(sophie fouron) cartagena. located on the northern coast of columbia, it sits at the heart of a beautiful bay that opens onto the caribbean sea. the city was initially spread out on five islands isolated from the mainland by marshes and lagoons. (francisco arias-isaza) we have major challenges. the landscape is so close to sea level that very little sea level rise will bring huge, huge problems to the city. - coveted since the dawn of time for its convenient location, it is now undergoing major changes. initially built within these walls, it is now expanding at an incredible pace. but the growth is pushing carthaginians away

from their own city center, now falling in the hands of foreign investors. (sophie fouron) who does this center belong to now? (marelvy pena hall) to everybody, except carthageneros. - although things aren't easy for everyone here, a relaxed lifestyle and an impressive gastronomy gives it an edge you simply can't find in very many places. (jorge escandon) we have chontaduro, lulo, caimito, the tomato tree, guanabana. - we have apples. that's pretty much it. - well, sorry. - sunny, lively and yes, very safe, the pearl of the caribbean could very well be south amercia's best kept secret, for now.

- cartagena's location and abundant natural resources have made it a prized destination for as long as pirates have sailed the seas. (sophie fouron) this is our ride then? (francisco arias-isaza) yes, over here. - needless to say, this well protected haven has seen its share of territorial conflicts. (francisco arias-isaza) it was not a chance that the spanish located and decided to build cartagena. they had plenty of food. we had a coraline pristine system, a mangrove system which provided them a lot of food, fish. it was protected but it was an important place for them already.

(sophie fouron) cartagena was a treasure chest. (francisco arias-isaza) yes, actually it was a place where the treasure was kept. the spanish built a castle here to keep the gold, and they built fortresses here, to protect the entrance. they closed bocagrande. they built that wall which is 35 meters, about 1.6 kilometers wide. and they even had a chain across the water to close the entrance. (sophie fouron) cartagena is like the alcatraz of south america. - a blossoming economy created the need for a new waterway, to transport goods rapidly and far from the eyes of pirates. determined, carthaginians dug up the canal del dique, a few hundred years before the birth of the panama canal. (francisco arias-isaza) the colonial administration

decided to actually build this canal and they had cheap labor, slaves and so they actually digged, plow and hands for numbers of years. so it was safer to bring things from inside the country without having to move things from boat to a mule or to a cargo, you know, a stage car. - if cartagena didn't have the canal del dique, do you think it would be the same city today? - no, first because all the morphology of the bay would be different. second, in terms of the economy, this route pushes lots of money into the cartagena bay industrial city. (sophie fouron) was it a mistake, digging the canal del dique? (francisco arias-isaza) that actually converted cartagena bay, not only as a seaport but a river port and

that bought into the cartagena bay the fresh water of the magdalena, and that killed all the corals. - so the whole ecosystem ... - was all completely changed. coral reefs are the equivalent to the rain forest on land, but at sea. all the beauty, the complexity, biodiversity, that was all lost. so it's part of the cost of having this non-organised system. we have at least 52 major ports and each... - you have 52 major ports? - yes, that's amazing. each industry has its own port. - that's incredible. - yes, that's one of the challenges, how to manage such a number of ports. it's a hub, but it has also some effects, some environment, it has effects on people. and we now know that almost 70% of the sea grass beds that were inside the bay are now

lost. if you lose sea grass beds, you lose spawning grounds and the production of fish, which brings us directly to food security. so it is all integrated. - it's all related. - yeah. we have major challenges. the landscape, it's so close to sea level, that very little sea level rise will bring huge, huge problems to the city. it happened october 2007. we had a storm in the mid-caribbean. it was just the tip of the hurricane and the city was completely flooded. people just had to walk through water and it lasted for a week. and back in the outskirts of the city where poor people lived, they were just completely flooded, not for a week but for a month. (sophie fouron)

this is a very posh neighborhood. but even here they have problems. (francisco arias-isaza) actually, when we have these high tides, you get flooding in all the streets around. so the issues would be to move out and leave this behind, which is not possible because it costs a lot. second thing is that you have to raise the buildings, which is not easy. and the third thing is to have a wall around these places. and this is something that's being discussed. but should we focus on protecting wealthy neighborhoods in the city when we have also lots of poor people around with the same problem of flooding? - what happens to the cars? - they get rusted! the mechanics, they can tell: "you live in bocagrande, you live in castillo, you live in manga." because your car is rusty or not. - that's incredible! - yes, it's funny. - they don't ask for your postal code, they just look at your car!

(francisco arias-isaza) this is one of the communities at risk. (sophie fouron) because they're right on the water. - yes. you see, in the past this was a mangrove-covered portion of land. so mangroves had this effect of holding out the water and reducing the energy of the waves. if we protect nature, nature will protect us. - everything's related. - neglected coastlines are threatening the survival of cartagena's fishing communities. the impacts of a poor urban planning have been most devastating for the people of la boquilla, just north of the city. (rony monsalve perez) several years ago the entire community here lived from fishing but things have changed. and now we only live partially from fishing and mostly from tourism.

in my childhood, for many years, i would watch my brother and my father go fishing in the sea and in the marshes. i have vivid memories of that. my father eventually started working in construction. we now have huge problems because our land has become so expensive. investors are interested because we have the lovely caribbean sea and the beach. so they built 12 or 13 buildings just over there, hotels and apartments. and they want to privatize the beach. fishermen wouldn't have

access to the sea anymore. fortunately, la boquilla has been protected as a collective property. columbia has a law, bill number 70, that protects the rights of indigenous groups of people of african descent. this document protects the land and the people who live here. it's very important because it gives fishermen the right to fish on the beach, in the sea and in the swamps. for these reasons, these hotels and apartment buildings will never be able to privatize the beaches, because they must ask us if we want to do so. this law only exists since 1993.

collective titles are a protection which prevents investors from buying here. we are the owners of this land. yes. there are good sides to the law. this was the first case of collective property in the caribbean. cars and buses actually ride on the beach here. this is because we only have one paved road. the beach is much better for buses. i think this is the only place in the world where the buses run on the beach. when the kids are playing, they put obstacles that the buses have

to go around, to keep them safe. look, there is a fishing boat coming in. here in cartagena, there was no control over fishing. industrial companies were fishing near the coast with their huge boats and they took all the fish. now our fishermen have to buy boats and, as you can see, they need motors to go further and further out to sea. - a significant decrease in fishing resulted in a devastating decrease in employment. nandito, a veteran fisherman has opted for a late career change, now focusing on

fish farming. breeding tropical species for the domestic fish tank is apparently much more lucrative than fish for the table. (rony monsalve perez) 70 percent of the city's waste water used to be poured into the lagoon. now, the government has invested a lot of money to treat the waste water and to bring it away from here, 2 km into the sea.

- the bazurto market, is the lifeline of this hyperactive city. but some locals have negative feelings about this most authentic place, less sanitary than the city's supermarkets. (jorge escandon) probably the people who use a

calvin klein or christian dior perfume don't like this kind of a smell, but it's very interesting to see the real things of cartagena. this is a popular market. everyone can come here, but some of the people feel scared to come here. they're saying there's thieves, things smell bad, there's dirty places things like this, but when you get used to come here, you get like a family and everybody smiles and you feel at home. (sophie fouron) she knows what you want.

it's for your restaurant? - sure. - okay, you know what jorge, there are people who wouldn't even touch that fish because they're in the sun, there are flies, they're not on ice. to you, that's not a problem? - not a problem, no. no, because it's very fresh. for example this is a bonito, a little tuna. you can see, how fresh it is. the meat is tender. i like to eat this food. you know, it's where you can find the most fresh products in the city, better than in a supermarket. it's the catch of the day, it's very fresh. in the afternoon it's already gone, everything.

(sophie fouron) the bazurto market, is this the heart and soul of cartagena? (jorge escandon) it's the heart and the soul, yes, it's everything. - this is cartagena. -this is cartagena, red, colorful and fresh. it's great. this is the biggest kitchen of cartagena. - ahh, look at that. - these people fried a lot of fish, that others sell on the streets. - really, so this is the kitchen for the street vendors? - exactly. are you ready for an awful place? i call this part the "quentin tarantino boulevard". - okay. oh boy! so we're in the meat section. - in the meat section, yeah. it's real life. - real life! (jorge escandon) we prepare a soup of eyes.

that's very good for your sexual energy. (jorge escandon) eye soup. - okay, maybe, maybe another day. there's blood everywhere. oh my god, it's the mouth, with the teeth. - we have a lot of problems, but we enjoy our life, with the things that we have. (sophie fouron) in cartagena there are a lot of social inequities. (jorge escandon) unfortunately, yes. but there is equality, when you talk to people of the coast. they don't feel less than you. they feel equal. you can see the people smile at you, make jokes with you. - and it's not because they know you well? it's just because. - it's the way they are. this is my office, come inside.

- caimito, come on repeat, caimito. - caimito. (jorge escandon) it's delicious. white guava. oh you hear the music? yeah. we have chontaduro. (sophie fouron) i have never heard of these fruits. - lulo. - oh yes, i heard about that. - this one is great. - i want to finish the lulo. - we have the tomato tree. try it. it's wonderful. we don't have imported fruits here, just from columbia, everything. - you know how lucky you are? we have apples. that's it, that's pretty much it! - well, sorry. (sophie fouron) you have a real passion for this market? (jorge escandon) yes, i enjoy coming here, it's a natural curiosity.

- yes, and it's the love of the people and the food, combined. - yes, and also, i like to be in touch with these people and get familiar and i want to show the real thing. you know that i have a restaurant in probably the best part of the city, but this is part of the city too. so i have to show this. well, after i opened the other place that is a live music bar, the name is bazurto social club. - in honor of this market? - sure. the meaning of this was to bring the market closer to the touristic part of the city. and now there are a lot of people who go to my place looking for the real cartagena. and this is a nice place where you can find live orchestras with champeta music that is the music of cartagena. - champeta! i have heard about champeta.

- you have to go and dance champeta up there. - from the top of la popa, we get a real feel for the magnitude of a city that grew too quickly. the expansion of this fragmented hub of one million inhabitants has created a series of rather eclectic neighborhoods. (marelvy pena hall) there is an old saying that if you come to cartagena, and you never come up here, it's like you've never been. because this is the only place where you can see cartagena as it is. you have the old city in the very back and then you have manga. and manga is an island inside the city that started to

be populated at the beginning of the century. people left, especially the upper classes, they left the old city and they came to live in manga, where they built some really beautiful mansions. which unfortunately, many of them have been destroyed later on to build smaller houses or the high rises that you see today. but there are still some old mansions there which are now national monuments. and in the very back there, that's bocagrande, the modern section of cartagena. traditionally, that's the area where the upper classes live, but also, for a long time it was the tourist area in cartagena because that's where the beaches are. but now there has been a shift towards the old city. in the 1920's there was this oil company from north america which came here to install the pipelines for the oil refinery. and what they did is they bought the whole peninsula to build some really beautiful california style mansions, with some elements of the old city. and

then when this company left, they sold the houses to the locals, but in the 80's they started to destroy all those houses to build high rises. but the highest ones, the biggest ones are from the last ten years. (sophie fouron) and there are still some high rises that are being developed as we speak. - yes, absolutely. actually there are several of them. most of them, well there are three of them that are big hotels and i have to say something about that. you will see lots of hotel chains in cartagena and one reason is that the government has given some incentives to build hotels in cartagena. for 30 years they won't pay any taxes, so all of them are here now. - okay, of course, they want their piece too. - absolutely, everybody does.

we see how cartagena is losing its soul, is losing what is ours. the price of property is too high. but you know, cartagena is really a city of contrasts, because you have houses that can sell for seven million dollars in the old city, and yet you can get a house for twenty thousand dollars in popular neighborhoods. so, this is a place where the contrast between certain areas is too big. and yes, investors, lots of investors, you know, cartagena is a place that is becoming like the place to be, the place to see. - we've noticed. - so of course everybody wants to invest in cartagena because the price of properties is not going down. on the contrary, it's going up, the bubble hasn't burst yet in cartagena. - el centro was home to most of the local population until recently. the carthaginians now have a tumultuous relationship with this architectural gem.

(marelvy pena hall) this is really the heart of the city. this is where the big business people used to live, the aristocracy, the rich and wealthy. and then, you will see, one of the beauties of the old city are these little plazas that you see all over the place. (sophie fouron) when we think about cartagena, we think about el centro. how is it so special? - first of all, it's the architecture, which is unique. you won't see any other place in the world like this one, especially with so many with balconies, and a well preserved city. but the other thing is the people. this is a city that is alive with people, and you feel that energy. you are always with people, people are very gregarious here, and they like to be on the street. (sophie fouron) how do the people of cartagena feel about el centro today? (marelvy pena hall) well what happened in cartagena is that

the city has gone through this process of gentrification. while not too long ago people were living here, and when cartagena was declared world heritage, the whole thing started to change. on the one hand, you have all this tourism, which is good for the city because they bring money to the city, it helps the economy. but on the other hand, we see how the local flavor is disappearing from the old city and for us, that's hard to accept. before, this was our city, all the universities, all the schools, all the stores, lots of people living here, the administration, everything was in the walled city. but then, when it was declared world heritage, in 1984, the whole city started to change and that's when people realized, hum maybe this is a good place to buy now that the houses don't cost anything. people could buy houses for twenty, thirty, forty

thousand dollars, while today you have to be part of the "one percenters " to be able to buy a house here in the old city. - it also has effects on the street vendors. - oh absolutely, there is this will to get rid of the street vendors. now we have two types of street vendors and we should make the difference. there are the street vendors who sell souvenirs for the tourists and in many cases they have been accused of harassing the tourists, and in some cases it's true, although i have to say that has changed tremendously, but on the other side there is the street vendors who offers a service to local people as well as tourists. you will see a tourist drinking from a coconut. or you will see a tourist buying arepas, or you will see a tourist buying juice on the street, or lemonade, or fruits, and there are fruits you cannot even get at the supermarket. there are fruits that you

can only get from the street vendors. (sophie fouron) what's the name of the ladies with the fruits? (marelvy pena hall) palenqueras. that's an interesting group. palenqueras come from a small village that is called palenque. the palenqueras now are one of the attractions of the city because before, they used to go from neighborhood to neighborhood to sell their products, whole fruits. but now they are in the old city with that colorful dress, selling fruits, selling sweets and posing for tourists. people never thought that cartagena was going to be as it is today, a very touristic city and with the displacement of the local population, the city has been taken over by hotels, by restaurants. every day we see a new hotel, a new restaurant, a new bar, a new store and in a way, we also see how our

heritage is disappearing. - who does this center dy, exceptnow? carthageneros. - within 15 minutes of el centro, the neighborhood of san francisco illustrates cartagena's radical contrasts. formerly involved with gangs and drug trafficking, social activist alex rocha chose the right path, by promoting children's education in his community. (alex rocha) we are in san francisco right now, a neighborhood in cartagena, columbia, one of the most forgotten areas of the city. (sophie fouron) and who lives here? (alex rocha) basically, working class people, but this is how it is distributed. in cartagena, we are distributed by social and economic stratification, from level one to level six. this is levex,