Cartagena is the city where foreign dignitaries and world figures come to meet with the Colombian government. Because of the military (Naval) presence in the city which houses the Casa de Ilustres (sort of a Camp David in the US) and it having stayed fairly safe, the city is a popular site for meetings. The first week of July we found out that US presidential republican candidate John McCain was meeting with President Uribe in Cartagena. Maria's brother Daniel was visiting and with Barbara from Contrails we decided to go to the Santa Clara Hotel for an early afternoon coffee not knowing that McCain was having lunch with Colombian business leaders there. To our surprise guards let us in the hotel (with not much checking) and, as we were enjoying a great coffee, McCain with Congressman walked out with congressman Lieberman and stood only 4-5 feet from where we were. Maria managed to take a good shot (picture, of course) of the dignitaries and we post in this blog because we think that it is ironic that here in Cartage we would be able to get so close to an US presidential candidate. Ironically, it was in 2000 when Kim and Maria where in Cartagena discussing sailing here from the Chesapeake, that Clinton met with president Pastrana and the city was put on top security. There were US vessels and submarines in the bay of Cartagena and security everywhere.

By the way, there is no political agenda or intention in showing the above picture. We post it because we find it fascinating that every time we've come to Colombia we find ourselves, suddenly and unplanned, in the middle of important world-events. We somehow part-take in activities related to these events something we would probably never run into where we live which happens to be near Washington, DC.

We will talk more about Cartagena and Colombian culture in general in the next months. For now, we leave you with a thought. Life here is a serious of extremes where one can be in the middle of luxury and abundance in one minute and the next minute one is overwhelmed by extreme poverty. Livelihood prevails everywhere with all sorts of vendors making a living anyway they can. Street vendors who would sell you anything you might need are admist luxurious shops and boutiques. These contrasts are probably what makes Cartagena, and Colombia, attractive to many people. One can never predict how a casual walk can turn into an amazingly surprising event.