Globe Corner Blogs

We have definitely traded the New England chills for the baking sun of Cartageña. Attending Hay Festival Cartageña events last year was a bit of unexpected good fortune as our days in Cartagena coincided with the start of the festival. Sessions of the international literary event at the Teatro Heredia – with its gold ornamentation, heavenly mural on the ceiling, and traditional balcony boxes – were amazing.

A chance to return to the festival easily trumped any other late January travel plans. The walled city’s plazas, fountains, well-preserved buildings, boutique shops, and vendor-lined cobble-stone streets seem as breathtakingly glorious in tonight’s steamy dusk as in the predictable mid-day heat. This historic port flourishes as a cultural travel destination. The vibrancy of daily activity and Caribbean colors are mesmerizing as we wander, pause in sculptured squares, visit a cafe, and plan our route to festival sites.

The 2010 festival’s line-up of writers include Ian McEwan, Michael Ondaatje, Mario Vargas Llosa, Almudena Grandes, Peter Godwin, Najat El Hachmi, and Chloe Aridjis. It is exciting to anticipate hearing panelists talking about their writing and their lives as writers in the many countries which collectively create the focus of our travel book and map store. International fiction and narrative offer all of us at the store – customers and staff – chances to add literary journeys to more tangible adventures aided by a guide or map.

With optimal flight connections, we completed our 12 hours of travel from Boston to Cartageña (via Miami and Bogotá) just in time to receive our Hay Festival press credentials. A very cordial greeting from Hay Festival registration staff (all enthusiastic about the expanding range of festival panels during the 4-day schedule) was tempered by the sobering news that Jon Lee Anderson’s participation is not certain. He is in Haiti. Tonight, we’ll simply relax on our inn’s roof-top terrace and join other guests for dinner.

Read more: Cartagena, Colombia, Festivals, Hay Festival, Travel, Writers


Harriet

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