If you’re looking for a different way to visit Cartagena, if you want to get out of the historic center and discover the true face of Cartagena, then the Bazurto market tour is for you. But not just any tour of the Bazurto market!
Cartagena has become Colombia’s most popular tourist destination, and many guides and agencies, not always of the highest quality, offer visitors all kinds of activities.
In this post, we’ll try to inspire you to visit the Bazurto market and recommend the best local agency to help you discover it in the best possible way, in complete immersion and supporting a responsible tourism project! We’re off!
Disclaimer: we apologize in advance for any grammatical or syntactic errors, as our native language is not English (we're a Colombian-French couple), so we hope you'll forgive us and still enjoy the information we share with you! Please note that all the information on our blog is based on our own experience, and is checked and updated regularly.
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Why visit the Bazurto market
Another face of Cartagena
Markets are often the nerve centers of a town or village. Of course, the market is where you discover a country’s local produce, but it’s also a kind ofcultural snapshot. Before being a tourist attraction, a market is above all a place of life. To visit a market is to enter the daily life of its inhabitants, to discover their culinary habits, colors and smells, and to meet their characters.
The Bazurto market is no exception to the rule, exceeding all expectations. In a city as touristy as Cartagena, it’s easy to completely miss the reality of a city where social differences are among the greatest in Colombia.
By staying in Cartagena’s magnificenthistoric center, which is entirely tourist-oriented, you can consider that you’ve taken a tour in a kind of closed, totally off-the-ground amusement park. An open-air museum with no connection to the everyday life of Cartagena’s inhabitants.
But if you’re a curious, sensitive traveler, interested in the culture of the country you’re passing through, Colombia, we’re sure you’d like to see something else!
To counterbalance this idealized vision of Cartagena, you can’t miss a visit to the Bazurto market. A lively place where you can breathe in the history of Carthaginian popular culture.
Our advice for visiting Bazurto
Local community tourism agency
Our recommended tour of the Bazurto market is unlike any other you’ll find elsewhere. This guided tour of Bazurto is offered by our local partner in Cartagena.
By booking this tour, you are supporting a local agency that is fully compromised in having a social impact in the comunity. The general idea behind these guided tours is that tourism brings the benefits of Cartagena tourism to the most remote communities .
So by booking this guided tour, not only are you discovering Cartagena in an unusual way, but you’re also helping to develop another form of tourism in Cartagena and helping to finance a wonderful initiative.
Bazurto market Tour
Discover Cartagena differently
Let’s get down to business! What was the tour all about?
We took the Bazurto market tour on our 2018 trip under somewhat peculiar conditions, since we arrived at the wrong time and the guides weren’t available to offer us the tour.
Seeing our disappointment, Delfina, who worked at the Volunteer Hostal (which no longer exists), offered to accompany us to the Bazurto market, which she knows well from her shopping trips! Once there, she introduced us to her friend Pedro, the market’s accountant, who was also going to accompany us on a “roughly” guided tour of the Bazurto market.
So we’ll tell you about our experience here, but we’ll also give you the lowdown on the spots that are included in the “real” guided tour, but which we missed.
The tour begins with a dramatization of Cartagena’s social inequalities, represented here by a simple architectural concept: on one side of the street, the Bazurto market and its bric-a-brac architecture for the poor, and on the other side, with its back to the market, a large modern shopping mall for the rich.
Meeting Bazurto’s characters
Beyond the Market
Entering the Bazurto market is like entering an Alibaba cave. The market is huge and divided into different, more or less specialized sectors. The atmosphere is radically different from that of the historic center, and you’re in a completely different Cartagena.
But entering Bazurto is also like entering a gallery of characters: Santiago the fishmonger, Charlie the dressmaker, Eduard the Champeta ferryman, Runer the concert poster maker, etc. etc.
It’s time for a first encounter with the “Señor carretera“. This tour is all about encounters, and that’s what makes it so rich. You won’t come away from this experience without a twinge of nostalgia for the beautiful people you’ve met. The “Señor carretera” makes all the carts you see in Cartagena’s historic center at the street vendors. You’ll discover that they’re made entirely by hand, and you’ll never look at street vendors in the same way again after this encounter.
From stall to stall, from alley to alley, we wander through this labyrinth, finally stopping for a while to discover exotic Colombian fruits. We tasted fruits we’d never heard of, took the opportunity to drink a juice, and resumed our visit in the direction ofone of Bazurto’s leading market figures: Eduard and his sound system!
Eduard is a specialist in Colombian Caribbean music, and tells us all about the famous Champeta! Invented in the poor Afro-Colombian suburbs of Cartagena, Champeta is THE local music of Cartagena. Since the 1970s, it has been played in the “Picos”, pick-up trucks converted into huge mobile loudspeakers to keep the streets dancing until the end of the night.
We listen to records, dance and forget we’re in a market… Encounters, crafts, fruit tasting, musical discoveries… we’ve already done quite a bit on this tour of the Bazurto market, haven’t we? But it’s not over yet, as new surprises await us.
From surprise to surprise
Bazurto Market
Just a stone’s throw away is a workshop unlike any other. Young people are busy working on white posters hung on paint-filled walls. What are they doing? They’re hand-painting posters for the upcoming concerts! That’s right, there’s no printing here, it’s all done by hand.
These posters are so successful that you couldn’t imagine organizing an evening or concert in a working-class neighborhood without calling on the services of Bazurto’s poster painters! Of course, you won’t see these posters in downtown Cartagena.
It’s time to get to the Bazurto food market. Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and…. medicinal herbs… This is the meeting with the “Yerbatero“, who has been making medicinal herbs for 3 generations! Used in traditional medicine, herbal treatments are very popular locally, particularly the Rhum arrangé aux herbes médicinales, a magic potion that will cure you of all your ills!
A visit like no other
Bazurto beyond the market
Here we are, comfortable and at ease in this market, messy perhaps, but above all alive and kicking. A market where exchanges and smiles reinforce the idea that it’s not the beauty of the stones, the cleanliness of the streets and the comfort of beautiful hotels that mark a trip.
We’re well and truly ready to end our visit by sampling the local cuisine. It’s an unassuming little bistro serving simple, basic market cuisine, yet it’s also chef Anthony Bourdain’s favorite restaurant!
The immersion is complete, the discovery total, another Cartagena has opened its doors to us. Less clean, less beautiful, yet unforgettable, this guided tour of the Bazurto market will surely go down as our fondest Cartagena memory!
Get in touch with local guide
Visit Bazurto Market
Responsible tourism
Wendy’s agency helps showcase another side of Cartagena, beyond the walls surrounding the historic center, by opening the doors to the popular districts and telling the city’s story in a different way. In addition, the agency promotes community-based tourism, offers fair wages to its staff, supports social projects, and trains young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Where to stay in Cartagena
, Cartagena, Islas del Rosario
Hostal
Media Luna Hostel
A hostal recommended by our readers on the Baru peninsula in the Rosario archipelago. Far from Playa Blanca, you’ll find the peace and quiet of a small private beach and pretty bungalows!
Cartagena, Islas del Rosario
Hotel
Isla Bela
An eco-friendly hotel on Isla Marina in the archipelago of the Rosaire islands. The price is commensurate with the services and the setting! Treat yourself.
Cartagena, Islas del Rosario
Hostal
Secreto Hostel
A charming hostal located on Isla Grande, offering double rooms and dormitory beds in a green setting with access to a small beach. Highly recommended by our friends in Cartagena!
Bocagrande, Cartagena
Hotel
Morro City hotels
The Bocagrande hotel par excellence, on the front line of the seafront, with its rooftop swimming pool and sea view, a must at sunset… to indulge yourself! 2-night booking required.
Bocagrande, Cartagena
Hotel
Oz Hotel
A beautiful second-line hotel in Bocagrande offering all the expected services and modern decor. Good value for money in Bocagrande.
Bocagrande, Cartagena
Appartement
Apartment Mar infinitum
Apartments in a huge building overlooking the sea in true Bocagrande style!
Cartagena, Historic center
Hostal
El Barrio Hostel
A well-located, clean and welcoming hostal. A hostal yes, but without dormitories, a somewhat hybrid concept offering only private rooms with either a double bed, a single bed or two bunk beds.
Bruselas, Cartagena
Hostal
Hotel La terraza de Estella
A large house in the Bruselas district with a roof terrace offering an unusual view of Cartagena. It’s a great deal for those looking for cheap accommodation! The Bruselas neighborhood is safe and 20 minutes by bus from Cartagena’s historic center.
Cartagena, Historic center
Hotel
Hotel Alfiz
For those who want to pamper themselves and love beautiful hotels. This upscale hotel was recommended to us by a couple of friends who tested and approved it! Rooftop with jacuzzi and patio with swimming pool…
Cartagena, Historic center
Hostal
Maloka Hostel
A hotel / hostal that offers really great facilities and one of the best value for money in Cartagena’s historic center. The small roof terrace can make all the difference in the evening!
