About Cartagena...
Cartagena de Indias is a port city on the northern coast of Colombia and capital of Bolívar Department. The metropolitan area has a population of 1,240,000, and the city proper 1,090,000 (2005 Census). It is the fifth largest urban area in Colombia.
Founded in 1533 by Spaniard Don Pedro de Heredia, and named after the port of Cartagena in Spain's Murcia region, the city was a major center of early Spanish settlement in the Americas. It experienced rapid development in the eighteenth century as the de facto capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada and as the main hub of commerce and transportation in the late viceroyalty era.
The city is presently a center of economic activity in the caribbean region and a popular tourist destination. Cartagena's colonial walled city and fortress were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
Location
Cartagena faces the Caribbean Sea to the west. To the south is the Cartagena Bay, which has two entrances: Bocachica (Small Mouth) in the south, and Bocagrande (Big Mouth) in the north. Cartagena is located at 10°25' Norths, 75°32' West (10.41667, -75.5333).
Cartagena de Indias also averages around 90% humidity, with a rainy season typically in April-May and October-November. Its important to note, that though the climate tends to be hot generally throughout the year, its always windy, and that is a factor to have in account that makes the climate livable and even comfortable. The months of November to February tend to be the most windy months in the year, giving an extra cooling to the low temperatures of those months.
Cartagena de Indias, has the blessing that while being a caribbean sea city, is never touched by the hurricanes that decimate other caribbean capitals like Havana, Santo Domingo, Kingston or San Juan. The reason of this is that the city is in the caribbean but in the mainland and also quite southernly, isolating it from the wind currents that feed the hurricanes. The last hurricane to arrive the city was the strange arrival Joanne in 1988, and was debilitated after passing Puerto Rico.
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