Cartagena 10.15.2011

Cartagena.  Columbia.  We were ready to go ashore for our 9:15 excursion early, so we went down to the meeting location only to find that we had not noticed that there was a one hour time change the night before.  We thought it was 9am, but it was really 8am!  At least we were not late, so back to our cabin.

The day went well.  We had a great tour guide on a smallish bus, (necessary for the narrow streets), and most of the time everyone was on board at the appointed time.  Today was Saturday, so traffic was light, light in Cartagena.  Not what we would call light.  Drivers are really much more aggressive than they are at home.  Our guide told us that motorcyclists cause most of the accidents.  There are lots of motor bikes and many of them are taxibikes.  The helmets have the bike license number on them, and are required of both the driver as well as the passenger.  They dodge in and out of traffic with no consideration to mortality!  But, every second Friday in Cartagena is motorbike free, none are allowed, yesterday was that day.  Interesting.

Our tour went to the Fort of San Felipe, largest Spanish fort in the New World.   Next was Las Bovedas, once dungeons, now home to tourist shops. We had 20 minutes, so we got in power shopping mode to see as much as we could.  Then we spent an hour walking around the walled Old City which included the San Pedro Claver Church where a wedding was taking place.  Because of the wedding, we weren’t allowed to take many pictures, but the music was wonderful.  We toured the Inquisition Palace, really a museum of gruesome torture devices.  It is hard to believe that people did these things to each other and especially in the name in religion.  We went to a couple of shopping areas.  Most of the store clerks were low key, but some of the street vendors were just like bulldogs.

We have tried the last two days to add pictures to the blog, but that is not working while the ship is at sea.  We will try again.

John & Colleen