Dario picks me up at ten. I am paying him more than my hotel, 120,000 pesos a day, but I figure it is worth it. A translator, driver,and guide for about five dollars an hour, besides he knows a lot of people. I notice that there is a feeling that I am not in Colombia. There is no paranoia, the drivers cooperate, there are few buses and everyone is not fighting to gain an inch. I ask Dario if there are a lot of accidents here and he says no costenos are very polite people. How about car theft and he says no very few. when we park he leaves the car with windows open. When there is a guy watching the cars on the street he leaves the keys with him.
I ask if there is a lot of crime and he says the old city, Bocagrande, Manga and Crespo are safe, but the mainland suburbs to the west can be dangereous because there are poor people who came from the countryside, but they are not Costenos. We went to a small group of shops near AFA because I was pricing Panama Hats for a friend who wanted to sell them in her store here. The street peddlers were everywhere.... bogus cuban cigars, t-shirts sunglasses you know the drill. One of them kept following me and stopped when we went to the car , but as soon as I sat down and closed the door he came over again, which was intimidating. I told him "no moleste por favor" and he began pumping himself up, with how it was his work and I did not respect him. I responded that he did not respect me. we immediately drove away. Dario told me he was antioqueno and a lot of peddlers were from elsewhere. It was only necessary to say gracias to a costeno and they will stop.
Later that day there was a police sweep on the beach and a lot of peddlers were arrested for having no papers. There is constant complaining in the press about how the peddlers are ruining the tourism on the beach. It is said that a tan obtained in Bocagrande is striped because of the peddlers leaning over you while you lay in the sun. I asked a woman from the hilton staff later about the difference in the citys and she said the people lived on the streets and starved in Cali and Medellin, but in Cartagena they lived on the streets and ate.
We then moved on to Manga which is a residential island connected to the old city by two bridges. It is covered with old mansions and period architecture. We met with a real estate agent and began looking. That day I found a moorish mansion in beautiful condition for 385,000,000 asking price ($135.000) it is right around the corner from the Yacht club. The building looks like a wedding cake, all white and covered with filigree with 75 year old tile floors in perfect condition. It has five bedrooms a separate apartment and another small cottage in the back yard. The neighborhood was quiet and peddicabs were roaming the streets. Well on to rabbit stew for lunch. jim c
