Cartagena part one - On the road with photo enthusiasts - Colombia 2025 - 11
2025-02-23 - Cartagena part one
As it was quite late yesterday, I set my alarm clock back to 7am. Before breakfast, I quickly back up the pictures from yesterday.
We want to meet at 9am for an orientation tour. Even this early, it's already around 30°C. Not so bad really, if we hadn't come down from the Andes. There it was more like 15-18°C in the morning.
The idea of going on a walk together is then quickly abandoned. Everyone finds something else to take photos of and no one turns up at the meeting point that was announced meanwhile.
All right, then I walk to the destinations I've made a note of in advance. Technically, the light is already too bright, and I wanted to do more like a scouting walk. But there are too many motifs shouting “hello” to leave the camera down.
I walk out of the city center into Centenario Park. I even find one of the sloths that live there, as well as little monkeys, iguanas and a small hawk-like bird of prey. I walk through the park to the Getsemani district, the hip, not yet so stylish nightlife area.
Here my camera tells me that it's time for a lunch break. This morning, I decided at short notice to take only my camera and not my whole backpack. What remained in the hotel as a result were spare batteries. Normally this is not a problem as I rarely use more than one a day. So, I get something to drink and a snack on the way and retire to my room at around noon.
I do this and that and at 4pm, when the light starts to be less harsh, I set off again. The rest of the group are in the process of registering their departure online [↗], which I have already done during the break. I sign out of the sunset session and head on. I didn't see any place this morning that offered a nice foreground for a sunset and the clouds don't look like they're going to make for a spectacular sky either. I prefer to use the soft light to photograph various subjects in the city.
I walk a little through the old town and then head back to Centenario Park. The sloths and monkeys are there again and this time they are even more photogenic.
I spend most of my time in Getsemani. The place is now a hive of activity. Already in the old town there were a lot more people than this morning. Accordingly, there are also more vendors selling all kinds of things. Many horse-drawn carriages are noticeable. There weren't any this morning. My planned sunset or blue hour spot is the clock tower at the entrance to the old town.
At 7:15pm we go out to have dinner together and, as it turns out, Colombians can cook well after all - at least here where tourism has been the main source of income for decades.
