Walled City Street Food Walking Tour with 10 Tastings Cartagena

Plaza Cervantes and Avenida Santander: Colombian ceviche

The tour starts at Plaza Cervantes on the Camellón de los Mártires, opposite the Clock Tower, where your guide waits under an orange umbrella. From here you walk to Avenida Santander, the seafront road that runs between the old walls and the Caribbean, for the first tasting of this Cartagena food walking tour.

Ceviche here is not the Peruvian dish of raw fish in lime. On the Colombian coast it is served cold in a cup, with shrimp or fish in a tangy sauce of lime, tomato and onion, a touch of sweetness and saltine crackers on the side. Street vendors along the sea wall have sold it for decades to families on their evening walk. Your guide explains how the port brought ingredients and recipes from Spain, Africa and the islands, and how Cartagena's cooking grew from that mix. Allow about 20 minutes for this first stop.

Clock Tower, Plaza de los Coches and the Portal de los Dulces

Back at the Clock Tower gate you taste a patacón: green plantain flattened and fried twice until crisp, topped with queso costeño, the firm, salty white cheese of the cattle plains of the Caribbean region. It is the everyday side dish of the coast and one of the best answers to the question of what to eat in Cartagena.

A few steps further, in Plaza de los Coches, the arcades of the Portal de los Dulces hold glass jars of traditional sweets. Try cocadas, chewy coconut and panela sweets flavoured with guava, tamarind or pineapple, and alegrías, small balls of millet, coconut and anise. Many sellers come from families linked to San Basilio de Palenque, founded by Africans who escaped slavery and recognised by UNESCO for its living culture. The colourful fruit sellers you see on the squares, the palenqueras, carry the same heritage.

Plaza de Bolívar and Plaza de la Aduana: pandebono, corozo and arepa de huevo

On shady Plaza de Bolívar a street baker hands you a warm pandebono, a round cheese bread made with cassava starch and fresh cheese, soft inside with a golden crust. It is paired with a glass of jugo de corozo, pressed from the small red fruit of a native palm, tart and slightly floral, a juice you will hardly find outside Colombia.

At Plaza de la Aduana, the oldest square of the Walled City, the frying begins. The arepa de huevo is the signature snack of the Caribbean coast: a corn arepa fried, split open, filled with a whole egg and sometimes minced meat, then fried again. Next comes a Colombian empanada with a crackling corn shell and a warm savoury filling, served with a spoon of spicy ají. Each stop takes about ten minutes, enough to taste, take photos and hear the stories of the customs house and the square around you.

Historic Centre: specialty coffee and tropical fruit

In the lanes of the Historic Centre you pause for about half an hour to taste Colombian specialty coffee. Colombia is one of the world's leading producers of washed arabica, grown on the slopes of the Andes, and the guide explains how the beans are picked by hand, processed and roasted, and why a good Colombian cup tastes of caramel, citrus and red fruit. Non-coffee drinkers can try a fresh fruit juice instead.

Then comes a tasting of tropical fruit, often a highlight for visitors: mango with salt and lime, sweet maracuyá, tangy lulo, creamy níspero or guanábana, depending on the season. The guide shows you how to recognise them in the markets and fruit stalls, so you can order them on your own for the rest of your stay. The tour runs in a really safe part of the centre, among restored colonial houses and quiet squares.

Getsemaní: sancocho to finish

The last hour belongs to Getsemaní, the colourful district just outside the main walls, once the quarter of artisans and dockworkers and now the liveliest neighbourhood of the old city. As you walk past murals and lanes shaded by umbrellas, the guide talks about the music and street life that give the district its character, and you have time for photos on Calle San Juan and Callejón Ancho.

The final tasting is sancocho, the hearty soup that Colombians cook for family gatherings. In Cartagena it is often made with fish or chicken, yuca, ñame, plantain and corn, sometimes with coconut milk, and it closes the tour on a warm, satisfying note. Is a Getsemaní food tour worth it? For first-time visitors it is one of the easiest ways to understand Caribbean Colombia through its kitchen. The walk ends a short distance from the Walled City.