New Granada

Simon Bolivar is certainly the most revered American in this part of the hemisphere. His statue is everywhere and he was one of the world's first globalists. He believed in a greater Latin America though died at age 47 not far from here knowing that his dreams of a united continent were already in pieces. When he arrived in Cartagena a few months before he died, the glory days for both him and the city were over. However, both his reputation and the fortunes of the city have recovered over the last 184 years. Our hotel has been given a deliberately distressed look but this look is itself becoming distressed. Across the road the ravages of time show in the building opposite our room and are more reminiscent of the streets of Havana than the modern Cartagena amply evidenced by the the modern hotels and apartment blocks just to the south of the walled old city. What is even more reminiscent of Havana is the ballet school we can see not with it's piano accompaniment clearly heard in our room and half a block away. These older building are gradually being guttered internally and replaced with modern and useable rooms with just the old facades remaining. I suspect it won't be long before the ballet school is relocated out of the old city and replaced by a boutique hotel or an upmarket shop. That will be a good thing for Colombia as it will be a furthere sign that the country is leaving the divisions of the guerilla war in the past. Tomorrow we fly to Bogota a city over 7000 feet above sea level and with a population of over 7 million. Bolivar hated the fog and the cold. We go with a lot more optimism.