Things to Do in Getsemaní: Where We Send You After Dark
By Townhouse Cartagena ·
Quick answer
The four things worth your time in Getsemaní are Plaza de la Trinidad after 7pm (church steps, street food, cheap beer from a cooler), the street art on Calle de la Sierpe, live salsa at Café Havana on Calle del Guerrero, and the sloths and monkeys in the trees at Parque del Centenario. It's all walkable: from our door on Carrera 7 in San Diego it's about fifteen minutes on foot, out through the walls and across Parque del Centenario. Go in the evening. Getsemaní in the midday heat is just a warm street.
Getsemaní, about fifteen minutes on foot from our door in San Diego. · Photo by Luis Desiro on Unsplash
Getsemaní is the neighbourhood just outside the walls, and it's where the night actually happens. We're in San Diego, inside them, on Carrera 7. Walking over takes about fifteen minutes: out past Parque del Centenario, across the road, and you're in it.
Here's the honest version. Getsemaní at two in the afternoon is a hot street with murals on it. Getsemaní at eight in the evening is a party that spills out of a church square and doesn't stop. Go in the evening. Eat first or eat there, either works, but don't burn your afternoon on it.
We've kept this to four things because four things is what one good night holds. Do them in this order and you'll have walked the whole neighbourhood without trying.
One more thing: this is not a quiet-colonial-courtyard evening. If that's what you're after, stay inside the walls and head up to our rooftop instead, it's open till midnight. Getsemaní is loud, and that's the point of it.
Parque del Centenario
· About 10 minutes on foot from our door · Free
Start here, because it's on the way and because there are sloths in the trees. The park sits between the walled city and Getsemaní, and it has a resident population of sloths, small monkeys and iguanas living in the canopy. You will not spot them by strolling through at noon: they move in the cooler hours, so come around 5pm, stand still, and look up rather than ahead. Ten minutes is plenty. Then keep walking east into Getsemaní.
Calle de la Sierpe (Calle 29)
· A few minutes' walk into Getsemaní from the park · Free
This is the street to walk if you want the murals rather than a photo of the murals. Calle de la Sierpe, also signed as Calle 29, is the densest run of street art in the city, and the work changes often enough that whatever's on Instagram is probably painted over. Walk it slowly and look down the side streets, where the strung-up umbrellas and flags are. Daylight is better for actually seeing the paint, so if you care about the art, come at 5pm and do the park after.
Plaza de la Trinidad
· About 15 minutes on foot from our door · Free to sit; street food and beer for pocket change
The square in front of the Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad is the middle of everything here, and the ritual is simple: buy a beer from someone with a cooler, sit on the church steps, and watch. It fills up in the evening with locals, travellers, dancers and people selling arepas and skewers, and nobody minds which of those you are. Bring small notes, cash only from the carts. Turn up around 7pm if you want a step to sit on.
Café Havana
· Corner of Calle del Guerrero, a couple of minutes from Plaza de la Trinidad · Cover charge at the door on busy nights; cash is safest
The live salsa room, and the one place in Getsemaní we'd tell you not to skip. Their own account lists music Tuesday through Sunday from 8pm, and the band is a real band, not a playlist. Get there before 10 if you want to be inside rather than queueing on the pavement, and expect it to be hot, packed and worth it. You don't need to know how to dance. Somebody will show you, whether you asked or not.
