I wanted to be on deck when we docked in Colombia and it was time to see
a sunrise too.... so I happily got up and found myself waking up while
looking at myself in the mirror in the elevator on the way to the top
deck... oh hell, I had my top on inside out!! Instinct said to rip it
off, turn it around and pop it back on. Thank goodness I dont always
listen to the voices in my head! :) I would have been caught out
topless in the elevator - not a position I would like to be in. So I
just tucked the label into my jeans and enjoyed the morning.
Colombia is totally different from what I expected........ I should have
learned by now not to have expectations, good or bad. At first there
were little islands, but nothing that looked very inviting and then some
buildings appeared on them and then I went to the other side of the
ship,and Bingo! There they were - tall tall buildings, kissing the
clouds and packed tighter than sardines in a tin can. The beach is a
very thin strip lining all this and in the middle of all this, there sat
a huge three master tall ship. There is a floating buoy in the middle
of the bay with a statue of the Virgin on it...... I dont think its the
Virgin Mary - but one of the others. This place is full of them. And
kids. I heard this evening while on deck that its a statue of the Lady
of Guadaloupe, and a baby.
Anyway - the sun came up, casting her path to my feet on the top deck
and the camera was almost smiling as she clicked away happily. I really
should name the thing..... any suggestions? And so we slowly headed to
the jetty that was our home for the day - it is right next to a huge
shipping container dispatch place, most of the containers are red with
"Hamburg Sud" stenciled boldly all over them. I really do wonder at
what is in them all.
After getting a camera full of photos, I headed back down to meet Frank
on the balcony of our suite where he was enjoying the view much more
gently. We headed off for a quick breakfast and then down to get our
feet on solid ground for the day. We had a tour booked through the Old
City of Cartegena, the dungeons and also a Cathedral or two.
Looking over the deck we saw probably 30 buses waiting for passengers to
cart them off to different places of Cartegena. We hopped into the
first and off we went. I loved the old city - narrow streets, balconies
overflowing with mulitcolor bouganvilla and a non stop bustle of people,
and the colors everywhere - just beautiful. The doors are something
that really grab my attention too - they are huge, solid wood and have
smaller doors for normal use. They are very beautiful and each one is
different - yes, the camera clicked happily. The roads were littered
with people trying to make some money - and of course a ship full of
money carrying tourists is not an opportunity to miss. And they
didn't. At one point it got very irritating, we could not walk without
being blocked by someone selling something - they shove it right up into
your face and keep on, no matter how much you say no. Then I
remembered, dont say no, dont look at them, dont respond in any way. Do
you know how hard that is?? It feels plain rude and wrong, but we would
still be there if we did not revert to this. A really nice thing here
is when we made eye contact with the locals, the ones not selling
anything, they always smiled and waved if we were in the bus - that was
nice.
Anyway - we watched a young man do the most incredible painting on a
mirror in about 4 minutes flat!! And then we bought it. It was totally
amazing to see how he turned some dabs of paint into my painting in such
a short time. And on we went with two of his paintings beautifully
wrapped with about five feet of tape holding the paper over them. We
walked through the center courtyard and tried to fit the beautiful old
buildings and church spires and ......well, everything, into my camera.
Into the Cathedral we went and as I just got started with taking photos,
I noticed that everyone was gone! Way too little time was given in all
the places we visited. What a pity. We saw the dungeons which are now
all shops that the cruise lines drop the passengers off at to shop.
There is SO much to see here and it was sad that we were mostly just
taken to shopping places. We did stop for an incredible display of
street dancing - those young boys hopped and flipped and balanced in
ways I never even thought of. All traffic stops for the shop - even the
police cars and they just carried on until done - and then the hat was
passed around. Oh, this was funny. While we were walking along there
were two statues that looked like solid black metal. They were perched
on top of , well, I dont know how to describe it, but it was a thing
about two foot high, made of concrete and rounded on the top - the kind
of thing that often has chains between them to keep traffic out or
walkers in. Anyway, there are the two statues up on there - and boy
were they beautiful - the work gone into making those was exquisite -
they were incredibly life like..... and yes, I happily clicked away,
getting a great angle against the white building behind them. And then
I nearly fell over flat - THEY MOVED! and yes, pointed to the
collection hats on the ground. I was laughing so much that I was crying
and Frank popped a tip in the hats - and back the were to statues. I
have to admit to turning around the check and see if that really did
happen ;)
We did see the Inquisition place, the Cathedral, the Monastary and some
other places. The Old City is surrounded by an old old old wall that
took ages to build. This is right on the coast line and another wall,
much smaller, had to be built to keep the sea water out of the town. In
many places, they obviously did not succeed. The Old CIty is very very
different from the new Cartegena - no cars are allowed in there, only
horse drawn carriages and buses - pity about the buses. We were wanting
to take a horse drawn tour as well, but they would not have got us back
to the ship on time. Ah well.
At the second place we were dropped off to shop, Frank and I escaped!
We headed on down the road, around the corner, up a steep incline and
had a beautiful view of the city, the ocean and also the bay. It was
good to be away from the others, even though our group was small and
nice people, but we were not into shopping much at all and enjoyed the
views. There are all sorts of old buildings sticking way up into the
skyline, contrasting starkly with the new skyscrapers that seem to be
taking over everywhere.
And then I got to hold a three toed sloth!! Yup - a sloth and me :) He
wrapped his arms around my shoulders and waist and clung on tight and
tucked his head up under my chin. I do mean tight! His very hard, very
strong, ivory colored claws digging into me, but not enough to make me
want to let him go quite yet. He was soft and snuggly and seemed to
have a permanent smile on his face. He was only five years old.....
what a treat that was!
We went to the Fort of San Felipe de Barajas, a 17th century building
that is just incredible...... it has tunnels and stairs and lookout
places and so many little nooks and crannies to explore. Its huge too
and is purely used as a tourist attraction these days. Nothing is sold
inside there, so it was a blessed escape from the street vendors. The
San Pedro Claver church was really lovely too and I think the guide said
that San Pedro himself was laying in that glass encasement on the alter,
but I will have to read up to make sure. It did look like it, but......
We did find some knick knacks that we will be bringing home and about
800 photos too.....
My favorite of the day was those beautiful doors, balconies, narrow
streets and that sloth!! He was so loopy....
At 5pm we left Cartegena, Colombia......... with a loud toot toot, she
pushed away from the dock, no tugs helping at all, turned around and we
headed out to sea. The horn blasting was just lovely! I missed it when
we left Ft Lauderdale.. It took about an hour to get from the jetty to
open ocean again and the sun was setting and the photos were beautiful!
The other boats, smaller day cruises etc, all honked their horns,
yelled and waved. It was a very festive mood on deck - and the weather
was perfect.
So off to dinner we went - casual again tonight. We have a booked
seating at 6pm, but that is in a more snazzy setting... Not formal, just
no shorts allowed..... so we prefer to go to the casual food bar that
really has many more choices. We do go and join our dinner partners
every second evening though, but often find that the ones we chat to at
the casual section are much easier to chat to. After dinner we headed
out to the back deck with a beer and watched the full moon rise, casting
her silver slivery road all the way to our table......... the multicolor
glittering lights of Cartegena fading into the distance. Just perfect.
Tonight we are heading up to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. This is one
place we did not get to visit when we were in Costa Rica earlier this
year and if I remember correctly, we have a treetop adventure in the
rain forest waiting for us there. The weather is still perfect so we
will be sleeping with the door to the balcony open - we are swinging and
swaying a bit more tonight which is just perfect and that bow wave
sounds like sleep.
And I hugged and held a freaking SLOTH!
love and light
Annie
--
http://cruisebaggs.blogspot.com
PHOTOS:http://s992.photobucket.com/home/travelbaggs
No comments:
Post a Comment