Wednesday, December 2nd - Cartagena, Columbia

We arrived at approximately 9:00 AM and proceeded off the ship to meet with our tour guide.

Cartagena also known as Cartagena de Indias (Cartagena of the West Indies) was founded in 1533 by DonPedro de Heredia, and named after the port of Cartagena in Spain's Murcia region. The population is approximately 1.2 million people (I think everyone had a motorcycle).  Driving there was absolutely crazy, motorbikes everywhere and all were weaving in and out of traffic.  We fully expected to see many accidents, luckily there were none during our visit.  Still shaking my head!!

Fuel price was $3.50/U.S. Gallon.


Our tour started at a Monastery called "Convento-De-La-Popa" on the top of a 150m-high hill, the highest point in Cartagena, stands this convent. A beautiful image of La Virgen de la Candelabra, the patroness of the city, is in the convent's chapel, and there's a charming flower-filled patio.  The convent's name literally means the Convent of the Stern, after the hill's apparent similarity to a ship's back end. Founded by the Augustine fathers in 1607, its official name is actually Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria. Initially it was just a small wooden chapel, which was replaced by a stouter construction when the hill was fortified two centuries later.

La Virgen de la Candelabra patroness of Cartagena

The areas outside the walls of the courtyard gave us great views of the city, it was almost a 360 degree view.

View of Cartagena from the Monastery

It was very hot on the hill top and the parking area was quickly filling up with vehicles - it was crazy!  When it was time to leave we were in a tight grid lock situation with busses and vehicles of all sizes just parked any which way, I could never be as patient as these drivers, even though they did use their horns often, very often!

We finally made it down off the hill and drove by the downtown.  This gave us views of very modern skyscrapers and a booming downtown business area. We were back into the crazy driving scene again.  All of the motorcycles were fairly small, none of them were the large type bikes that we see at home.

Our next stop was the  shopping district where there were many small shops.  We had about ½ hour to look around and purchase some souvenirs if we were so inclined. 

Now back on the bus and off to see the outside of the old fortress named Castillo San Felipe de Barajas.  There was not enough time to tour the fort which was unfortunate as it was huge and looked very interesting.  The castle is located on the Hill of San Lázaro in a strategic location, dominating approaches to the city by land or sea. It was built by the Spanish during the colonial era. Construction began in the year 1536, and it was originally known as the Castillo de San Lázaro, It was expanded in 1657.

The fortification consists of a series of walls, wide at the base and narrow toward the parapet, forming a formidable pattern of bunkers. The batteries and parapets protect one another, so making it practically impossible to take a battery without taking the whole defence system. The castle is striking for its grand entrance and its complex maze of tunnels. It is the most formidable defensive complex of Spanish military architecture. It is 41 meters (135 ft.) above sea level.o

It was then off to a walking tour of an older part of the city showing us many different architectural styles in the buildings.  There were quite a few squares that were developed around churches in the past.  We Found that the areas of Cartagena that we visited were clean and well kept.  Even the market areas that were full of vendors while messy were not full of garbage like Colon or Panama City.

The picture on the right shows a couple of different architectural styles that were present (I'm sorry I don't know what they are called).

Our guide then brought us back to the present with a trip to the 'Hard Rock Cafe' for a beer (on him!!)  Very nice.  As you can see by the picture, unless you knew where it was you could have easily walked past it.

Following a 30 minute stop which allowed for a drink, free WiFi and a pit stop we were off to walk back to meet our tour bus.  We passed many vendors selling their wares that were just laid out on the ground on blankets.  The big surprise came when one of our group saw a vendor selling pot and cocaine right on the street!! Hmm well that is sure not something you see every day back home.

Case of Emeralds "In The Rough"

One of the things that Columbia is noted for is their Emerald Mines.  Evidently they produce some of world high quality Emeralds.  That quality is also dependant on which mine the emeralds come from.  Our next stop was the Joyeria Caribe Museum and Emerald store for a tour and of course we were more than welcome to purchase anything if we wanted.  We looked at a couple of items and the prices were reasonable but no sale for us.  The three major mines in Colombia are Muzo, Coscuez, and Chivor. Muzo and Coscuez are on long-term leases from the government to two Colombian companies, while Chivor is a privately owned mine. Muss remains the most important emerald mine in the world to this date.

Flamingos

Parrots or Maccas - not sure which.

This was to be our final stop of the day and it was time to enjoy the wonderfully crazy traffic of Cartagena once again.  We made it back to the port in good time.  Part of the entrance to the pier was a small zoo with many different birds.  They were not tethered just seemed like they wanted to be there.....The colours were amazing!!

Back on board we changed and relaxed a bit with a drink and readied ourselves for dinner.  Following dinner we were off to the theatre to watch a very good comedian who had us in stitches throughout his performance.