Cartagena, Colombia

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Today was the last port call of this cruise and the best experience of the whole trip. We arrived in Cartagena, Colombia after a night of thunder storms and heavy rain. By the time we tied up in the harbor the weather had cleared. It was hot and very humid but this is the tropics after all. Bill, Nancy, Sharon and I struck out on our own by taking a taxi to the old walled part of the city. We had a grand experience, especially after we got away from most of the waddling tourists disgorging themselves from tour busses.



We wandered all around the old city finding many beautiful plazas and gorgeous colonial architecture well preserved and maintained. I bought an oil painting of a native woman with a fruit basket on her head to remind me of the place. For lunch we discovered the Café Bar Restaurante Monte Sacro. It is a wonderful place with outside tables on the second floor overlooking a plaza featuring a statue of Simon Bolivar. Our waiter spoke no English but I managed to order for all of us. We had beers and plates of cheese, meat, and fried plantains. We dined slowly under a ceiling fan and watched the street activity below.



This area of Cartagena appears to have many apartments and hotels built into the original colonial structures. We all agreed that it would be fun to return some day and rent an apartment for a week or 10 days. Our visit was only enough to give us a taste of Cartagena. A longer visit would be required to get a better sense of the place. Of the places I have visited on cruise ships over the last couple of years the ones I would like to return to for a more extended visit are (in no particular order): Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Saigon, Valencia, and Cartagena. Time will tell which will come first.

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