Romancing the stone...in Cartagena

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Cartagena (pronounced carta-hey-na so I'm told) is the 5^thlargest city (by population) in Colombia. Cartagena de Indias to give it its full title was discovered in 1501 by Rodrigo de Bastidas but it wasn't until 1533 that a permanent settlement was established by Don Pedro de Heredia. After more than 250 years of Spanish rule, Cartagena declared independence in 1811 and today enjoys a city so rich in history it has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

On reading the literature that Princess provided it mentioned that Cartagena was a prime target for English and French pirates. One of the most notorious to venture in to Caragena's beautiful bay was Sir Franny Drake who attacked the city in 1586. After destroying one quarter of its buildings including the Cartagena Cathedral, he demanded a ransom – 107,000 Spanish eight Reales. That's about £150million by today's value. The story goes that it wasn't actually Sir Francis Drake who held the city to ransom but he did see a one armed man running from a burning building!! From that day, however, Drake was a wanted man in both worlds (the old world and the 'new' world!!) he never stopped hunting for the real perpetrator. (or am I getting confused with a TV show?!!).

Today the ship docked at 8am. We only had a ½ day in port and all had to be back on board by 1pm. As we docked a 10-15 minute taxi ride from the walled city Roisin had done the usual research beforehand in order to maximise the little time we had.

Plan A was to take the ferry across the bay. This started from the jetty in the vicinity of the cruise terminal. It docks outside the walled city at a cost of $10 return. Plan B was to buy a hop on-hop off bus ticket. The ‘blue line' stops right outside the cruise terminal. The ‘ho-ho' would take us around to the places we considered of interest. One of these places is the Palace of Inquisition that once you passed through the ornate and colonial design of the exterior is a gateway to misery and suffering. I don't mean there is no air conditioning either!! Here a reported 800 people met their deaths for what the church decreed as magical, witchcraft and blasphemy.

We breakfasted at about 8:30 and by 9:40 we ashore heading toward the cruise terminal, 400 yards from where the Island Princess berthed.

On leaving the Island Princess at the bottom of the gangway we were met by a couple of ladies with bowls of fruit on their heads. This was another photo opportunity to be captured by the ships photographer. There is usually no escaping these things unless someone can distract the photographer for a few seconds. Doh!! Too late!!

We were immediately flanked by these two local wenches.

Making light of the situation, I turned to one and said, pointing to her head, ‘Have you just come straight from the shops??' She started smiling whilst nodding. ‘Too stingy to pay 5p for a carrier bag then??' I asked. She continued to smile. Either she didn't understand or was thinking ‘How many more of these tossers do I have to humiliate myself in front of!!!'

On arriving at the entrance to the cruise terminal we were greeted by a representative from www.colombia.travel and took the opportunity to enquire about the ferry to the old town.

‘No ferry goes from here mister! There used to be a ferry but it is no more', came the reply.

Time for plan B: ‘Where do we buy tickets for the hop on-hop off bus then??'

‘Bus no running today. You need to go into the old town to buy tickets'.

‘Not good', I thought. ‘And we don't have a plan C!!' In retrospect, plan A should have been to book an official tour then plan A would have become plan B and plan B would have become plan C. In fact if we had have booked the official tour we wouldn't have needed a plan B or C!!!

The cruise terminal was more of a complex with duty free, cafes and a large souvenir department. The temperature was in the 80s and humidity was about the same. The souvenir store was fully air-conditioned so was a nice respite from this uncomfortable weather. As we were now in no hurry to go anywhere, we stayed in this area for some time. In desperation I took a photo of the souvenir department thinking that at this point it may be the only photo I had to post with this blog!!

Emeralds are very popular in Cartegena made famous by the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner comedy ‘Romancing the Stone'. The stalls were selling emeralds of all shapes and sizes, mounted on everything from earrings, brooches, necklaces and of course rings. The prices varied from the very affordable to the ridiculously expensive. I said to Roisin that I'm sure I've heard Cartegena is referred to as ‘the Emerald City'

‘No, You're getting confused with the Wizard of Oz!! She replied

At this point 2 other ships had just docked in quick succession to each other. Both were NCL cruise ships: The Norwegian Jewel and the Norwegian Pearl. In a few minutes, the cruise terminal was awash with tourists.

We decided to venture outside. There was the usual array of reps from local tours inside the terminal gates. The taxis were waiting patiently in line outside but I understand are not allowed on the premises to tout for business. A man with a chart and a badge immediately confronted us. Ignoring him I made my way to a few tourists who had seemingly booked on to a local tour due to a hand written sticker they were all wearing. It turns out that the locals were charging $20 for a tour. This seemed a reasonable amount, as it was less than half of what Princess Cruises were charging. I turned to the tour guide and asked him how long does the tour last as I reached in my pocket for 2 crisp $20 bills.

‘Just over 4 hours', came the reply.

‘Darnn!' I said (or worlds to that effect) as I removed my hand from my pocket dollarless! We had to be back on the ship by 1pm and it was already 10:55. As it turned out, the NCL passengers were in port until 6:30pm hence why most were taking up the offer.

In the grounds of the cruise terminal was an Aviary with many types of exotic tropical birds roaming free. All seemed relatively tame and certainly used to humans. We pottered around the grounds, teasing some of the birds and seeing how close we could get to them before they lunged at you. At one point, I ventured outside of the perimeter gate to see what was going on. All official taxicabs are recognised by their yellow colour (similar to NY cabs) and are strictly controlled. There was a large sign at the taxi rank that announced $15 one way in to the old town or $20 per hour. Some people were taking up this offer whilst others were trying to negotiate a special rate. We were both resigned to remaining in the port area and started to look forward to the morning session of trivia, as there was nothing better on offer!!

During this trip, it has really disappointed us that Princess had not provided transport in to town. On the way back to ship we recounted the times on other Princess cruises that we had docked away from the city centre and on all occasions Princess had provided a shuttle service (albeit for a cost, of course!!)

By 11:25 we were sat in our usual places and were joined by Rick, the optometrist and his mother. I lent over to Rick and asked him: ‘While you are here on the cruise, who is keeping an ‘eye' on the business!!'

My joke must have been too subtle (or he had heard it a million times before!) He looked up and said casually. ‘The other partners take on my patients while I'm away'

Just before the trivia started DJ Aris asked if we could accommodate his aunt who was sat on her own. She sat quietly until the second from last question which was ‘What are the official flowers of the Kentucky Derby'. We all looked at each other blankly while DJ Aris' aunt scribbled Roses on to a scrap of paper and held it up to the rest of the team. It was a low scoring game. Only 3 teams showed up as most other people were still ashore. We won by 1 point thanks to DJ Aris's aunt!!

Back to full strength in the afternoon and the Scrambled Eggheads pulled off another coup. We won by a margin of 4 points despite one of the questions being ‘A banana is not a fruit, what is it?' Apparently it is an herb!! Honestly. Although I recall a children's TV programme in the 70s called the Herbs about a family that are all named after aromatic plants, I don't recall, the family consisting of Lady Rosemary, Sage, Parsley the Lion, Thyme, Dill the Dog …and Banana!!!

I know this sounds as if all we do on board is play trivia but come the evening and Roisin and I were on for a hat trick. The topic was 70s music. It was multi media, a sort of ‘Name that tune' (and the artist.) The questions included songs from Earth, Wind and Fire, Dooby Brother, Donna Summer, Tavares, Village People. In fact it should have been retitled: 70s disco music quiz. This was borne out by the Entertainments Team all donning sparkly shirts and John Travolta style suits. Someone should have told them that the 70s began before 1976!!

Rick was on fire. He contributed at least 80%!o(MISSING)f our answers (of which all were right). I felt about as useful as a jock strap at a Eunuch's 5 a-side charity football match!!! The hat trick was achieved thanks to an optometrist from the Bay area who may have been a California disco dancing diva 3 years running from 1975-78!!! We won a bottle of bubbly for our effort.

Tomorrow we arrive at our last port of call, Aruba, before the home leg to Ft Lauderdale (Port Everglades). Where has the time gone? It is only another ½ day in port. We don't arrive until 1pm and all back on board by 6:30pm so Roisin and I will be going ashore as soon as the gangway is open. Plan A is to take a local bus up to an attraction known as Californian light House. Plan B is to see what local tours are available but we all know what can happen to best laid plans…!!!

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