Welcome to Cartagena!!!!

So, the fun part about this cruise was the fact we were going to 2 new ports for us - the first one being Cartagena, Columbia!  I had pre-booked a tour online with a lady who is named Dora....so it's Dora the Explorer!   I refrained from the Swiper, no swiping jokes - and it was good experience for sure.  We docked super early - at 7am, which meant we were turning around and backing in around 630am, and one of the drawbacks to backing in when you are in an aft cabin is the cavitation noise when they are backing in - what's that you ask?  Well, the propellers create a vibration when in reverse, and it shakes the whole back of the ship....which can make it somewhat impossible to sleep when your whole cabin is vibrating!!!!  Since we had an early tour (meet at 8am!) we had Alen deliver our breakfast at 630am, so we we watched the final docking and getting the lines out while eating. 
 We're parked in an active container port, which is pretty typical - it's also super interesting to watch all the activity, and since it wasn't a weekend it was pretty darn busy











At around 740am, we headed downstairs to deck 2 to get off the ship, since we had officially docked and were tied off.   There weren't too many people about and that made it easy to exit quickly - and Dora was right where she said she'd be, behind the ship with a few signs with names on them.  We checked in, and then she sent us down the pier to wait by the flamingos......yes you did just hear that correctly.  There's a small zoo at the end of the pier!   More about that later, but see, flamingos!
Next, one of the other guides came up and gathered the 6 of us together to get us to the van we'd be riding in, and to meet our guide.   Our driver's name was Jimmy and our tour guide was a woman named Mercedes.  She was awesome, and did a really good job telling us about the history of the area and telling us fun facts about the sights we were about to see.  For our first stop, we were headed to the highest point in the city, a monastery on top of the hill (you can see it right at the top in some of the above photos.  It was a great place to go to first, gave you a great view of the city.


Really a great view, you can see our ship down in the harbor, and all the really tall buildings out on the land behind.  Below is a small model of the buildings on top of the hill.  It was originally build in the 1600's, and abandoned for a time in mid-1800's.  It was rebuilt in the 1960's and there are monks and priests who live there today (apparently all on the upper floors of the monastery because of all the tourists.  We also got to see the altar that holds the patron saint of Cartagena, the "little lady" who gets taken out for an annual parade. 














Next, it was onto the fort - the Castillo
 San Felipe de Barajas - which saved the city from English invasion in the 1740's  We didn't go up in it (it's apparently a several hour expedition)

 This is a statue to the man who saved the city - Blas de Lezo - he had lost an arm, a leg and one eye to previous battles, and was nicknamed "half-man"








We then hopped back into our van and headed for the old city.    First stop - the Dungeons, which were a restored munitions storage area that had been turned into handicraft booths.  (below) 

 We didn't end up buying anything but some fresh Columbian coffee, but the view was spectacular from the roof deck.

















Then it was off to the old city, to see some of the architecture - the woman in the white shirt is our intrepid guide Mercedes.  I found out later she was a retired teacher, and her family was originally from Belgium, and they moved here after WWII as her father was an engineer.  All the old houses are built around a courtyard, to keep the house cool before air conditioning. 












We then walked along to the palace of the inquisition, and through a few more churches.  Columbia is VERY Catholic and it seemed there was a church on every corner.  And they were all old and historic.   Then it was another short walk around to the front of the square where Jimmy had parked the van while waiting for us.  We all hopped back in, and it was time for a quick drive through some of the older neighborhoods before we arrived. 




We said our goodbyes to Mercedes, and then took a few minutes to check out the animals at the zoo, which Mercedes had said had all been confiscated after someone was attempting to smuggle them out of the country.  I already told you about the flamingos, but there were also peacocks and a couple of giant anteaters......  and then walked back to the ship, where we had picked up a berth-mate, the Vision of the Seas. 







Then it was time for some lunch, and we sat out on our balcony for the sail-away.  There's a statue of the patron saint in the middle of the harbor

Then it was time to get ready for dinner!   What a day!