Cartagena, Colombia - January 8

Cartagena, Colombia - January 8
Our first port of call was Cartagena, Colombia. This was our 3^rd time here. We have seen most of the sites here and last time we did a mangrove canoe tour that was interesting. The walled historic center of Cartagena is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We don’t tire of wandering around the beautiful walled city’s Spanish Colonial architecture and the colorful buildings. With no particular plan today, we intended to grab the HOHO bus. The buses were at the pier, but only if you had your tickets bought in advance and they wouldn’t drop you off to buy them in the city or sell them on the bus. (I think they were reserved for the Princess Tour on the HOHO) So, it wasn’t walking distance to where they sold the tickets and we needed a taxi. The taxi driver said he’d take us to all the sites “mas barrato” (cheaper) and the HOHO didn’t stop at La Popa Monastery. He spoke English, but since Spanish works well enough for us, he did most of it in Spanish and in English when needed. We started in the Old Town and we wandered around there for an hour. Since we were just here about 10 months ago, not much had changed. We grabbed some photos and stopped for a quick lunch of empanadas. YUM! 

 sail in

Bob will be pleased that his guide is there waiting for him and his group!

 great aviaries right at the port

 driving through the city

 walking around Old Town

 lunch stop

 our empanadas

 

Willy was waiting for us at the designated spot and we next went to the fort, Castillo de San Felipe. We have always just had photo ops here and we wanted to see the fort this time. He dropped us off and we wandered around and explored the fort. From there we went to La Popa Monastery. We visited here on our first visit which was quite a long time ago. The view is great from up there, but it was a bit “foggy”. The fortress was built by the Spanish for protection against pirates while shipping gold out to Europe.

 driving to the fort

 exploring the fort

 me on the way up

 Greg with the flag

 

La Popa Monastery is on top of a hill, this 17th-century monastery features a chapel, a colonial museum and a spectacular view of the city and remains inhabited by monks even today.

 views from La Popa

 we're the little ship

 beautiful courtyard (there were parrots here last time)

 me in the center

 cat on the counter where they sold the tickets

If we had done the HOHO there was a museum we would have visited, but after La Popa, we had him take us back to the port. 

 short ride back to the port

 Greg

 you can't see me, but I'm in the first "O"

 I'm sitting on the "L"

There is an Eco Bird Park right next to the port which is quite nice. There were a few interesting birds there and a peacock that was really dancing and displaying to attract a peahen. She was not impressed. (birds in captivity do not count towards our "bird count")

 there was an area with an emerald display

We returned to the ship and grabbed some ice cream and then came back and showered. We made dinner in the dining room and then caught the National Folkloric Show Tour of Colombia. It featured dances from various areas of Colombia. Wow, what a great show they put on. It’s always nice when local performers come on and perform. 

We sailed away at 10:00 tonight and it was a pretty sail out. We watched from the balcony until the lights faded away. 

We have one sea day before transiting the Panama Canal.

I’m hoping I can use my phone as a hotspot for some free internet to upload some photos. I’ll attach links as I get them up. This is the photo link for Cartagena. I'm posting as we transit the canal and the phone is working great for uploading photos and Greg is doing banking stuff. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wvXBkeEme6K7epg67