San Felipe Fort

Cartegena was a dominant trading town particularly a place where gold was collected from elsewhere before being exported.

This quickly attracted pirates (of the Caribbean). Interesting pirates don’t mean Jack Sparrow type characters here but the most famous is Sir Frances Drake who captured the city in 1586 and was going to burn it down but accepted a ransom payment of 10 million pesos.

Having had enough of this the Spanish built huge fortifications - 13km of city walls and this fort - San Felipe. It took about 200 years to complete and was finished just in time for the Spanish to get kicked out of Colombia!

On another note a lot of tourists come to Colombia for dubious motives and a lot of Venezuelan women have been trafficked here for the sex industry. We have seen various dubious establishments on our walks. But when I (Michael) went for a short walk alone at lunchtime to get some food (whilst Helen was on cooking course) I was offered a “massage” 7 times. We have also been offered drugs several times. Quite seedy and sad for what is otherwise a beautiful city.Read more