El Campestre
Me sitting on the roof of my house!
During my time in Cartagena, I stayed/lived in 4 different neighborhoods in the southern part of the city: Bruselas, El Refugio, El Campestre and lastly Los Almendros. I stayed in Bruselas and El Refugio for just a week’s time each, but truly lived in El Campestre and Los Almendros for 4 and 5 months respectively. I loved both places for different reasons and today I thought I’d tell you about my experience living in El Campestre.
El Campestre was the first neighborhood that I lived in for a long stretch of time. I lived with the other Fulbright ETA in the city with me, and with the woman who owned the house who actually is the retired librarian of the foreign language department that I worked in at the university. The house was situated at the border of El Campestre, and another neighborhood called Los Caracoles which was so close that I often used la Estacion de Policia de Los Caracoles as a point of reference for motos and inDrivers. Our house was situated halfway down an alley that had houses on both sides facing each other, so I always ran into neighbors as I came and went.
The terraza at my house
I loved this neighborhood so much for many reasons. I loved that in the little alley there were always children laughing and playing. They were so cute and so curious. I remember one time when a kid climbed onto our terrace while I was sitting there eating a snack one afternoon and he asked me if I was from USA, which is pronounced “uuuuuussahh” in Spanish. I thought he was asking me if I was from Russia, pronounced “ruuuuu-cee-ahh” in Spanish, and when his friends noticed my confusion and silly mistake, they also climbed up onto the terrace to interrogate me further. Once we cleared up my origins, they took turns telling me about the different things in English that they learned in school- numbers, greetings, colors. It was super cute.
I also loved the location of the house, as it was close to the university (13 minutes en moto), about 15 minutes walking to Ara and D1, the grocery stores I would buy my food, and about 12 minutes walking to Restaurante La Roca my most-visited spot for almuerzo corriente. The walk in the direction of Ara, D1, and La Roca would take me through a main road of Los Caracoles, where there were a ton of little shops, a bakery, comida rápida at night, a Tigo store to do recargas for my cellphone, a heladería for ice cream, a repostería for sweets, and much more.
The street I would walk along in Los Caracoles
There were neighborhood tiendas on either end of the alley where my house was situated where I would buy things when I was in a pinch for time, or sometimes if I didn’t want to make the trek out of the neighborhood, I would buy all of my groceries there. On the next street over there was another tienda that had the best fresh meats. I would buy chuleta, carne molida, and pechuga that the owner of the store would expertly fillet like artwork. Additionally, every Sunday there was a small market where people would bring fresh fish, meat, fruits, and vegetables all the way from pueblos outside the city to sell. There was also a pharmacy very close by and two really good frito stands just a 2-minute walk away.
Watching some of the World Cup in our neighborhood tienda
The tienda at the top of the alley served as a common meeting place for people in the neighborhood, so naturally it was a spot where I would catch motos. For a period of time, I would meet one of my trusty moto drivers there every morning and he could take me to the university. Whenever I wanted to go somewhere there almost always were neighbors who drove motos there in the tienda, and in the times when there weren’t, there was a red tent up the street on the main road where other motos de confianza would wait.
The perrito lindo that I would see every now and then in the alley leading up to my house
Living in El Campestre, the neighborhood really made my experience, but I also really liked my room too. My window took up basically the entirety of one of the walls, and I loved the way it allowed the sun to fill my room with light every morning. By midday all the sun that came in would make my room really hot, so I always kept my window open to let a breeze in while I was there. I didn’t have air conditioning in my room, but I had a fan that made it more comfortable to sleep. During the day it truly was rough sometimes, but I was able to look on the bright side and use this heat as motivation to get out and aprovechar that I was in beautiful Cartagena, Colombia. It was motivation to do and see more in the city rather than stay in my room!
My roooooooom y mi abanico!!
Behind my room was a little outside area where we hung our clothes to dry. We had a washing machine but took advantage of the heat of each day to dry out clothes in the blazing sun. I would also take advantage of this space after the sun went down to sit out there to try to catch a breeze, call my family and friends back home, and listen to music coming from the neighborhood. I have a lot of great memories from the beginning of my time in Cartagena living in El Campestre and recalling it all to write this post really warmed my heart. I hope I’ll have the chance to go back and visit in the future!
Sunrise through the gate that enclosed the area where we dried our clothes
