Cartagena, Colombia: Bocagrande & Getsemaní

This album follows on from Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The final item in my series of images of Colombia has pictures of the futuristic high-rise buildings of the Bocagrande peninsula and of the colonial quaintness of the neighbourhood called Getsemaní.

The Bocagrande peninsula seen from the ramparts of the old city.
Our hotel on the Bocagrande peninsula offered interesting views from high up.
That hotel was a rather luxurious outfit — this is the hotel pool. A notice in our room said it cost the equivalent of 400 euros per night. (However, a well-known booking platform let us have it for 89.)
The hotel also overlooked the headquarters of the Armada nacional.
So we were treated to varying displays of Colombian naval power.
Another view from the hotel, showing the Atlantic Ocean bursting its banks. (You want to look at that street down there.)
Either the melting polar ice caps are sending too much water this way, or perhaps…
…Bocagrande is sinking under the weight of all those skyscrapers. Or both. Or maybe it was just a freak combination of meteorological and tidal conditions.
At any rate nobody looked very worried. The old city seen from Bocagrande (incidentally showcasing the beautification efforts of Monsieur Lelarge, in the shape both of his new cupola for the Jesuit church and his new tower for the cathedral).
Getsemaní used to be on a separate island from the city centre, until the channel was filled in in the mid-20th c. It was a poorer neighbourhood and probably still is, though the signs of gentrification are unmistakeable.
City wall and Bocagrande from Getsemaní
Across the water is the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. This is touted as the biggest colonial fortress the Spaniards ever built.
Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. However, I can‘t help the suspicion it is really a mutant Aztec pyramid.
Getsemaní
The cathedral bell tower seen from Getsemaní
Later that day we took a plane back to Bogotá, here seen from above.
Aeropuerto de Bogotá. That white dot on the hilltop in the background is the Monserrate chapel.
Aeropuerto de Bogotá