15. Coffee in Colombia

So actually Cartagena is wonderful. Old, beautiful and colourful – every building is painted a different bright colour, with tiled roofs and big, curvy, Spanish-style balconies. There’s a wonderful old city wall, mostly along the harbour front, and as we were wandering along it we bought a mango from a street seller; he peels them and cuts them for you so you eat it like an ice-cream off the seed. And gorgeous women wander around in traditional dress with baskets of fresh fruit on their heads, which they then sell piece by piece – a little touristy but beautiful too. However, don’t ask for coffee at the restaurants. Even though Colombia produces most of the world’s coffee, what we were served – twice (we were hopeful) – was filter coffee served with hot condensed milk!! Sigh. We had a nice lunch though, in a little restaurant on the way back to the ship, out of the touristy old town – just rice and vegetables and fish, very simple, but nice – and we were also offered some fish soup as a starter, which was lovely – served with fresh lime.

And in the Museum of Contemporary Art – which we stuck our heads into only because it was a lovely old building and we were looking for some toilets – we discovered a rather amazing piano, a Pleyel, late 19^th century, with fine, fluted legs and gorgeous marquetry. And, surprisingly (in this hot, humid climate), it was not too badly out of condition. We both had a very nice time trying it out (and we gathered a bit of an audience, which was not bad practise for tonight’s concert!).

It feels so extraordinary to be on this new and very different continent. And for all we were nervous about being in Colombia, Cartagena actually felt very safe. It was relaxed and friendly; there were lots of police around but they too were relaxed, chatting with the locals and giving us directions. So we had a lovely wander, not just through the beautiful old city but also through the less pretty and more realistic (but still old and fascinating) suburban area on the way back to the ship. It is always such a lovely thing to try to talk to people, to search for a bit of the real life that goes on around the tourism. And in four hours ashore we only saw one sinister looking young man carrying a large gun.