Getsemani - Street Scenes

We went to Cartagena expecting to be wowed by the historic town center and the forts. Don't get me wrong; we were wowed by these even though they were tourist traps, but the unexpected gem of our trip was the neighborhood of Getsemani where we stayed. Getsemani is situated within the walled city and it is a gentrifying but still somewhat gritty part of town. My understanding is that it wasn't safe to wander these streets just a few years ago. The streets are narrow, the houses are brightly painted, there is street art everywhere and ordinary people still live there. In the cool evenings, the streets come alive with food vendors and people hanging out. The cobblestoned Plaza de la Trinidad is the center of life in the community, and people gather there to hang out. On both our nights there, we ate on the sidewalks and soaked in the atmosphere. Our second evening was particularly fun as it seemed as if the entire neighborhood was in the square watching the Colombia-Argentina match. I've always wanted to be in Latin America when a goal is scored in a futbol match and this crowd did not disappoint. Sadly for Colombia, they lost after a penalty shootout.

There are some really great restaurants in Getsemani. In the evenings we ate at Trinidad Square - one meal was at a Mediterranean restaurant with tourist prices, but my spanish seafood rice was out of this world. The other meal was at a pizza place with a mix of tourists and locals where we shared a huge vegetarian pizza for only COP24,000. We ate lunch twice at Donde Socorro, a seafood joint. They made special off menu vegetarian meals for Jeff while I enjoyed seafood stew and cerviche.

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