I've been in Colombia for the past three days and I've already taken over 200 photographs! In my defense, every book I've read on photography advises me to take more photos than I think I should. I usually take several shots of one scene or object. At this point I'm still trying to come up with a project for myself. For example, I could take pictures of different doorways and create a line-up of different doors. I could take groups of photos that represent a certain color and create Colors of Colombia... faces of Cartagena.
I'm not worried. At this rate, by the time 2 weeks rolls around I'll have enough photographs to make whatever I'd like.
Here are some of my favorites so far:
This is the view from my dads apartment. In this picture you see the coastline. On the right side of the balcony is the bay where the Colombia naval base is located. Cartagena was one of the oldest surviving cities in Colombia (founded by the Spanish around 1533). As one of the major port towns in the Caribbean a lot of the gold that the Spanish collected from the Americas was filtered through the city on its way to Europe. No surprise! The city was constantly under attack by pirates. They built walls and forts along the city's coast and underneath the water they piled rocks to keep out unwanted pirates. There's only one safe way to enter the bay but even at that entrance they installed a thick chain that slaves would reel up to stop pirates from entering the bay at that location. The chain's still under the water in the entrance but I don't know if it's still functioning. I want to scuba dive the area!
Dad thinks there's still a few "scuba divers" searching for gold pieces and antiques around Cartagena's coast.
Castillo San Felipe:
Castillo San Felipe is one of the oldest and strongest fortesses built by the Spaniards during this time period. It has underground tunnels throughout the fortress for what I can only assume was for the distribution of resources and for escape or easy access to other parts of the fortress. We didn't buy a professional tour of the fort. Although there are lots of 'tour guides' trying to make some a little money off their knowledge of the place. The cannon to the left still has visible engravings on it- designs and the date.
The old town of Cartagena is really the place to be. Colored buildings, small streets, shops, plants, old architecture. The rushes of cool wind, block-style streets, lanterns and architecture are reminiscent of the European conquest of the city. However, the bright colored buildings, people, language and music are uniquely South American with an African blend.
And the friendly TOUCAN! I love toucans... love. Probably took 10 photos of the toucan.
More on Cartagena soon!
Peace everyone,
Kelly
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete