Explore the Getsemani neighborhood on foot to get a sense of the bohemian side of Cartagena. Street art lovers should head to Calle de la Sierpe where clever and creative work lines both sides of this short avenue. On Saturday afternoons local softball teams block off a street and play ball in the shadow of the ancient Spanish walls, which provide the perfect vantage point above the action.

The beaches in and around Cartagena are not the most attractive for sun bathing. You are better off making a drive to a nearby beach or better yet getting a boat and driver and heading to the Rosario islands. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange for beach visits by car or boat.

Spend a morning exploring by native canoe around the mangrove forest. After your mangrove adventure with an ecological guide you will be transferred to “La Boquilla”, a simple fisherman’s village between the mangroves and the Caribbean Sea. Enjoy lunch in a typical fisherman’s restaurant in a shack by the sea. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange.

Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas is the most robust fort the Spanish ever built and it still looks impenetrable. It’s been impressively restored and dominates a slight hill with its stony bulk.  Visitors are allowed into some of the interior corridors and tunnels so if you have a flashlight in your luggage, bring it to the fort. There’s little shade so try to arrive when the fort opens to beat the heat. On weekends this attraction can get crowded, especially on Sunday when Colombians can enter for free (17,000 COP, open daily 8 am to 6 pm). Indagare members can contact our bookings team to arrange for a private guide.

Mompox is a colonial-era city situated on an island in the midst of the Magdalena River, 248 kilometers south of Cartagena. Its baroque churches and imposing architecture attest to a time when this city was a major center of Spanish rule; today it is an feels like a land that time forget. Take a private charter flight to the city and then tour by rickshaw to visit important churches, the Museum of Religious Art and an atelier where traditional gold and silver filigree work is still practiced. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange.

This three-hour tour begins at your hotel and continues to the most important churches, museums and squares, including the Gold Museum of Zenu Culture, Palace of the Inquisition and San Francisco Bastion. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange.

If you don’t know how to salsa and want to fit in at the clubs when the lights go down, you may want to sign up for a salsa class. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange a class.

It is only an hour or so boat trip to the tranquil Islas del Rosario or Rosario Islands. A Colombian national park, the islands comprise an important coral reef. Some islands are privately owned with wonderful houses or private clubs or hotels. You can spend the day snorkeling and swimming but will need to make an early start as the waves pick up in the afternoons so you will not want to head back late in the day. It is also possible to overnight at small hotels on the island, which are particularly lovely at sunset when the day trippers have gone home. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange for a day trip or overnight.

Palacio de la Inquisición (Inquisition Palace) is where art, artifacts and bona fide torture devices from Spanish Colonial times are on display.  Spanish inquisitors used a small window in this building to shout out death sentences for those who failed their religious scrutiny. Open daily. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange a private guide.

Take in the museum’s collection of more than 500 pieces of exquisitely crafted gold jewelry and iconography made by the Zenú people who flourished in Colombia from the 16^th century (free, closed mid days and Mondays).