Cartagena

Cartagena is even much more beautiful that Cuenca. 

Cartagena was founded in 1533, one of the first Spanish towns in the North of South America. After it was attacked several times by pirates, an 11 km. long wall and 2 fortresses were built to protect the city. The historical center, the Ciudad Amurallada, is inside this wall. And I was extremely lucky, after hours of searching in the internet, to find a beautiful hotel inside the Ciudad Amurallada for an affordable price. 

This area is known to have been inhabited at least since 4000 before Christ, from various cultures. one of them, the Zenu culture, who among other achievments around 200 BC made beautiful goldwork linked to ceremonial life jewelry and ornaaments out of gold, which were found by tthe Spanish in their tombs and almost completely plundered. You can see a few of their beautiful gold works and ornaments that remained in the gold museum in Cartagena. 

Egle, for you, here some inspiration for jewelry making:

aren't they gorgeous? They also made beautiful ceramica and , also urns of ceramics, in which they put the ashes of their dead. 

I love this ceramic

and these urns are gorgeous

The Zenu who lived on floodable plains transformed the landscape in order to mae last areas suitable for homes and agriculture by means of an ingenious water control system. It consisted of an enormous network of canals and raised fields which, with time, came to cover an area of more than 650.000 hectars! It is hard to imagine. 

Cartagena is a fairy tale city. I mean the ciudad amurallada, the old town inside the walls. It consists of beautiful small colored houses with beautiful balconies full of lowers, beautiful small plazas, difficult to describe, you have to see it, so here are some impressions:

As you might have noticed, I am in love with that city. As I cannot put too many fotos on one post, I'll continue with the next one.