A city of ghosts: Halloween 2026 in Cartagena, three nights at Casa Salvaje

At the end of October, when the Caribbean rains leave the streets gleaming and the damp clings to the stone, the walled city lends itself to ghosts like nowhere else. This year Halloween runs for three nights at Casa Salvaje: Friday 30 October, Saturday 31 and Sunday 1 November. And with Monday 2 November a public holiday, the weekend runs long.

I · The ghosts

A city with a long memory

In 1610 the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established here, and its palace on Plaza de Bolívar is now the Historical Museum of Cartagena. In 1632 a rumour spread along the coast of a coven in Tolú, witches dancing around a goat, and the tribunal had secret cells built to lock up the accused.

Oral tradition did the rest. Guides say a friar searching for treasure appears at night on Calle Don Sancho, and that the ghost of Francis Drake, the pirate who sacked the city in 1586, still walks the walls. And in the old convent of Santa Clara, in 1949, a young reporter named Gabriel García Márquez watched a crypt give up a head of copper hair more than twenty-two metres long: from that image came Of Love and Other Demons.

II · The legends

River monsters

Beyond the walls, Colombia's Caribbean coast has monsters of its own. In Plato, on the banks of the Magdalena, they tell the legend of the Caiman Man, a fisherman who spied on women bathing in the river and ended up half man, half caiman. The same river is home to the Mohán, master of the fish, to whom fishermen still leave tobacco and aguardiente, and along its banks La Llorona weeps for her children.

Saints at dinner, gods after dark.

III · Three nights

The plan

Every 31 October, Colombian children go out in costume asking for sweets and chanting "triqui triqui Halloween". We suggest another ritual: dinner in the house and, after, the party at SLVJ. Programme and prices are announced very soon; the guest list hears first.

• For dinner: book a table at Kanibal or SLVJ on WhatsApp or online.
• For the party: reserve your club table from what's on.
• Come in costume. Saints at dinner, gods after dark.

Epilogue

And then, November

Halloween is only the doorway to the city's most festive month. On 11 November Cartagena celebrates its independence, declared in 1811 when the artisans of Getsemaní, led by Pedro Romero and his lancers, pressed the council to sign the act. The Independence festivities fill the streets with dance troupes, drums and firecrackers, and the Cabildo de Getsemaní, which since 1988 has revived the tradition of the colonial cabildos, ends its route in Plaza de la Trinidad.