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...

The Ferry That Never Arrives: Panama-Colombia

Sometimes you can tell the Fix is in, and it's hard to look elsewhere than my own country. I used to argue that America has cleaned up it's act in Latin America, and I think it's true compared to the old days. Even in the 80's, no matter how zealous guys like Bob Casey and Oliver North seemed to be, the guys on the ground actually often did a good job of teaching militaries to respect human life and create a middle ground between paramilitary fanatics and the Left Wing guerrillas who might be romantic, and sympathetic if you ever watched an oligarchy, but might not make things better in the long run. These days, the movement of the Non Aligned and the whole Bolivarian thing is kind of doing it's deal, and it's like watching teenagers fledge the coop.. they'll figure it out eventually.
It's true that the second Bush administration likely tried to undermine or potentially overthrow Chavez, although not much came of it, but for better or for worse, the Monroe Doctrine has learned to be a more respectful parent of sorts.
However, nothing seems to trump security, which is why I think the fix might be in on the Colombia-Panama Ferry.
For the uninitiated, if you can build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, or put a man on the moon, you can build a road across the Darien Gap.. it's tough country, trust me, I have seen it, but there isn't much man can't do with a little diesel and some heavy equipment. The thing that has always blocked the extension of the Pan American Highway, which currently runs as far south as a wild little town called Yaviza, Panama, is American Diplomats, by all rumor. They think it's bad enough that all of Central America can make it to the US border to have a hop over, but the idea of adding a land connection to another 600 million people doesn't sit well with them.. so as much as the US claims to be an advocate of free market, the car, and transportation infrastructure development, there does appear to be a limit.. the idea of 2 million Peruvians deciding to join their cousins in Denver with some white powder in their mochilla to pay for the trip seems to be too much for the powers that be.
So I am just speculating, but it would seem a fair bet that some combination of shipping and security interests are what keeps a ferry from Colon to Cartagena from ever happening. My first awareness of this was in talking to friends who motorcycled south from the US trying to get to Tierra Del Fuego, and they told me about having to go to Colon to ship their bike in a shipping container. For the individual, there is of all things, a backpacker ferry service, that occasionally runs afoul of the authorities in Cartagena, that ships groups of maybe 7-15 tourists on some form of charter sailboat or i think in one cast an old fishing boat from the fascinating little berg of Portobello, Panama to Cartagena, with a stop to snorkel and see the natives in Kuna Yala, the San Blas islands. But this is hardly a car ferry, hardly a convenient overnight trip like has been accomplished so many places around the world, keeping commerce afloat, and offering a relaxing alternative to the airplane.. so recently, with a friend in Cartagena hoping to get to Panama, I got to watch the whole silent death of a Ferry Service.. let's see if the web page still exists... they had even scheduled their first voyage which came and went with an apology.. they seem to have taken it down...
Here's the short postmortem:
http://news.liveandinvestoverseas.com/Investment/panama-to-colombia-ferry-project-cancelled.html
Some history of the Previous Attempt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucero_Express
I might be engaging in conspiracy theory, maybe the business really isn't there, but something makes me wonder..