Saturday, May 1, 2010

A nod to Cartagena

Here's another article from the New York Times raving about Cartagena. I'm really glad this lovely Caribbean city is getting its due, but frankly it's about time that the NYT write more about other destinations in Colombia. The part of Cartagena they always talk about is so catered to tourists that prices are ridiculous for everything from food to lodging, and as a result it's hard for regular Colombians to afford a visit. Furthermore, you get this odd, eery feeling when you walk around the colonial quarter because you don't see the little signs of normal everyday life that you normally get in a city--hardly anyone actually lives there anymore! As someone who's trying to rehab and preserve colonial architecture in my own town, I of course appeciate how old Cartagena has been spruced up by outsiders' buying colonial houses and turning them into restaurants and hotels, but what good is preserving the physical vestiges of a city if there are no longer residents, just absentee hotel owners and tourists?

At any rate, I'm always happy to see Colombia getting good press.

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