Cartagena etcetera

After the standard program on the arrival day (inclusive or exclusive of coke, always according to the viewpoint), we found it necessary on day 2 to look beyond the tourist boundaries. The Mercado Bazurto seemed to be the perfect experimental field for this. If I read in advance on Tripadivsor etc. that the visit to this market is only for "adventurous travelers with strong nerves" and some (of course American) comments say that it is strongly discouraged to visit because they didn't feel "safe", this motivated us even more. The fact is that Bazurto is a huge chaos, a mixture of Bangkok with annoying motorcycles in the narrowest aisles and a garbage dump. It actually smells wonderfully of rotting waste and meat, and of course everything is littered with trash. All this enriched with Latin American bustling activity and very loud communication. Definitely not for the faint-hearted, who would probably immediately turn into vegans at the sight of the meat and fish stands, and of course not for most cruise tourists who always like to see only the freshly painted front facade of the places visited for 8 hours. We had fun anyway, although the smells are really borderline in the tropical heat. The only dangerous things in this market are the motorcycles or the potential to slip on some half-decomposed cadaver and end up in a sewer. As a contrast program, we then visited the Santa Cruz de la Popa Monastery, which offers magnificent views of Cartagena, and the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. In the monastery, we also had a very friendly encounter with an animal that was not cadaverized. Both places are truly rewarding destinations and also suitable for cruise tourists.