Day 2 - Getsemani and San Filipe Castillo

WOW!! We had quite the thunderstorm last night!! Had me scared and hiding my face into the pillow!! LOL!! The lightning was so bright and then BAM there was the thunder!! Felt like it was right above us and lasted for probably 15 minutes.

Painting on canvas hanging outside a gallery in Getsemani - So beautiful just love it!! It was
about 2'x4' Just to hard to park around for 8 months :(

This morning got up and the sun was shining and skies were only partly cloudy. Decided we should start early and head out towards another section of Cartegena known as Getsemani - it use to be a run down area of the city but has been rejuvenated into a hip place with paintings on the walls of buildings, walls, cool cafes and street food vendors.

As we are walking towards the bay I watch a woman making Arepa de huevos which is local street food. Its cornmeal mix  flattened into a disk and then almost cut in half to open it up and add some cooked spiced ground beef, then a raw egg is added and the whole thing is put into a hot oil and fried up. I didnt have one because the idea of ground meat and egg doesn't get my tastebuds going, but it is very popular here!! There was quite a lineup. I would have tried some other fried treats but like I said the lineup was long and we had to get going before it gets to hot outside. 

Adding the ground beef

Then she cracks an egg into it 

And then into hot oil

So we continue to the bay and walk along the walkway towards Getsemani.  But we first stop at Fortress San Sebastian del Pastelillo which was a small fortification to protect the bay back in 1741. It is now used by the Yacht Club. When we walked to the dock I took a picture of the boats but was told by the guard "no pictures allowed"- oops :)  

Openings in the wall for the cannons

Did get the picture before the guard told me not allowed-whats the big deal of no pics?? 

We then stop at a gas station since it has a restaurant inside that we could go into to cool off.  We have a couple of pastilles and enjoy the a/c :)  Gas prices here are high - $5/gal or $1.40 - for premium.  Regular is about $4/gal

I bought myself a new water bottle since I forgot mine on the seat at the airport in San Fransisco 😩

We cross the bridge and get into the Getsemani area and first thing we see is that the road is blocked off about a block down and could see a tent, so decided to head that way to see what was happening. As it turns out they were having a baseball game partly on the road and a small piece of land!!

San Felipe Castillo in the background, we'll be going there later (dont laugh at the hat - Dr's orders hahaha)

Who says you need a field to play baseball??? Just close off the street and play!

When the player hits the ball he hits is down to stop it from going over the wall and into the bay LOL!!

From there we head down the narrow streets and looking at all the beautiful painted walls. There are some walls with just alot of graffiti but most walls are works of art! The colours of the buildings are so vibrant! Really enjoyed the walk thru. Being a Sunday it wasn't busy at all which also meant the street food vendors were not out yet 😩 I think they come out more around 3-4pm. But anyways it was enjoyable walking without bumping into people 😊

Love all the coloured umbrellas used for shade 

This was a funny metal sculpture of the dog putting the boys pants! Would have been a
better shot from the side :( 

Artist at work 

Love the way this Bougainvillea plant has been trimmed to outline the
windows

So much color and beauty here

This is the wall that had the painting of the West Indies girl and parrot that I used at the beginning
of this blog. So many wonderful paintings!!

Once we walked around for awhile it was time to head back into Juan Valdez's cafe for an iced coffee and snack!😋

Then is was back over another bridge towards Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas.  A huge fortification built on a hill over looking the Walled Old City and the Bay. It was finished in 1657, as a small fort and wasn't until 1769 that it was built into the large fortress as it looks today. It was enlarged after the English Armada was defeated, but the Spanish wanted to make sure no other countries would try to take Cartegena. So the building contained 62 cannons, cisterns, ramps to capture the invading enemy, tunnels through out so the enemy could be blasted from underneath if they got to the top. But the extensive walls and all other elements build into the fortress never had to be used again. Once Cartegena became Independent in 1821 the fortress was not longer needed and fell into ruins.  Until 1928 when restoration was started and the fortress was pretty well totally rebuilt to what it looks like today. 

We enjoyed going thru all the tunnels and could see where the men would sleep in safety. Also the animated movie of the history of the fort was also interesting. 

Once at the top the view is great! Thats the big mall we walked to on Saturday

La Popa on top of the hill. We'll wait until we get Vanna to go visit up there. Guess walking would
be thru a dicey area

Bocagrande in the background where all the expensive hotels are located over looking the Caribbean 

Heading down into the tunnels 

at least this tunnel  was lite u,  some of the tunnels we had to use the iPhone  flashlight to see!

This would be where the men would live when under siege  - a little shelf up high
for candle light

Just to show the size of the room 

When we were done walking around we headed back to go get a few groceries and on the way to the BnB we saw Carlos and his family sitting at their restaurant so we stopped in to visit for awhile. 

So another great day of walking - 8.5 kms - helps keep the pounds off from all the snacks we have 😁

Tomorrow we start the paperwork again and cross our fingers we can get Vanna out!