Karmi`s Unofficial Guide to Cartagena, Part 1

Where to stay:

Calle de Media Luna (Half Moon Street). There are a lot of hotels on this street, and it is next to downtown (the part of the city within the fortress walls). Six years ago, I lived on this street in the Hotel Doral. Hotel Doral now looks like a tornado hit it and is being remodeled by a rich Italian. Six years ago, there was not a foreign tourist anywhere near this street and I wasn`t fond of walking down the street by myself alone, even in daylight! Now there are several tourist hostels (Hotel Marlin, Hotel Viena, etc.) and then some others with fewer tourists (the cheaper ones- Hotel La Espanola, Hotel La Muralla). I live in La Muralla. Don`t worry, the mildew smell is only on the first floor, the rooms on the second floor don`t smell bad at all... unless of course an animal happens to die on the roof above your room, like what happened to me. But then the owner will happily change your room. Downstairs there is a room with a tv where there are usually a few people watching badly dubbed, American action movies from the 90s. A room here costs $5 a night, and on the other side of the street in the hostels a bed in a dorm room costs you $10. Hmmm... thats the price you pay if you want your neighbors and the receptionist to be English speaking, I guess.

Where to eat (if you are a vegetarian):

Corner store: I always buy things from the corner store for breakfast. They have cheese bread (which looks like the cheese bread in Brazil, but doesn´t taste nearly as good), big cookies, rolls, pieces of cake, and lots of other meat filled things which I could tell you nothing about. Across the street they sell arepas con huevo (thats like a thick corn tortilla filled with egg, ground meat, closed up and fried).

Gato Negro: This is around the corner and they sell breakfast to tourists very expensive. I go there just for coffee and to read the newspaper. Its the only place close-by where you can get coffee that isn`t instant and way too sugary. They have a copy of Colombia`s only decent newspaper, el Tiempo.

The restaurant on the parallel street: This is where I go for lunch. Everywhere here has the same things for lunch, at about the same place. I go to this place because it has the best hot sauce. Actually, it has the only hot sauce. The other places have that bottled-Tabasco-esque stuff and here they make the REAL DEAL. I get the same thing every day- fish soup (made with a little coconut, plantains, yucca, and other ingredients?), then the main course which is rice, beans, a couple friend plantains, a little salad, and more fish (either fried or cooked in coconut sauce). Sometimes when I get tired of eating fish, I ask for eggs (huevo perico, with onion, garlic and tomato). Today I am making myself a stove because there is a lack of vegetables in the food here.

Street food:

Arepa con queso: This is like a giant ground corn patty that gets crispy on the outside, and they slice open and fill with Parmesan cheese. The first three or four are pretty good, but then it gets old.

Bollo: This is like a tamale, but with no filling. Usually I buy it with a little piece of cheese.

Jugo: There is fresh lime-ade on the streets, tuti-fruti (punch made with real fruit and a lot of watermelon), and the juice stands where they will make you whatever combo you want. The best juice stand is where the flower market is (mercado de flores). There is also coconut water and people who sell premade juice in bags. Here in Cartagena, liquids sold in bags are cheaper than liquids sold in bottles. Its also the only place in South America where you can buy a 5-liter bag of water. Ha ha.

If you haven´t noticed, being a vegetarian in Colombia is a real pain... so bring a stove if you want to eat well.

Up next in my Unofficial Guide to Cartagena is Part 2: Where (and where not) to Hang Out. This might just be the most important part, so stay posted!

How to eat a mango

So for those of you who know me fairly well, you know that I am a huge fan of mangos... a good ripe mango is definitely my favorite fruit. The best part about my trip right now is that I happened to arrive in Colombia in the middle of the mango harvests. Now, anyone who has every eaten a mango will surely attest that it is a somewhat messy ordeal, ending in sticky fingers, sticky goo all over your face and probably lots of little mango fibers stuck in your teeth. Here are a few alternatives to eat mango that I have learned here in Colombia:



1) With your teeth, bite at one end of the mango and tear off the skin towards the other end. Peel the whole mango this way and then eat it. This works best with the little mangos (``mangas``)




2.) About an inch and a half away from the end of the mango cut a circle all the way around. Do this at both ends and then peel in between the two little circles. Use the unpeeled parts to hold the mango and eat everything in the middle. This eliminates the sticky hands.



3.) Squish the mango with your fingers until it is very soft. At the opposite end as the stem, bite a small hole. Squeeze the mango juice into your mouth, but dont squeeze too hard or the other end with blow out and make a mess. Suck out all the fruit and juice until all that you have left is pit inside of the skin. This is my favorite way to eat the mango and avoids sticky hands and strings in your teeth.

4.) Go to the market and ask them to make you some fresh mango juice. Let them deal with the mess!

5.) How to eat a green (unripe) mango: Peel, cut into little sticks (french fry size), add lime and salt. Crunch away!

The moral of the story is, mangos are obviously the best fruit ever and the world would be a much better place if everyone could enjoy mango season in Colombia just once in their lives. The end :)

A sad day in Colombia

So yesterday I tried to burn the pictures from my camera onto a CD, but the computer was a lost cause so I gave up and decided to wait until after lunch. I locked my room, went to eat lunch and came back to a room with no more camera :(

The hotel owner searched the other hotel rooms, to see if the person who picked my lock hadn`t left yet, but we soon realized that it was a shady character who was visiting some one of the other hotel guests. Of course, the person didn´t reappear at the hotel. It is a big disappointment, but I am thankful that it was only my camera that they stole. In the end, materials come and go, what is most important is that I am okay, and I still have my passport and my cello. Here, the local people say that when something bad happens to something that belongs to you, like if I had a pet that got sick or lost something important, that in reality, something bad was going to happen to me, but that event was intercepted by the belonging. That means that my camera getting stolen prevented something bad from happening to me... and now I have two locks on my door.

The good news is that before I went to lunch I had taken out the chip that had the pictures I had already taken, so at least I have something from that camera to remember. When I get to Bogota, I will buy another camera in one of the contraband markets and everything will be okay. Until then, no more pictures, but if anyone would like to donate towards the new camera fund.... ;)

a trip to Pozon

Teaching in the university has been great so far. I have three students- Dina, Jaime y Christian. They practice so much that I have to give them two lessons a week and they beg me to bring them etudes and new songs to learn! Dina is the most advanced of the three and she also teaches cello in a project on the outskirts of the city. The project is in a huge neighborhood called Pozon, which is a bunch of dirt streets, yucky puddles and shanty houses. A project was started which teaches the kids music. They start by singing, playing little xylophones, recorders, and percussion and then move to string instruments. Dina teaches the cellists in groups of four, in hour long lessons, all day long every Thursday. This week they had their concert, but next week I am going to play for each of the classes and then help her out for the following Thursdays that I am here in the city.

Inside a typical Colombian bus on the way to Pozon:

A street in Pozon:

The orchestra in Pozon:

around town

I got a gig yesterday, to teach cello at the Escuela de Bellas Artes (the College of Fine Arts). They want to hire me permanently, but I accepted to teach anytime that I am in Cartagena. Kids here graduate highschool at age 16 and then go to college, so its a little different. Also, they don´t have music in middle or highschool, so most of them are just now starting. The difference is that they LOVE to play and hanging out usually means hanging out with instruments in tow. So... they are all really good! They were so excited that I was going to come teach them... you have NO idea!

Anways... here is a picture from here in Cartagena, the architecture that I love:

Check out more pictures by clicking on the mini-slideshow on the left!

Back in Colombia, six years later...

It has been almost 24 hours now since I arrived here in Colombia. Finally, I stopped looking for my cell phone (thinking that I lost it). I am now used to the fact that it is SO hot that you can actually feel the weight of the heat. I tried to find the places that I remember from when I was here in 2002, but the juice stands are in a place that is under construction and the hotel that I stayed at before is nowhere to be found. Regardless, I did find the same neighborhoods, the same places that I use to work, and the cool plazas filled with tropical plants and huge shady trees. Oh... and the internet places, AKA the only places around with air conditioning.

I arrived late yesterday afternoon and ended up staying in a place that wasn´t so nice. It was one of those places where you have to touch the wires together to make the light come on because the switch doesn´t work anymore. And everything in the bathroom was at a slant for some reason (like the sink and toilet). Regardless, I went two doors down and found a nicer place, a little cheaper too (go figure) and with a better fan. Next time, I will remember the camera cable and will post some of the pictures that I have been taking around the city!

Its great to be able to buy fresh coconut water and freshly squeezed orange juice on the street anytime that I want! It seems like all that I can do is drink liquids. Ha ha.