Holiday #397: Cartagena de Indias

Following its last trip—to Samarkand—Holiday ventures across the Atlantic and sets course for Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. An issue devoted to a Caribbean wonder listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site and placed under the patronage of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose autobiographical pages about a city he loved so dearly are republished in the magazine, alongside memories shared by his son Rodrigo. Elsewhere, artist Oscar Murillo speaks openly in an extended interview; writer Victor Pouchet contributes a singular text drawn from his journey to the city; Yohir Akerman recounts what it means to grow up in Cartagena; Natasha A. Fraser tells the story of a mysterious mermaid ring; historian Jorge Orlando Melo paints a portrait of the ambiguous Simon Bolivar; chef Juan Arbelaez shares his recipe for arroz de coco; and Vanessa Rosales Altamar provides a handbook to her hometown. Other pieces offer in-depth looks at the former Palace of the Inquisition, made-in-Colombia Afrobeat or the extraordinary destiny of boxer Kid Pambele.

On the photographic side, Milena Villalon and Matheus Agudelo wander, armed with their singular gaze, between past and present in the streets of a city whose history is as rich as it is tumultuous, long known as La Heroica. That happens to also be the title of a series by Hart Leshkina, the result of wanderings with Selena Forrest deep into the heart of the city. So many journeys, further heightened by the visions and reveries—sometimes from afar, but always attuned—of Bruce Weber, Nicola and Manuel, Krisztian Eder, Yota Hoshi, Daniyel Lowden and Dougal MacArthur, as well as by Yann Faucher’s tribute to the New Wave Paris of the 1980s, created in collaboration with Tony Irvine—because Holiday, yesterday as tomorrow, is always in motion.