It wasn't for the blow, the coke or the angel dust. It wasn't for the adrenaline run or the jungle safari. I spent a splendid week in the beautiful blazing sun of history rich Cartagena, Columbia at the invitation of a Canadian expatriate friend to celebrate his wedding to a local south american princess.
By definition (via the NYT article of a similar name): "Call them "sophistonauts" -- those wide-roaming urban nomads, often third-culture kids, expats or grown-up diplo-brats who tend to live outside their countries (plural!) of citizenship and bounce around a social web connecting them to equally geographically flexible, curious confreres. The sophistonauts have not been visiting Colombia because they are braver than you and me. Nor have they been going for Cartagena's balmy climate or the city's peculiar colonial architecture or its rowdy history of pirates and plunder. The sophistonauts are flocking to Cartagena because they've been invited, in this case by proud Colombian friends eager to show off their favorite national beauty spot in full flower after decades of abandonment."
My wife and I loved it there! Absolutely. If you have a friend or a reason or an excuse for a reason; go, go go. Cartagena is one of the most beautiful cities I've seen, from both the air and the ground and the ocean. It is vibrant, it is friendly, it is vastly underrated and it's people are so filled with pride of their traditions and beauty that you wish you would have visited long ago. As you tour the coastline and see the endless line of construction projects of high rise condominiums you ponder the reasons you don't move down for a few months of the year... you know because with Twitter and everything, who really needs the office.
We also spent some time in the Islands of Columbia (yes they exist). San Andres was like a paradise lost. Rustic, Island culture. A half sunken ship, lost 100 years ago blocking the setting sun. A people again, so proud of their beautiful country and yet so persistently aware of their nation's reputation.
Colombia is a gem. Visit, then visit again. Then post a comment and thank me. Better yet, invite me and we'll be Sophistinauts together.
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