Paula spotted our first South American bird species today, a Red-crowned Woodpecker.

It looks pretty similar to a Red-bellied woodpecker because those very rarely have red belly. This one was a confused and possibly neurotic woodpecker, as it was pecking at the stone walls of the city. Perhaps in another thousand years the woodpeckers will have made a hole big enough to let the battle swans through.

We went exploring again today, had second breakfast from a street food vendor.

This is an arepa. The outer layer is made of corn meal, and inside you can find cheese, or eggs and meat, or chicken salad and vegetables, or stuff we couldn’t identify. They are deep fried in a bowl over a charcoal fire. I liked the egg and sausage meat one best.

There are lots of street vendors here, but unlike Jamaica they are not all selling the same thing. Still, a lot of them seem to be selling hats, so I finally bought a new hat in the hope that that would stop them bothering me.

No such luck. Almost at once I was accosted by a guy who told me I was wearing a bad hat, and he had much better ones.

Cartagena suffered from a bad case of Francis Drake.

You’ll notice the sign on the house refers to Drake as “corsario” (pirate) rather than say, “almirante” (admiral). In 1586, an English force lead by Drake captured the city, and Drake moved into this house, owned by one of the prisoners he was holding to ransom.

Drake demanded an enormous ransom to leave the city, and eventually received a big chunk of it by burning down bits of the city until the powers that be (which was the Catholic Church mostly as they were the only ones with enough money) agreed to pay up.

Talking of the Catholic Church brings us to this place.

That impressive portal leads to the Palace of the Inquisition, home of the Inquisición de Cartagena, now a museum. OK, how does it rate on the Conway museum scale? Skulls…

… one, plaster of paris. Ugly Baby Jesus…

… only one contender, and that was a reproduction. Thankfully the torture implements and the gallows were reproductions, too.

I’m not sure about this guy, or quite what he was doing there.

There’s a collection of books that were banned by the Catholic Church.

Having been monumentally wrong about Copernicus (above) the church went on banning books right up until the 1960s.

As inquisitions go, the one in Cartagena was not particularly active. There were about 800 cases over 200 years, and only five of these resulted in someone being burned at the stake.

As well as the history of the Inquisition, the museum also covers the history of the city, the indigenous people of the area, and the enslaved people who were brought here. More on the local history later, but let’s just say that Francis Drake was by no means the worst thing that happened to the city.

A few more pictures and then I have to go to bed. Bolivar is popular with the local pigeons.

Christopher Columbus discovers wardrobe malfunctions.

J2P2 has shiny fingers. What has he been polishing?

The old wall and the new skyline.