Listless Rio: Cartagena, Colombia

Listless... it's hot.. the rocks seem to sweat.. the smog hangs in the air (I didn't realize how smoggy it was until Sunday morning, when it was clear, and the rest of the week I finally realized was not just 'hazy'). The people.. well, the only people with any spirit seem to be drunk Bogatenos and the guys constantly harassing you to drink at their bar, buy a necklace, sit in their plastic shack on their skeezy beach, or get some blow from their buddy.. sure it has history, but the man who made it most famous, Marquez, moved to Mexico for some reason... I think I know why now.. it has this reputation for being edgy, chic, but, well.. it's not that edgy, and it's not that chic... When you can do what you want, it just kind of becomes normal.. the hookers in Cartagena blend in like one more profession, being high on coke just makes you stand out as annoying, but there is no real party to join, class 'Colombian style' making that a private affair(although I have never been around in January.. when supposedly the place comes alive),..it is expensive for Latin America, and it is, well, old with a history, like that lady at the end of the bar who keeps to herself..
Now one can derive some satisfaction from the history, the place got steam rolled almost as many times as Sicily, but for me it was Francis Drake beating the crap out of them and burning a quarter of the city, which he did in grand style, that made me smile.. the rest seemed like dismal drudgery.. far from being exotic, the history became this sad 500 years of being a safety port for the Spanish Galleons, and now a kind of almost charming backwater that still decided to house a refinery and a container port in competition with Baranquilla that supposedly offers less, but somehow birthed Shakira and Sophia Vergare which is more than Cartagena can claim.. and Panama was where the real action was on the Spanish main, leaving this a provincial capitol of occasional tragedy interrupting decades of mind numbing heat, with an inquisition to boot.. it's kind of a Colombian Philadelphia in that Cartagena decided to ditch the King first, but the spirit of independence feels lost in kind of a blur of day to day.. well.. listlessness, again... other comparisons that might work, a San Diego, or Tampa, Boca Grande might be South Beach if you give it ten more years, if the sea doesn't swallow it first..but ah, that's ten more years in the numbing heat..
It's re-finding it's self, slowly.. the party crowd came, bought up the cool old buildings, but they don't completely share the charm.. the hippies pacified Magdalena, so that it's safe but somehow not an adventure anymore... the rich bought up all the possible public parks and made them parking lots, or condo towers, and what is left is, well, again... listless.. with nary a joke to lighten the load... i feel this is getting repetitive.. it's the listlessness...