Walking back through the main entrance to Cartagena, we passed through the historic Puerta del Reloi or Clock Gate, smack in the middle of a plaza of carriages.  Taking a chiva ride is one of the main attractions for tourists, but for us the sun was already too high to pull these horses from their little pockets of shade.  Throughout our stay, particularly during the evening hours, these carriages would be as plentiful here as the cars on their way to the hotspots and high-rises of nearby Boca Grande.  More than once we would find ourselves hopping onto the narrowest of street curbs without a moment to spare to let the rushing hooves pass.    

Columbia is a country of extremes and opposites—beaches and mountains, old and modern, urban grit juxtaposed with breathtaking nature.  There is also a great disparity in the distribution of wealth, with the very rich sharing space with the very poor, and a middle class that finds it difficult to stay in the middle for very long.  Additionally, despite Colombia’s recent emergence as a viable tourist destination, that is not meant to indicate that all parts of the country are safe, leading to the perception of extremes between areas that are perfectly acceptable for tourists to explore and those that are dangerous even for locals.

Today, “Plaza de los Coches” buzzes with activity as merchants sell fruit piled onto wooden crates, tourists carry shopping bags by the latest designers along with indigenous mochilas, and performers dressed in bright-colored dresses dance along to bachata. This plaza is where the slave market used to take place.  It served as the meeting point of three worlds—European, Indigenous American, and African—as the international trade created a process of ethnic and racial exchange.