Bocagrande, Cartagena

Yesterday, Thursday, we took that little un-air-conditioned bus that passes our apartment to the main station where thought we might pick up a city bus to see the newer, more modern, and certainly more affluent area of Cartagena called Bocagrande.  It is on an extremely elongated piece of land between two waters.  The Bahia of Cartagena is on the east shore;  the Caribbean is on the west shore.  At the tip is a Naval Officers Club and lighthouse.  We decided to get our 10,000 steps in and walked.  We set out for the lighthouse.  It was a long but very pretty walk.  Anytime you can stroll a sidewalk and see the ocean just footsteps away, what could be better.  We walked and walked.  And probably gawked as well.  We had a nice traditional lunch and tried a tropical fruit drink made from guanabana fruit.  Delish!  But probably far too large a drink to put on top of a meal. 

We resumed our way looking for streets and sides of the streets with the most shade.  It is hot here!  HOT!  HOT! HOT!  By 3 pm every day my hair is wet . . . whether I wear a hat or not.  It’s just hot.  As we walked through the upscale streets toward the lighthouse we passed tall, exclusive-looking apartment or condo buildings.  They were beautiful.  White, tall, and very prestigious.   Incidentally, all high-rise buildings here are white which makes a pretty skyline. . and the skyline is all around – not just clustered in one primary area.   As we continued our walk and away from busy street traffic, we heard a rooster . . . not from a corner or courtyard far behind one of the condo buildings but it seemed to come from the fourth or fifth floor of the building in front of us.  He crowed and crowed.  Then in the distance, we heard another, then another.  Imagine the poor people on the fifth floor whose neighbor has a rooster on the terrace!.  It must be a thing . . . since several more crowed, calling to each other from several different buildings.  Boy, I sure would love to know more about this story.

We finally reached the gated entrance to the officers club.  We could barely see the lighthouse though, and we could not enter the naval base to take a snap of the tiny structure.   I’ll just share a photo I found online.