Local street food in Cartagena...

So, welcome to my first full day of temporarily residing in Colombia.  I decided today was a good day to sample the snacks/street food a little.  Of course, I cheated and started with pizza, because I was hungry, it was $0.75, and, hey, it's pizza.  My choices were ham and pineapple, so I went with the simple, South American classic pizza con jamon (as I had in Peru and Argentina years ago).  Nothing to write home about, but it was hot and cheesy and, as stated, $0.75 (2,000 COP)...

Pizza con jamon, consumed in a place that catered to locals
in the otherwise tourist-filled walled city.

Mango and watermelon fruit cup with at least
one whole mango in it.  This was pretty much
awesome.

A quite popular local item that every vendor in the city was trying to sell me this late morning/early afternoon was a "copa de frutas" (sliced fruit in a plastic cup).  That's pretty much a no-brainer at another $0.75, and it was so big I had to stuff myself to finish it.  What you see here is mango and watermelon (sandía), delicious and refreshing after 2 hours of stalking monkeys and walking the walled city in the blazing sun of their rainy season (which, so far, is decidedly less rainy than this month in Georgia has been).

This coastal version of the arepa, deep fried with an egg filling,
was my early evening snack today for a whopping 2,000 COP.

Last, but not least, I ate my first Colombian arepa today!  For those who don't know, an arepa is a round corn cake filled with things. In this case, I got one filled with (mostly) egg and chicken (huevo y pollo).  Everyone seemed worried when I doused it in hot sauce, but it really was not that spicy (I've taken the gamble and regretted it before, but not this time).  The price was, once again, about $0.75 (or a little less, depending on the exchange rate, which, according to where you get your money, can vary from 2,600 COP to 3000 COP).  From what I've read about the Colombian arepa, this fried version with egg filling is a coastal variant.  I've also watched them grill a similar concoction which is stuffed with cheese.  This will likely be my next street food experiment in Cartagena!

I think I just made myself hungry and need to go to dinner now!