The Wettest Dry Weekend

After a couple of days of exploring Bogota (which included witnessing a military commissioning ceremony in the Plaza Simon Bolivar and a trip to the Botanical Gardens) I was ready to see another side of Colombia. I had settled on Cartagena, a significant city located on the country's northern coast.

Added incentive to my domestic travel was that as a result of national council, gubernatorial and mayoral elections, the days preceding Sunday's voting were deemed, by law, "dry." For those unfamiliar with this terminology (in truth, I was), this meant that starting Friday evening, there was to be no hard alcohol bought or consumed in all of Colombia. It was quite a sight to see: it was friday night and all the bars in Bogota were closed. In the grocery stores, the hard alcohol was cordoned off. I figured that things would be pretty uninteresting in the capital city, so the time was ripe for a bit of exploring.

Arriving in Cartagena Saturday afternoon, I could see why it had been so highly recommended by friends of mine who were familiar with the city. It looked like it had been carved out of Brazil's northern region and plopped down on Colombia's northern coast. The people looked, well, they looked like me. All shades of black and brown and cinnamon and caramel. One does not need a history book or Wikipedia to see that Cartagena was one of Colombia's oldest and most prominent slave ports. The result was all over the city in the form of a racial diversity that would rival anywhere in the world In addition--the second most prominent historical characteristic of the city--the city was home to Colombia's largest fortress. It is the presence of the remnants of these forts, along with the multitude of beautiful people (my use of the word "beautiful" is completely objective) that has caused Cartagena to be one of Colombia's most significant tourist destinations.

All of this was enough to distract me from the darkening skies as the airport taxi made its way past the fortresses and historic "centro" to the Bocagrande district of Cartagena, where I would be staying until Tuesday. In fact, it was not until i was halfway down the beach--having quickly gotten my room and dropped my bags--that I realized that the weather was changing. By the time I did realize what was going on, it was too late. The rain (which felt like it was mixed with hail) came down in large, sharp drops, easily soaking my clothes in less than a minute. Trying to play it cool, I started to walk back to the hotel, but realizing that at this rate, I'd probably be underwater, I ran to a nearby building for some cover. I would not learn until later, while consulting weather.com, that the conditions were supposed to remain this way through Tuesday.

Well, at least I had gotten a couple of pictures.