Colombia, Cartagena

Walk through Cartagena’s Walled City at 7am — before the heat arrives and after the nighttime bars have finally closed — and the streets belong to you. The light is horizontal and golden, the bougainvillea is extravagant over every whitewashed wall, and the city seems to be performing its beauty without an audience for the first time. It is one of the most purely satisfying urban experiences in South America.

Cartagena de Indias was founded in 1533 and served as Spain’s primary Caribbean port, the gateway through which the gold and silver of the Americas flowed back to Seville. The city was wealthy enough to justify the extraordinary defensive investment of the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas and the 13 kilometres of city walls that still stand in near-complete condition. The irony is that this colonial infrastructure of extraction has become the city’s primary economic asset in the twenty-first century — a UNESCO World Heritage Site drawing visitors from across the world.

The old city divides into distinct neighborhoods within the walls. The Centro and San Diego quarters are the most architecturally splendid: long balconied mansions, cathedral plazas, and interior courtyards that open unexpectedly behind studded wooden doors. Getsemaní, just outside the walls, is the historically working-class neighborhood that has become Cartagena’s most creative district — with extraordinary street murals, independent restaurants, and a nightlife that is distinctly Colombian rather than aimed at cruise ship passengers.

Cartagena’s boutique hotel scene is the finest on the Caribbean coast of South America. The conversion of colonial casas — tall-ceilinged rooms arranged around central courtyards with plunge pools, rooftop terraces, and professional cooking — has produced intimate properties with 8 to 30 rooms that feel like private palaces. The best are in the Walled City itself, where opening the door onto a quiet cobblestone lane at 6am with coffee in hand is the entire point of the stay.

Several properties occupy former merchant family homes with interior courtyards completely open to the Caribbean sky, ceiling fans turning slowly in rooms with four-poster beds, and rooftop terraces where the entire illuminated old city — towers, cathedral dome, fort — is visible at once.

The Rosario Islands, 35 kilometres offshore, are a national marine park of small coral islands and clear water. The islands range from uninhabited sandbars to private island retreats with overwater bungalows and reef snorkeling from the dock. Day trips are heavily subscribed and crowded; staying overnight at one of the island lodges — particularly on the smaller outer islands — gives access to the reefs before and after the day-trippers arrive.

Barú Peninsula, closer to the mainland, offers broad white-sand beaches with a more local atmosphere. The food is better, fresh seafood cooked over wood fires by vendors who have been working the beach for decades, and the pace is slower.