Sunday, June 22, 2008

Cartagena, Colombia

Right now I am working on planning a trip to Cartagena, Colombia this upcoming August. Carlos and I are going to finally take a real vacation to: (1) renew our visas, (2) celebrate finishing most/all of our field work and data collection before writing, and (3) see a little more of South America while we have the time to take a travel break. We will buy our plane tickets next week and then the real planning begins!

Cartagena de Indias is purportedly one of the most beautiful cities in all of South America (that is a pretty big claim) and is an increasingly popular tourist destination in Colombia. The city itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprised of a walled city that was fortified against pirate attacks in the 16th century. There are tons of museums and historical sites throughout the city center.

It sounds like Cartagena is a nice colonial place (it actually sounds almost European) to walk around and enjoy at a relaxing pace -- that sounds good to me! We are still trying to research an itinerary, but we will probably outline some of the major sites to see while taking it easy and just spending a lot of time walking and taking in the scenery. One of the things that I am most excited about doing is taking a horse-drawn carriage ride around the cobblestone streets on a city tour -- cool! Horseys!

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