Saturday,  Feb 02 - Day 13 of holiday and Day 11 on board Island Princess

The Ladies met as we disembarked the ship

The morning started a little late and therefore there was little time to do my Internet and writing.  We breakfasted as usual and set out for our walking tour of the Old City of Cartagena as we pulled into the port in the early morning.  Out tour was guided by a tall Columbian who spoke English very well.  Our comfortable little 25 seater bus was filled and off we went.  Herbert, the guide, talked all the way downtown about the history and used some very long Spanish sounding names of people who did great things for the city.  We did a drive-by of the fortress that had been built over a number of years and at a huge cost.  It was probably 150 feet tall on the hillside and many people over the years were involved in its construction.  It was also pretty impressive.

Main Square Cartagena

We arrived at the start point of our walking tour.  It was the entrance to the old town where there is a gate and a clock tower.  This entrance is the "symbol" of Cartagena in all of the photo spreads.  There is an abundant use of colour in the old town with bold yellows, pinks, blues and other variations throughout the town.  It was originally built in the 16 C and some of the building were from that era.  Others were newer but old none-the-less.  There were signs of improvement and construction but nothing like the work we saw in Panama.   Owners of buildings were doing maintenance but not full scale re-construction.



Original Coffee Shop

The streets we walked were bordered by businesses on the first floor and residences on the second and above.  There were many open balconies with beautiful flowers on them which made the area very bright and appealing.  The most significant thing one notices when one arrives in this area are the merchants or street vendors.  They flock to every arriving person offering everything from hats, to jewellery, to sunglasses, to watches, to T shirts, to silk scarves etc.   They are thick as flies and they do not take no for an answer until you ignore them and walk away.  This continued all through the area.  we did the official walking tour and were pointed to certain buildings of interest and some churches etc.  We were then walked into a emerald jewellers shop where we were offered mango drink to cool us and the opportunity to discuss purchases of their products.  The juice was great and after a price inquiry on a bobble for Freddi I headed out of the store.  The necklace I was looking at cost $5300 but today it was $4350.  That was not the range I had in my head.

Cartagena Streetscape

We were given 1.5 hours to stroll around and Freddi and I walked about and made some purchases and took some photos.  It was relaxing but it was hot in the 30+ temperature with humidity.  The breeze through the village was very much appreciated.  At the designated time we all piled into the bus and returned to the ship. It was a bit of a thin tour but Herbert made everyone happy and collected his tips at the exit door of the bus. 

We returned to our staterooms and prepared to go to the indoor pool area as we had had enough sun.  I did the hot tub for my knee and then relaxed for a while.

Square in Cartagena

At around 7 PM we ventured out for dinner  in the dining room where we were seated with 8 others.  We were all Canadian with the exception of one couple.  3 provinces were represented and the other couple were form California. We all shared stories of travel and cruising and introduced new things to each other.  It was an interesting time.  The US couple were wine purchasers and liked to travel a fair bit.  They told of some of their investment purchases in wine and they were doing well drinking and selling off their valuable wines.  At another table nearby, the Chef's Table was being enjoyed by a second group of 10 people.  I asked the maitre-d about their menu and he said it was the same one we had.  They were a quiet group in comparison to our group of last week.  Our dinners were pretty straight forward as I enjoyed pasta in a parmesan dish followed by scallops and no dessert.  Freddi had salad, the pasta appie and veal scaloppini also with no dessert.  It was a nice dinner with nice folks.    With another day behind us we set off for bed without consideration of the evening entertainment that was going on.

Street vendors doing business