Cartagena, Columbia

Up at 6:30am and had breakfast. I read my book and snapped some pictures of the port. Cartegena looked like a pretty well developed town with lots of high rise buildings. Victoria got up at 8:30am and we headed our for our excursion at 10am. We were scheduled for the deluxe tour of the city. Our group held three busses. When we got off the ship we were greated by women dressed in colorful garb with bowls on their heads. We were offered fruits, candies and wind mills. We were each given a fan as we entered the bus. The saying cracked me up: Columbia, the only risk is wanting to stay. HA!

I really enjoyed our tour. It was hot, long and somewhat boring but I did enjoy getting to see the sites, old and new, and walk around the streets. There were many street vendors who called after you all saying, “Hey lady, one dollar, price is dropping.” It was great to be in a city where we did not see one Walmart or McDonalds. Our tour lasted about five hours. We tipped our driver and checked out the Juan Valdez café at the terminal. They had free samples of coffee. They had no milk or cream so I tried the coffee black with sugar. It was smooth, strong and delicious. I was a chatterbox all the way back to the ship.

 

I showered for dinner and we dressed in our most colorful outfits for the Tropicalifragalistic party. I had veal cordon blue sort of. I can’t remember what it was called. We heard the stories of the people who went on the Mangrove canoe tour. I was cracking up through dinner at the stories of people almost tipping over, having guides who spoke no English and a buffet where all of the food was gone. They did manage to see termite mounds I hear. The excursion was 110 dollars per person, and there were many people who complained about the excursion not matching the description. Later in the cruise, the folks who complained about the tour received 50% refund. We were never sure if everyone received the refund or only those who complained.