Last full day in Colombia

As much as I have enjoyed the tour I’m looking forward to a day to myself. I was lucky I was with a really neat bunch and thoroughly enjoyed the interactions but today is for me; with rules: walk, walk and walk with compulsory air con breaks every hour. Write bits of blog at each stop; so watch it the tense will be changing throughout. Fortunately not so hot today although still in mid 30’s at 11:00am. 

First stop at my fave (and probably my only ‘fave’ clothing brand) shop, ‘Desigual’. I resisted many temptations and continued my wander through parts of town I hadn’t seen before and then checked out the coffee museum where I am doing a course later in the day. 

Time for the first aircon break and a duble espresso and piece of ginger cake at Folklore, which has a reputation for good coffee and boy did it live up to it. The first whammo coffee I’ve had, perfectly brewed and ih so good. The cake was pretty good too and the aircon right above my head was bliss. 

The old city is literally crawling with tourists. The new modern part of the city barely gets a look in as far as tourist information goes. It does not even feature on the maps that are issued in this part of the city. It’s hard to fathom how a country so diminished by conflict up until very recently (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_peace_process) is now such a major hub for tourism, and thriving. Hopefully, irrespective of the growing tourism it will not lose its flavour and character. 

I worked out early on that there is barely a street I haven’t covered and then found one of those few, and there I had my second group of aircon stops. A number of them in shops, where the credit card got hit. Once for a pair of earrings depicting coffee beans (a had to have and part of my ongoing travel collection of earrings) and the second for a statue to go with the rest of my collection. Colombia you will be well represented at home. 

For the third stop here I sit at San Valentin where I am having the daily deal. A main component with sides of my choice. Fish with garlic and coconut rice with a passionfruit juice. Street food would have been good and in ample supply but where to eat it where it’s cool? Here at least is cool but the food leaves a lot to be desired. Greasy rice or greasy fish I’m not sure but I’m grateful for the thirst quenching ice cold passionfruit drink. It was quite possibly the worst meal of the trip and most of it went back to the kitchen while I remained hungry. 

Stop four. The fascinating chocolate workshop. The lovely Emilio took me through the museum and told me about the history of chocolate, where Messrs Nestle and Cadbury fit into the picture and also about Mr van Houten, inventor of the process/machine that separates the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder. That done he then showed me the different processes the beans go through:

• From the beautiful flower (a type of orchid) eventually comes the pod
• Picking the pods and removing the beans
• Drying
• Fermenting
• Roasting
• Separating the nibs from the shells

I then got the chance to roast a few and then separate the nibs from the shells. Emilio made a tea with the shells, brewing them just like tea and then sweetened with honey. Really yum. 

We ground the nibs to a paste with a mortar and pestle to grind the cocoa butter and the cocoa powder together. It took a while but we ended up with a paste similar in texture to a curry paste. The pastes were used to make two different types of hot chocolate;

Mayan had the paste mixed with honey, Vanilla, Chili, Ground Corn, Paprika, Anise, Pepper and Hot water.  To combine the ingredients we tipped the contents from one jug to the next mixing as the transferred. This was just like drinking spiced thick warm chocolate. Just delicious. 

We also did an English hot chocolate:  Hot milk, Cinnamon, Cloves, Sugar, chocolate paste and salt. To combine the ingredients we used a molinillo; a wooden stick specially made to froth and blend chocolate drinks. It is rubbed between the hands to rotate and do the blending as it turns. Despite the fact that there was milk in the drink I did quite enjoy it. 

And so it was time to make moulded chocolate where we tempered some chocolate, filled our moulds, added any fillings we wanted (I chose coffee beans) and then covered the filling with chocolate. Emilio then put in in the freezer to set. Freezer and good chocolate don’t go together but I guess it is the only way they would set quickly enough for me to be able to take them home. But I wont be eating them; I hope the chamber maids enjoy them. 

My chocolate workshop was over. I would have loved to have seen the process for making the chocolate couveture but I suppose that is giving away secrets. 

Next stop, number five was at the Emerald museum which was small but interesting. I never realised that Emeralds were part of the Beryl family nor did I know that they naturally grow in rectangular shapes. Some brave man tried to sell me one but I think my fake at home will suffice. 

Stop six: La Cevicheria, on Anthony Bourdain’s recommendation. I was secretly hoping he might have been here and if that was the case I might just have invited him ‘home’ for a drink. Anyway he wasn’t here, but every noisy tout in Cartagena was. 

What a ruckus. Some guy with a noise thing that emitted any awful noise you wanted, including peacocks, roosters, hyena, was close to getting a whack from me when another noise started. A street parade to mark the Arts Festival. Street dancers, musicians and a bunch of noisy happy people. And then the horses trotted by.... so much for a relaxing stop. 

The only thing on the menu within my food budget was a tiny bowl of ceviche and after taking ages to decide which one I wanted I ended up ordering the one I didn’t want, the one with coconut milk but oh well. It came with crackers, plantain chips and something like a hollondaise dipping source. Anthony! this had better be good or that space under my bed for your shoes may get closed off. Mind you, you haven’t been wrong with any of your other recommendations... yet!!

Oh now we have car alarms going off!! And now a flautist and his background music turned up full bore. These people certainly like sound, loud sound. 

But the good thing is that Anthony is safe. The ceviche was delicious and just the right size at this time of the day. The fish was still slightly pink, barely macerated and the squid 🦑 just melt in my mouth tender. There was a sprinkle of fresh onion, coconut shreds and a sprinkling of parsley; the coconut balanced perfectly with lime and mandarin juice. 

I walked home along the top of the ramparts laughing to myself at the hundreds that were gathered at Cafe del Mar, paying silly prices for a drink so they could see the sunset. The cafe round further was equally as full but at least they weren’t ripping people off. I kept walking. 

Thirsty on the way home I stopped for a juice; pineapple and feijoa and oh so thirst quenching, even if the frozen fruit had lost most of its flavour. It was cold and that was the main thing. 

The evening saw me wandering to Plaza Trinidad where some sort of show was going to be playing but got sick of waiting and wandered off. I wasn’t hungry but knew I needed to eat or else I would wake up hungry and Empanadas were top of mind. Too late they’d all gone home so it was back to Cafe Lunatico for garlic prawns and that delicious toast. Once again a delicious snack and super friendly service. To top it off as I sat and wrote this, a young guy outside the restaurant next door started playing ‘Imagine’ on his sax. How can a day get much better! 

P.S. I don’t think I mentioned about the ants we had for desert after our family dinner a couple of days ago. I bought a bag just so we could all try them expecting them to be tiny ants. I was surprised when each was a couple of cms long and maybe 1/2 cm across. Quite large little blighters. Taste wise they were disappointing. Other than a vague smoky taste you couldn’t taste anything else. They were crunchy ( not as much as crickets and grasshoppers) and hard to swallow, but I can say I have tried ants 🐜.