Cartagena is vibrant. Both in appearance and in its culture. The streets are filled with color and murals decorate every block. It is a city overtaken by art as love and celebration drive out crime. Cartagena is heroic. It earned its nickname La Heroica as it was the first Colombian city to declare independence from Spain, liberating itself from the colonial grip. Its walls are physical markers of the colonial holdings they once sought to protect. Once bulwarks, now gateways.