El Final de La Costa
Cartagena
April 11, 2009
Pei and I headed back to Bocagrande for more beach time and a little shopping today. We were both looking for new bags (I miraculously restricted myself to bringing only one here and got royally sick of it. I did buy a Juan Valdez bag in San Gil but still wanted another. Shocking, I know.) We also both needed to pick up various souvenirs for friends and family.
I found a beautiful yellow over-the-shoulder bag for a pretty good price (unfortunately for all the trinket sellers in Cartagena, I am able to bargain in Spanish and do not in fact have any dollars. Countless times after asking in Spanish how much something cost, the seller would take one look at me and reply "Five dollars." Sorry I look so American sir but I live in Colombia and earn pesos just like you do.) I also picked up a few things for people back home.
Then we hit up Juan Valdez again and went to the beach. It seemed a little less hectic than Thursday, which was nice. Still quite a few vendors though, which I didn't mind after I got my cocada (delish coconut/sugar paddy thing.) While we were laying there Carla and Marek randomly walked by so they sat down with us for awhile. After accumulating sand nearly everywhere on my body (it's very fine and being wet in a light breeze is not a good mix) we decided we should start making our way to Centro since there were some things Pei still wanted to buy before we got on our night bus. We opted to take the city bus there since the walk was quite a ways.
It was nice to stroll through Centro one last time before leaving and I picked up a package of authentic costena sweets for everyone back in my house. On our way to catch the bus back to Carmelita's, we stopped at Exito to pick up some chocolates for her family as a thank-you for putting up with our four day unsolicited invasion.
On the bus back to her house, I experienced probably one of the most horrifying things of my life. On the other side of the median on the main drag, we could see a huge crowd of people milling about in a circle, along with some police officers. Traffic on our side of the road was still moving but had slowed down considerably as people tried to see what was going on. The crowd of people made it impossible to see anything.
Until we drove about a hundred feet further and could see as plain as day a body lying in the middle of the road. Hardly anyone was standing around it and the few policemen appeared to be doing generally nothing, as there was no crowd control or ambulance present. Everyone on our bus flocked to the windows to gawk and several started exclaiming that the body had no head. I couldn't personally tell (I didn't really want to find out either way) but it was terrifying and sad and awful all at the same time.
[When we got home I looked online at the Cartagena newspaper and found out he had been hit by a taxi while trying to cross the street. It also confirmed that the man had been decapitated, so this is what the circle of people must have been looking at a hundred feet before the body.]
After we drove by I felt like crying and vomiting at the same time. I have never seen a dead body before. I started thinking about how in many corners of the world tragedies such as this are fairly commonplace and some people are forced to see dead bodies daily. I am lucky to have been raised in a place where shootings, violence, bombings and accidents are extremely rare. This is so cliche but the fragility of life was shoved in my face and made me think about how things can change in a second. One moment he was there and the next he wasn't. And hundreds of people were there to gawk and exclaim, but will ultimately return to their own small lives, forgetting that this man even lost his life.
Or course, I am guilty of the same. We had a bus to catch so we had to continue on home, eat dinner, shower and get to the bus station. We settled in for the overnight ride (better prepared for the cold) and I tried not to think about how easy it would be for our bus to get in an accident as it sped us back to Bucaramanga.
April 11, 2009
Pei and I headed back to Bocagrande for more beach time and a little shopping today. We were both looking for new bags (I miraculously restricted myself to bringing only one here and got royally sick of it. I did buy a Juan Valdez bag in San Gil but still wanted another. Shocking, I know.) We also both needed to pick up various souvenirs for friends and family.
I found a beautiful yellow over-the-shoulder bag for a pretty good price (unfortunately for all the trinket sellers in Cartagena, I am able to bargain in Spanish and do not in fact have any dollars. Countless times after asking in Spanish how much something cost, the seller would take one look at me and reply "Five dollars." Sorry I look so American sir but I live in Colombia and earn pesos just like you do.) I also picked up a few things for people back home.
Then we hit up Juan Valdez again and went to the beach. It seemed a little less hectic than Thursday, which was nice. Still quite a few vendors though, which I didn't mind after I got my cocada (delish coconut/sugar paddy thing.) While we were laying there Carla and Marek randomly walked by so they sat down with us for awhile. After accumulating sand nearly everywhere on my body (it's very fine and being wet in a light breeze is not a good mix) we decided we should start making our way to Centro since there were some things Pei still wanted to buy before we got on our night bus. We opted to take the city bus there since the walk was quite a ways.
It was nice to stroll through Centro one last time before leaving and I picked up a package of authentic costena sweets for everyone back in my house. On our way to catch the bus back to Carmelita's, we stopped at Exito to pick up some chocolates for her family as a thank-you for putting up with our four day unsolicited invasion.
On the bus back to her house, I experienced probably one of the most horrifying things of my life. On the other side of the median on the main drag, we could see a huge crowd of people milling about in a circle, along with some police officers. Traffic on our side of the road was still moving but had slowed down considerably as people tried to see what was going on. The crowd of people made it impossible to see anything.
Until we drove about a hundred feet further and could see as plain as day a body lying in the middle of the road. Hardly anyone was standing around it and the few policemen appeared to be doing generally nothing, as there was no crowd control or ambulance present. Everyone on our bus flocked to the windows to gawk and several started exclaiming that the body had no head. I couldn't personally tell (I didn't really want to find out either way) but it was terrifying and sad and awful all at the same time.
[When we got home I looked online at the Cartagena newspaper and found out he had been hit by a taxi while trying to cross the street. It also confirmed that the man had been decapitated, so this is what the circle of people must have been looking at a hundred feet before the body.]
After we drove by I felt like crying and vomiting at the same time. I have never seen a dead body before. I started thinking about how in many corners of the world tragedies such as this are fairly commonplace and some people are forced to see dead bodies daily. I am lucky to have been raised in a place where shootings, violence, bombings and accidents are extremely rare. This is so cliche but the fragility of life was shoved in my face and made me think about how things can change in a second. One moment he was there and the next he wasn't. And hundreds of people were there to gawk and exclaim, but will ultimately return to their own small lives, forgetting that this man even lost his life.
Or course, I am guilty of the same. We had a bus to catch so we had to continue on home, eat dinner, shower and get to the bus station. We settled in for the overnight ride (better prepared for the cold) and I tried not to think about how easy it would be for our bus to get in an accident as it sped us back to Bucaramanga.
posted by Teresa @ 1:05 PM
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