Day Six - Cartagena, Colombia
Just my luck, I woke up this morning with a runny nose, oh well, can't let that slow down our day. Early this morning we arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. This is our first ever trip to South America. Tour buses are lining the entire dock, ready to take everybody on their excursions... We just walked past them all and caught a taxi into the old walled city.
Cartagena's old town has a wall surrounding it, and we walked the wall around the town overlooking the Caribbean Sea, watching the unique traffic including buses, taxis and even donkeys.
It's a fairly modern city but has some unique historic buildings and churches, and some very cute little streets with overhanging balconies. Today it is sweltering, and we wind our way through the town working our way from water sellers to the next water seller.
Apparently you are not allowed to play trumpets in this part of town
There is always some unique elements that you encounter in these historic cities, whether it's the small touches such as door knockers, the unique collection of art, or the locals dressing up to make a few bucks.
From Santa Domingo square we find cool shade in old churches and check out the Spanish architecture.
Having had just about enough of all the street vendors trying to sell us hats, jewelry or fruit, we decide to check the last section of the wall and escape the old city.
One of these things is not like the others, and feels a little out of place
They do like their statues
From the marina side of the walled city, we leave the walls and walk through a bit of a seedy area to our next stop. It's a little run down, but we are not pestered by one vendor trying to sell us anything, and we weren't pestered by any seedy people trying to sell us anything either.
At one point we crossed the street to walk in the shade, and I look back to see a giant Iguana in a clearing. So back we go to the other side again to check him out. There must be a good collection of bugs and vegetation in this empty lot.
The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is a massive fortress built by the Spanish dating back to at least 1536. You zig zag up the walkways to the top, where the heat of the day is eased by the winds blowing across the overlooks.
The view from on top of the fortress is amazing
We found a couple more unique items for our travel tree, and jumped in a cab to head back to the ship.
A really unique aspect of the cruise ship terminal here in Colombia is a small park like area full of tropical birds and monkeys. They just wander around freely, sit on a bench and a Macaw parrot or a Toucan starts nibbling on your clothes.
After enjoying some time in the park with the birds, it was time to head down the pier and get back on the ship.
The rest of the afternoon was spent cooling off in the pool, and finding a nice shady spot on the deck where I can lounge in the shade and enjoy the sneeze... Err, breeze.
Mitch & Maria were no-shows at dinner tonight, not sure where they are, maybe too much sun, maybe she found a wicked Canasta game on the ship somewhere? So we had a nice dinner with Terry & Joe, two of the three courses were very good. Dessert was great, but their bbq pork ribs were quite fatty. Now I know I'm becoming old like the other crones on the ship, complaining about the fat content on my meal.
Our waiter, Deka, plays a little joke on us, he fold up this little napkin man, and then asks us "Is it a man or a woman?". When Terry tells him it is a woman, he asks her to close her eyes and place her hand over the "woman". When she does, he pushes on the round end of the spoon. Terry laughing says "Oh, No.... it's a man!!!"
As we head back to the room, I blame every snorting and coughing old fart for this cold they have given me. No entertainment for us tonight, I just want to try to sleep and get better... It's an early morning the next day. The towel Elephant was quite well done!
