Cartagena, Columbia – Jan 9

sunny, 30 degrees, 55% humidity…hot, but nice

We were warned that as we got closer to Columbia, the seas would be rougher…yup…they were. Our bodies handled things just fine, but the noise in the night was a bit much. All of this ship movement caused many things in the room to shift and sway…the shower doors and the ceiling tiles being the main ones. Every couple of hours we had to get up and try to readjust things that were rubbing, squeaking or making some other kind of noise. Nonetheless, this didn’t disturb our sleep all that much.

approaching Cartagena

WELCOME TO SOUTH AMERICA!!! This is the very first time we have been to South America…now we can say we’ve been to 5 of the world’s 7 continents! Eventually this cruise will take us to a 6^th, but for now our number is 5. Cartagena is first place since we left Miami 3 days ago, where we’ve stepped foot on land. 

Today we approached touring in a very civilized way…we could sleep in as long as we wanted as our tour started at 11:30. The down side to this approach, is that we kind of kill the morning waiting for things to get going, but…it’s relaxed. Our morning consisted of a leisurely breakfast followed by watching the sail into downtown Cartagena.

Once we were on tour, we firstly sailed from where our boat was docked to the heart of old Cartagena. This 30 minute ride was narrated by a guide, giving us bits of information about Cartagena and Columbia. Next was a walking

tour of the old colonial part of the city. This part is pretty small and we did it all in about 90 minutes. We saw many old colonial buildings, tons of hawkers and an emerald shop (apparently most of the world emeralds come from Columbia) here I won a tiny trinket with emeralds – will make a good Christmas ornament!

colonial architecture

Although we were supposed to have an opportunity to walk along the top of the San Felipe Fortress, that part of the tour was skipped. We weren’t at all disappointed – we don’t know anything about this fortress. This is typical with tours…the description never exactly matches reality.

home

This is the first colonial style city we’ve visited. It is interesting, but really there isn’t much to it. The tour ended with an hour and a half of free time. We decided to have a beer. After Chris was about three quarters of his beer left the manager approached us and told him she had

more colonial architecture

just tasked the beer and that it wasn’t up to quality and let her get him a fresh one…’ugh, ok??’ it didn’t taste all that off to us, but sure. Then the waiter asked if he could bring us an appetizer on the house for the trouble with the beer. Again…sure, why not? I figure that was pretty good of them. They could easily have made us deal with it and really we wouldn’t have thought twice about the taste of the beer.  Hopefully we don’t pay for their generosity in a few hours by spending the night in the bathroom!

Simon Bolivar

Apparently Columbia doesn’t take American currency…and why would they…I’m pretty

what to have next??

sure I couldn’t pay for my Earl’s meal in Calgary with a currency not Canadian…the thing is…most touristy places especially in south/central America do…Columbia just doesn’t. This isn’t a big deal at all, we pay with our credit card, don’t even think about the exchange and let the Amex figure it out. We heard people near us talking to the waiter paying with American, he would do it, but gave a horrendous exchange. In the end, we had 3 pints and an appetizer for about 15.00 – not too bad we didn’t think.

pelicans are everywhere

Leona – Joan Wilder said ‘hi’