Cartegena, Colombia

In all the times I have been to Colombia on both the Constellation and the Infinity, I had never been out in port. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't think there could be much to see here, or the reputation the country has for being a big drug trafficing nation ~ either way, it seemed that no matter when we came to town, that always ended up being laundry day.

That said, I was plesantly surprised by what I did see when I finally got off the ship. The port area was very well developed given that we are docking in a working pier. They managed to create a welcome centre and have entertainment there which made it quite pleasant to spend a bit of time there just hanging out.


This was our musical entertainment...



And the dancers....



We decided to take a taxi into town. The advantage of being with Crew is that you can get an idea of what to expect by asking your fellow folks onboard. So that said, I was armed with the knowledge that a trip downtown should cost us $15. So I am really bad at the haggle ~ so as we walked out I missed the fundamental rule of hailing a taxi and we got into the cab before negotiating the price. After we got in, the guy wanted us to pay $30. After my distain and very rude objection, the price was lowered to $20. Still unhappy with this we continued to argue in the cab on the way to the Old Town. Dad, I think was ready to just give him the $20, and the arguement that the price was higher was because there were more ships in town. As Beth would say 'whadeva'... So we got out of the cab, I did give him the $20 and we made arrangements for him to come and pick us back up. Out of curiosity Dad did ask what the folks in the cab behind us paid ~ they got away with $15. What turned out to be even more unbelievable, was that there was a sign posted in the terminal stating that the price to Old Town was $15 ~ guess it pays to read.

We then met up with the Dr. from the ship who is from Colombia and gave us some pointers for touring around Old Town. He also let us know that it pays to be a local ~ his cab cost him less than $4.00

Here is the Entrance to the Old Town and some of the many colourful buildings that we found inside the walled city.

The view outside....

The view inside....

Once we had walked around town, found a man selling fresh mangos in the street, been offered 'cheap Chanel sunglasses', we decided to head back towards the ship to the fort. I had a bargain with this one ~ cost us $5 to get here.

I'm not sure if Dad and Jane ever found out what the fort protected. It isn't right on the water, and was situated further inland than the Old City ~ either way, it was an impressive fortress.

And it even had jobs that I would be good at!

Here is the view of the old city and coast line from the top of the fort.

Overall I must say that I was surprised by what I saw here. Had I known what was here, I likely would have turned laundry day into laundry night ~ it was really quite charming.