One day in CartagenaWalls from sunrise to sunset
Start early, around seven or eight, with “From Getsemaní to sunset on the walls”: Callejón Angosto is still quiet, the Clock Tower Gate uncrowded and Botero’s Gertrudis free of selfie queues. Have posta cartagenera for lunch and take a proper siesta, because from noon to three the sun is brutal. Then walk “From Heredia to Blas de Lezo”, from Plaza de Bolívar to Castillo San Felipe, and grab a taxi back to San Pedro Claver for “Witches, devils and a mane of copper hair”. You’ll end at Las Bóvedas at sunset; seafood cazuela for dinner.
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Morning
From Getsemaní to sunset on the walls
- Callejón Angosto and the murals of GetsemaníThe craftsmen's district that pushed for independence is now an open-air street art gallery.
- Plaza de la TrinidadThe square where Getsemaní comes out to play every evening, in front of its yellow 17th-century church.
- Clock Tower Gate and the Portal de los DulcesWalk through the gate of the walled city and sweeten your afternoon at the Portal de los Dulces.
- Cathedral of Saint Catherine of AlexandriaOne of the oldest cathedrals in the Americas, which survived Francis Drake's cannons.
- Plaza de Santo Domingo and Botero's GertrudisThe liveliest square in the old town, with Botero's reclining woman that everyone wants to touch.
- Santo Domingo BastionEleven kilometres of city walls and Cartagena's best sunset, with the Caribbean at your feet.
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Lunch
Try Posta cartagenera at Restaurante La Mulata. Calle Quero n.º 9-58, San Diego
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Afternoon
From Heredia to Blas de Lezo: the city everyone wanted
- Plaza de Bolívar and the Palacio de la ProclamaciónThe old main square, where Cartagena declared its independence from Spain on 11 November 1811.
- Plaza de la AduanaThe great square of the colonial port, where duties were charged on everything that came in or went out of the city.
- Church and Cloister of San Pedro ClaverThe Jesuit who went down into the holds of slave ships and signed himself «slave of the Black people forever».
- Clock Tower Gate and Plaza de los CochesThe main gate of the walled city and, beside it, the square where enslaved people were sold.
- Camellón de los MártiresNine marble busts recall the patriots Morillo had executed in 1816.
- Castillo San Felipe de BarajasThe largest Spanish fortress in the Americas and Blas de Lezo, who held out against Vernon's fleet in 1741.
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Early evening
Witches, devils and a mane of copper hair
- San Pedro Claver: the saint's bonesA skeleton in a glass casket beneath the altar and a long list of miracles told by the people of Cartagena.
- Palace of the InquisitionThe tribunal that tried heretics, healers and alleged witches in Cartagena, and the little window where denunciations were left.
- Church of Santo DomingoA crooked bell tower that, legend says, the devil himself pushed, and the lost grave of Blas de Lezo.
- Former Convent of Santa ClaraThe convent where, in 1949, García Márquez saw the copper-coloured hair that inspired «Of Love and Other Demons».
- Las BóvedasTwenty-three bombproof vaults that ended up as dungeons, and the route's final sunset.
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Dinner
Try Seafood cazuela at La Casa de Socorro. Calle Larga n.º 8B-112, Getsemaní