Cartagena de Indias, a destination to return to at any time of the year.

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Historic Center

“It was enough for me to take one step inside the wall to see it [Cartagena] in all its grandeur in the mauve light of six o’clock in the afternoon, and I could not repress the feeling of having been born again,” wrote Gabriel García Márquez, in his autobiography Living to Tell the Tale.

The streets of the San Diego and Getsemaní neighborhoods are surrounded by a military-colonial wall built four centuries ago. Its mission was to prevent invasions by English and French sailors. Its original form remained almost intact until the present day, ceasing to be a defense to become a gateway to yesterday.

The streets Cochera del Hobo, Del Curato Santo Domingo, Los Siete Infantes, La Tumbamuertos and others in the San Diego neighborhood are full of colonial architecture: churches, theaters, convents, university faculties and houses that survive the passage of time and people. It is not only about walls, windows and balconies, but also about stories that are debated as historical events or mythologized legends.

In 1666, in San Diego, construction began on the Santo Tomás de Villanueva Church, today known as Santo Toribio. At that time, this cloister was part of the daily life of the upper class of Cartagena. It housed beautiful, almost divine, religious images and a beautiful baroque altarpiece.

On April 27, 1741, a cannonball came out of a pirate ship and entered through the door of the Santo Toribio Church up to the feet of the priest, without causing any damage, only a scare, according to the written chronicles of the time.

When walking through this neighborhood all the senses are delighted; we look, we listen, we feel and we live.

The other side of the Center

The suburb of the Santísima Trinidad. That was the name of the Getsemaní neighborhood at the time when the priest of Santo Toribio came up with the idea of keeping the cannonball as proof of a miracle in the new world.

Getsemaní is the first popular neighborhood in Cartagena. The epicenter of this neighborhood is the Plaza de la Trinidad, formed by a church of the same name built three centuries ago; it has sculptures that allude to the freedom of the enslaved; and it is surrounded by multicolored houses that, as a whole, turn the streets of Getsemaní into an urban art gallery.

During Cartagena’s Independence celebrations, which take place from November 11 to 15, this square is a multidimensional party. Year after year, La Trinidad is the stage for dance and music groups that enliven the independence celebrations.

This is no coincidence. In this same square, in 1811, the settlers of Getsemaní, began to gestate freedom with the absolute separation from the Spanish monarchy.

Since then, at dusk, locals and tourists take over the square, under the imposing shadow of the yellow facade of the Church of the Trinity. The other streets have their own charm; there are breweries, fashion studios, restaurants and popular music.