Constant Companion and I were drawn in and charmed in our individual, unique ways by the constant stream of street food and other things for sale on the streets in Cartagena. Once someone assured us that it’s safe to eat, he enjoyed a variety of tastes. I dove into photographing the process. I was surprised how most people welcomed me taking photos.

Where to begin in what seemed to be a seamless set of carts and vendors lining the streets of the city?

Early morning and actually all day long, the coffee vendors with the famous coffee of Colombia. Men and women toting around carefully packed themoses filled with coffee. I did not explore them to ask what different lids meant or if they had different hot beverages.

Elsewhere coffee vendors sold their wares from curious 3-wheeled carts.

All day long, the fruit vendors. Some neatly piled in small pyramids of a variety of tropical fruits, others just loose in the cart. I watched the pile of mangos at the vendor in front of the hotel dwindle as the days passed. Pineapples took the vacant places. There were also plastic glasses filled with long fingers of cut fruit – mango, pineapple, watermelon, guinep or limoncillo, and more. I think that each cart had its own name.

Iced juices were omnipresent on the hot, steamy Caribbean days. Opaque green lime juice was the most frequent.

I forget what this vendor was selling, I was drawn to the beautiful antique juice press

A series of metal sculptures by Edgardo Carmona capture the wealth of street culture all around the plaza in front of the San Pedro Claver Church (more about this another day!). Included is the juice vendor (https://colombiatrip2019.home.blog/2019/07/09/plaza-san-pedro-claver/).

What else did we see for sale? Hats typical of Colombia beautifully displayed, just before the rain hit! There is a great video on how the hats are made in the Gold Museum, a must see.

And many ambulant hat vendors with goods piled high on their heads, each offering you a better deal.

One day was saw the overburdened basket man walking briskly with his goods.

And them the ready to eat food vendors; way too many to have captured all of them. We did try a few.

Arepas are a quintessential Colombian food. We saw them everywhere. But … on day 1, we could not resist what turned out to be the most amazing thin corn arepas over-filled with cheese and egg.

The vendor and her crew were so thrilled that we loved her perfectly crispy, piping hot, fried product! Next time, we have to take a photo of where she is so we could return for more.

And then there stands with all sorts of meats and corn roasted over charcoal.

This one was across from our lovely hotel. We could watch the guy all day long and deep into the night as people passed by on foot and in the touristy horsedrawn carriages.

On our last day, I caught his partner making cheese fingers. He started by rolling out small balls of wheat flour dough into long thin lines. Then he placed a piece of white cheese at the top and rolled it tightly til the cheese was totally covered.

Finally they were fried til crispy brown …

Needless to say, between excellent restaurants and the draw to snack on the streets all day and all night, Constant Companion and I were well fed in Cartagena