Friday, November 29, 2019

A quiet day in Mompox




After yesterday's excitement we decided we deserved a day of recovery. Mompox, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the patrimonio towns of Colombia, is a perfect place for spending a quiet day. We walked on the beach walk along the Magdalena river, admired the architecture of churches and houses – our own hotel among them – and let the world go by in this sleepy town that once had much more importance as a port city until Cartagena took its place.
We watched a huge iguana near the water, well over a metre in length, and laughed with a couple of old local men at its 'macho' behaviour; it watched us, then started to nod its head vigorously before stopping, head pulled back, chest puffed out. We watched another lizard slip into the open door of a house, only to be chased by a dog. I saw horses, their ribs showing, but hooves in perfect condition, patiently waiting hitched to wagons with bricks and other building materials while their masters were shovelling sand and concrete at some building project. 


Old men and women were sitting in front of their houses in the shade, a group of boys jumped into the river for a swim, and a long, narrow boat ferried people back and forth across the river.




 Tomorrow is a travelling day again, but hopefully not a very long one: we decided to interrupt the bus ride to Cartagena one more time. 



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