We had much pleasure peering into other peoples houses. In Cartagena the living room is at the front of the house and we took a peep into how ordinary people were living their lives.
We saw people lazily outstretched on sofas watching TV, listening to music and quietly chatting. We felt ouselves falling under the spell of the slow, lazy, Carribean lifestyle.
My new camera was certainly getting a workout we took many photos. It was strange capturing this perfectly preserved old city in digital format. We felt lost in time.
In Cartagena a watch is an irrelevant accessory. As it is a place where you eat when you feel hungry and sleep when you feel tired and dance the rhythm of life whenever the moment takes you. We had lunch and made our way back to our pousada for siesta not consciously aware of what time or even what day it was. We were totally relaxed.
Awakening from our afternoon slumber we realized the dark velvet coat of night had fallen across the city. We showered in the open air bathroom, changed, and were once again in the street greeted by the cool trade winds.
The night was ready to take us on a pathway of discovery. We headed for plaza Santa Domingo. There we were captured by the slow rhythm pace . Up unto this time we thought we were the only ones who seemed to be slowly wandering but it was at this point we also noticed that most people were also doing the same. As if under some sort of quiet calm spell. We were having another enchanting night in Cartagena. We listened to singers with guitars serenade young couples and the clip clop of thankfully not thongs but horses hoofs making their way with carriage attached. Taking people around the city. I was starting to feel very hungry and we began to search for a restaurant.
Michael was being his usual indecisive best when choosing a restaurant and I was hungrier by the minute( I must confess that I am not that amicable when hungry). In a moment of irritation I found a restaurant and we entered as two women were leaving.
I have found when traveling it is a good idea to ask people leaving a restaurant if it is any good but in a non english speaking country this can be a difficult task. However tonight I did notice the two women leaving the restaurant had pasty skin, badly dried hair and were wearing clothing from some bygone era( that was not even fashionable then) and had that overly friendly disposition. They had to be English!!
Sure enough my observations about culture and life were again correct. They were English. I asked them for a review and they gave it a thumbs up replying in their best northern accent. They smiled displaying two sets of crooked teeth that the English are famous for( Thank God some sort of of genetic mutation happened in Australia. We all have relatively good teeth or at least we get ourselves to an Orthodontist if we don't) I think they were a little tipsy as they swayed their way into the street in an aura of dowdiness. We entered the restaurant.
Menus in hand, seated in a restaurant with a glass leadlight wall on one side and hard stuccoed wall on the other and tiled floor under feet we selected our food. Usually this design of a restaurant of a restaurant back home would be a recipe for a night of noise induced torture but here in Cartagena people spoke quietly and there no problem with noise. Michael had a bland chicken dish and I had Cajun food which I have always found too bland and here in Cartagena this was no exception..
We paid our bill to a woman who looked remarkably nurse Von from “All Saints” and were on our way to a nightclub to go dancing.
Climbing the stairs after entering the club, we came to a large white room with a bar at the furthest end and seating around the room. The music was American commercial dance music and the club had no energy in it. We left and decided to call it a night as tomorrow we would visit an Island.
