Colombia es Pasión
by mircaskirca
The Colombia es Pasión (Colombia is Passion) campaign was launched in 2005 to promote the country and a positive image of Colombia abroad, encourage business investment, tourism and increase cultural relations with nations around the world. The logo of the campaign is a heart, which symbolizes the passion of the Colombian people. The campaign celebrated its 5th anniversary in Cartagena, a city of ideas and dreams, making people discover the new face of Colombia. They set an exhibition with the motto Descubre Colombia a través de su corazón (Discover Colombia Through Its Heart). On Plaza de la Proclamación they placed seven 4-meter interactive hearts. 40 smaller hearts, located on the busy plazas of the old city, were used as mobile billboards containing moving commentaries from international personalities, headlines from different media and famous quotes referrint to the concept of 'nation', as well as invitations to visit the main hearts. All of the heart sculptures for the exhibition were created by a creative team of Colombian professionals. The interactive hearts represented different features of Colombia, from its diverse culture and landscape to its native artists, including world-renowned artist Fernando Botero, Grammy Award-winning musician Shakira and Noberl Prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez. For example, the Music Heart had audio stations playing samples of diverse Colombian rhythms; the Culture Heart screened videos of the country's most important festivals, fairs and celebrations; the Cities Heart was covered in leaves and 40 tiny windows through which photos of architectural and urban progress could be seen and the Tranquility Heart was a structure that generated an optical effect and contained testimonials from 82 visitors to Colombia who shared their experiences. Besides the hearts, there were musical and cultural performances and other educational programs.
Houses, Doors, History and Nature
by diditi
Favorite Thing:
From the clock tower until museum of arms in the walled city, Cartagena fascinates in each one of its streets by its churches, hotels, doors and each details that make of Cartagena one unique site in the world.
(C) Walking at night by santodomingo place and to croos the city in a cart
Gabriel García Márquez's Enchanting Home Town
by mircaskirca
The city of Cartagena also has an important place in world literature. Although the location is not specifically mentioned in the book (it was replaced by a ‘Caribbean port town’), there is no doubt that Gabriel García Márquez, the famous Colombian author who spent his childhood in Cartagena, set his novel Love in the Time of Cholera in Cartagena. He certainly intended the story to be set here, it’s just that he was a way of taking real people and places and twisting them. Cartagena is a passionate Caribbean city and the perfect backdrop for Gabo’s allegorical love story tracing Florentino Ariza’s obsessive love for Fermina Daza.
To get an even better look, his most famous book was also made into a film in 2007, directed by Mike Newell and starring the always attractive Benjamin Bratt and Javier Bardem. So whether you read it or watch it, get ready for an interesting narrative that intertwines the city’s ‘steamy and sleepy streets’.
For those who admire Márquez, Cartagena is the start of an emerging literary trail around Colombia’s northern Caribbean coast. At Aracataca, where he was born, a small museum dedicated o the writer is being completed.
La Manga
by call_me_rhia
La Manga is an area of Cartagena that I liked very much. It's located on an island connected to the getsemani area via a bridge and it is outside the old city walls. It dates back to the beginning of the 20th century... it's neither old nor too modern, life.size i would say, and there's not too much traffic except at rush hours. La Manga ia an architectural delight... any houses there are very beautiful and some of them really first class. Quite a few houses are built in an unexpected Moorish or arab style, possibly reflecting the homelands of the people who had built them. I spent a happy hot afternoon searching for them.
Most Charming Colonial Architecture
by mircaskirca
The downtown area of Cartagena is very attractive with cobbled streets, leafy plazas and ancient churches. It has a wonderful mixture of architecture - colonial houses, old military constructions, and there are also republican and Italian style buildings. Some of the two- or three-storey colonial houses boasts enormous wooden doors. Many have charming wooden balconies looking onto the streets, covered with flowering vines and bougainvillea hanging over their sides.
The houses are beautifully conserved and they seem unchanged by time. Even the buildings that have not yet undergone complete restoration have been given a facelift with decorative front doors and brightly painted exterior facades. Cartagena's beauty lies in its history. Horse drawn cariages ride the narrow streets, families and lovers dine at streetside restaurants. Taking a walk through the cobbled streets of the historical heart of the city is like a trip back in time. I very much enjoyed my strolls, they were the highlight of my visits of this most charming city.
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Past glory
On the Wall
Moat on land side
Old and new in a Symbiosis
