of British “pirates” like Hawkins and Drake who attacked Cartagena wantonly and indiscriminately against all the laws of civilized and Godly behavior of the time. Given my understanding of written Spanish I could not find any reference of Spain having sent a mighty armada in 1588 to take back England for the Catholic church. As a youth I learned that had it not been for the skills of the two aforementioned sea dogs, the defeat of the Armada would not have occurred, Queen Elizabeth would have been arrested and burned at the stake for heresy and I would have been a Spanish speaking Catholic.  I admit, that might have been very helpful in the current circumstances. I did notice that because of Spanish respect for birthright and title, both Francis Drake and John Hawkins, though deemed wicked pirates, were still given their titles of  “Sir” on all the dioramas illustrating the attacks.  Sadly, history is often written and taught from one perspective. An example is my history teacher in France who, when I asked him about the Battle of Trafalgar, told me he hadn’t heard of it and that the Battle of Waterloo was not important. The museum was interesting though its attempt to cover the last four hundred years of Colombian naval history was challenging. We left the pirate dummies  scaling the walls, the photographs of past Colombian naval commanders, the ancient cannons and anchors and walked along the walls of the city.

In the distance we could see the ramparts of the Castillo de San Felipe. The advent of more and more powerful gunnery in the 17th and 18th centuries meant thicker, squatter walls which could withstand the pounding as well as little lookout turrets from which to spot the enemy. The planning, execution and construction of this massive operation had been started in response to Drake’s  successful attack when a massive ransom had to be paid and was overseen by experts in the field for the next two hundred years. Though we walked along some of the walls we didn’t get a chance to explore the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, the largest Spanish military fortification in the New World.

 

Immediately to the south of the museum is the church of San Pedro de Claver, built by the Jesuits to honor his  life. It’s a remarkably beautiful baroque church and was built next to the original building from which Peter Claver  carried  out his mission. And what an incredible man he was. He’s still there beneath the altar, looking a bit thin now but appropriately resplendent. What a life. Long before Wilberforce and the anti- slavery movement and the American Civil War, he was in the thick of it rescuing and bringing comfort to the thousands of slaves who were brought to the New World to exploit its riches. Plucked from their homes in Africa, surviving all the horrors of the Middle passage and expecting to be eaten, their first contact was often with a man who brought them comfort. He described himself as “the slave of God” and devoted himself to their welfare. He started his ministry in 1610 and died forgotten and neglected in 1654. Once a year he would try to visit many of the slaves he had baptized to make sure they were being treated fairly and would always lodge in the slave quarters. Naturally he was disliked by the authorities and plantation owners and his actions were frowned upon by many. Nothing daunted him and he believed that actions were more important than words. The more I learned about him the more I too, like Leo XIII  felt deeply moved by his life.

 

Cartagena bustles with tourists from all over the world and we were more than  fortunate to be in a hotel almost at the center of the  old town where narrow streets criss cross each other and houses, hotels, restaurants, shops and churches tumble over each other and out  into the road.  Giant colorful graffiti faces keep their eyes on you and at

Mama Waldy’s Hostel, a lady practices the national pastime of  cleaning floors. Our hotel, including the fountains, pools and beautiful greenery was a converted religious townhouse and had a wonderful view of the city. From the rooftop bar I could watch my old friends the black vultures, who glide in magnificent circles above the city, come to perch and wish me well.  I have great sympathy for vultures. They have bad PR and may not be the most attractive birds when perching on trees or the corners of buildings, but their effortless flying surely demands respect.

 

It was so good to be back in the warmth and both Marney and I, attuned to lower altitudes and warmer weather, found the change comfortable.

We still had lots of churches to visit and restaurants to discover. I was looking forward to visiting the Palace of the Inquisition and wondered what delights it could possibly offer. Never underestimate the power of the Spanish Inquisition. 

             Marney here…

Cartagena was just like the photos on line with the city surrounded by an old fort wall with turrets, various old buildings and churches.  We stayed in a hotel in the old city center which was charming with an open two story courtyard like the old Spanish haciendas filled with tropical plants.  There were parrots in the trees and an open (non swimming) pool with fountains so it came complete with movie style sound effects. There was a glass elevator at the back to the 2nd floor rooms and 3rd floor pool/bar area.  Above the pool there was a rooftop for massages or candlelight dining (Alan had a massage up there but we skipped the candlelight dining.)  The Reception Manager,Elizabeth was wonderful and so helpful as was all the staff.   Cartagena is hot and humid this time of year.)  After settling in, we had a lovely meal in the hotel’s restaurant and slept in luxurious comfortable beds wrapped in fabulous linen (this is not easy to find and the beds in our current “luxury” AirBNB are barely adequate). The sheets actual fit the beds too!  (I know… spoiled American!)

Next day we were off to the Naval Museo Alan talks about above (one note to add – the glass case with the mannequin representing a female victim of the plague had a wig on in a 1970’s Farah Fawcett style – you know how I am about wigs and costumes – so I probably stared at it a little too long as one woman kept looking at me).  Next we went to the Church of San Pedro de Claver which was huge, beautiful and peaceful.  The only way to see all the rooms were via a large staircase so I stayed on the main floor and checked out the smaller vestibules, etc.  Next  we wandered down some streets which were lined with what appeared to be great boutiques but resisted going in since I only brought one small suitcase.  The choice when traveling seems to be lugging a big suitcase in case you find something you can’t resist or a small suitcase and just window shop.  Given the state of travel these days including a purse full of documents, long lines and crowded airports, I choose the smaller suitcase for side trips.  I did manage to buy a couple of leather items at the airport before leaving Cartagena on our way back to our place in Medellin.

I will leave it up to Alan to write about the Palace of the Inquisition (which was not as bad as my imagination came up with) in our last blog on Cartagena.  Next up will be our experience of Mendoza, Argentina after our first week here.  Looking  forward to the tours of the vineyards.