Globe Corner Blogs

The October Destination of the Month is South America — offering 15% off on all books and maps for South America.

Our October newsletter features, among other topics, a spotlight on Colombia.

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Cartagena--photo by Harriet

Focus on Colombia:

You know a travel destination has gone “mainstream” when The Boston Globe devotes the front page of its Sunday Travel section to it — as they did to a few weeks ago for a piece mostly focused on the Caribbean coast of Colombia around Cartagena.

Globe Corner customers have been aware for a few years about the positive changes underway in Colombia  and the great travel experiences that abound there.  See our store blog for some past “reports from the field” about Cartagena and Bogotá.

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Michelin Green Guide Colombia

Abaco Libros y Cafe -- photo by Pat

Where do bookstore workers always go when they’re on vacation? Other bookstores. So when the owners of The Globe Corner Bookstore attended The Hay Literary Festival in Cartageña de Indias, Colombia, Pat Carrier visited Ábaco Libros y Café. He was lucky enough to chat with an owner there and write an article about it for Publishers Weekly. Here is a snippet:

Abaco Libros bookmark

“A highlight of my attendance last year was observing the bustling energy of Ábaco Libros y Café, a small literary bookstore and cafe in the heart of the walled city of Cartageña. The store is near the Theater Heredia, the main venue of the festival—and not so coincidentally near the home of Gabriel García Márquez, the spiritual godfather of the Latin American literary world affectionately known here as Gabo. Throughout the festival weekend, the bookstore was packed with attendees rushing in to buy the next speaker’s books; and its cafe tables were filled with international press interviewing festival writers and drinking café con leche.

This year, I was determined to find out more about bookselling in Colombia. Interviewing one of the two business partners in Ábaco Libros seemed a good start. Néstor Rimoli kindly agreed to such an interview during one of their busiest weekends of the year. “

Teatro Heredia--photo by Harriet

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.

Continue Reading »

Cartagena--photo by Harriet

We arrived in Cartageña to welcome sun and humidity. The 5-10 minute stroll along the harbor, from our hotel in the Getsemaní district to the entrance to the walled city, was glorious even during the mid-day heat. The walled city’s many plazas, varied retail districts, cobblestone streets, and beautifully maintained or restored buildings were breathtaking. It was reassuring to be in a historic port–a cultural travel destination that still somehow retains a sense of everyday life. We wandered down narrow streets, gazing at colorful buildings, pausing in plazas (many with fountains) to take in cafes, check our map, and plan our next route to a museum or church. Continue Reading »

Ciclovia Sign --photo by Pat

The highlight of a recent trip to Colombia was the opportunity to participate in Bogotá’s “Ciclovia.” Every Sunday, year-round, the city of Bogotá closes off over 120 kilometers of streets to traffic from 7 am to 2 pm. And, in a city of seven million, well over a million turn out to bike, roller-blade, jog, dog walk, or just promenade in their Sunday finest on the blessedly car-free streets.

What a transformation for a city that a decade ago warranted a chapter in Robert Pelton’s “World’s Most Dangerous Places.” Citizens have reclaimed the streets and civic life; Ciclovia is a joyous manifestation of the pride, good humor, and optimism of Bogotá’s residents. There’s a spring in folks’ step here that was unexpected (at least for me) — a confidence that the future is going to be better than the past.

We were staying in Usaquén on the northern fringe of Bogotá and our host

Ciclovia --photo by Pat

kindly provided bikes for a Sunday morning in late January. The beginning (or end, depending on your point of view) of one of the major routes of Ciclovia starts in Usaquén and runs into the central district of Bogotá on Carrera Séptima. Although flatlanders who haven’t acclimated to the 8600 foot elevation may feel the effects of the high altitude, the north/south routes in the city are essentially flat and make for very pleasant biking. Continue Reading »