Cartagena: Full Moon Party!

Tonight it’s a full moon, which keeps on appearing through breaks in the moody clouds. When we were in Thailand, we were constantly hearing about ‘full moon parties’, but surely they don’t happen over here in the Caribbean? Well we decided to invent our own, and proceeded directly to the massive town walls, which were built to turn the entire city into a fortress to withstand the onslaught of French and Dutch ships, and indiscriminate British pirates such as Francis Drake… Have a gander at these two Nosferatu-like shots, where we discovered a small opening in the fortifications right next to the massive Teatro de Heredia.



Meanwhile, back in Getsemani, we stumbled into an old, converted mansion; one of those with a massive, central open-air courtyard. But this one came complete with dry-ice, strobe lighting and the loudest, biggest loudspeakers we’ve ever seen. And that’s even by Colombian standards. Almost immediately, a very friendly young woman came over to Simon, full of smiles and small-talk (unintelligible, we’re afraid, due both to the decibel levels of a rocket, and to the densely incomprehensible lilt and speed of the northern Colombian accent) and offered him a sip of a drink. Tempting though it was, this country still has a rather bad reputation for burundanga, a tasteless and odourless spike which renders the victim unconscious for hours, after which they awake, drowsy and minus all their valuable belongings. So we just danced. We danced to Shakira’s latest hit (did you realise she is Colombian?), sang along to a Lady Gaga classic, and whistled to a song where the one and only lyric is the name ‘Barbara Streisand’. As the dry-ice occasionally cleared in synchronisation with gaps in the clouds, whilst the tropical breezes fanned the revellers, the moon beamed down upon the whole fairy-tale scene.