Again, sloth 3, blog 0. If I procrastinate any further, I won’t remember anything of what we did. Drug cartels notwithstanding, we were looking forward to visiting this old (by New World Standards) city, founded in 1533. It’s noted for the massive walled fortress and bougainvillea-draped narrow streets. Well, let’s add suffocating humidity, oversold attractions, endless beggars, and just not a lot worth seeing. The biggie is the Fortress of San Felipe, the largest Spanish fort in the New World:
I will grant you it is massive, and impressive from a distance. But, close up, it’s what it is: a gargantuan pile of rock walls and terraces with nothing particularly interesting. We signed up for one of the ship’s tours, and got stuck with Leon, perhaps the worst guide we’ve experienced in all our travels. His English was passable, but he had absolutely nothing to say except “this is very old,” and “this is very big.” Really. That was about the extent of his commentary. Ours was group # 5, and we were to follow his paddle. This proved impractical, as some of the more elderly (yeah, even more than us) or out-of-shape types slowed the group down and there was a lot of standing around waiting for them to catch up.
Fortunately, we could keep an eye on the paddle, so could roam about while he was collecting bodies. More fortunately, there were lots of other tours from our ship and the two others that were in port. We took to drifting over to other groups to listen to their guides, who actually had stories to tell and info to impart. Imagine that. No tip for Leon. Cartagena is really three areas: the Old City with its winding streets and flower-basket balconies; the Fortress atop San Lazaro Hill; and the modern, high-rise section. I guess the port could be a fourth. I took this panorama from the top of the fort.
It was started in 1586, in response to plundering of the city by Sir Francis Drake, and completed in stages over the next 200 years. I’d tell you more, but we didn’t learn much, including nothing about the pegleg pirate.
We headed back to the bus for our next stop, the Old City and the Inquisition Museum. Along the way, some of our group bought sliced (by an evil-looking machete) fruit from a street vendor, and tucked in. Yikes! That’s one of the big no-no’s that the ship personnel warned against. Hope they’re not sorry tonight. Fortunately, the bus had bottled water which we all needed in the heat. Once downtown, we joined the 8,000 or so other tourists all trying to see the same few “sights.” Two of the three ships in port were Celebrity, so I blame them for poor scheduling that causes an overload of the facilities. It was just a zoo of groups being led into colliding with each other. Many places were so crowded that Leon just gave up and shuffled us along. Of course, he had plenty of patience for the shopping venues, one of which was supposedly of interest because the shops were built in what used to be prison cells. Well, if you hadn’t of told me, I wouldn’t have known. Just looked like shops to me. One of these is an Emerald “Museum.” Emeralds are a big deal here, much more so than diamonds. Emeralds require the conflux of seven elements, whereas diamonds require only one. Or so they say. This store interior belongs to one of the arched storefronts behind Loni.
We walked over to the Inquisition Museum, which was a farce. It had an impressive exterior, and a pleasant interior courtyard (altho bereft of any exhibits), and a walled garden area which sported cheap replicas of a guillotine and a hangman’s platform (pictured), neither of which, if Leon was to be believed, was ever used in Colombia. So, what the heck are they doing here? Why in the world are we here? Ah, apparently, this is one of the few spots in the Old City that has public bathrooms, which were in high demand.
After the “museum,” we finally got to walk around the old city. A couple of the lanes were picturesque enough, but mostly everything was choked with people. Yes, I realize the irony of us being part of the problem.
OK. There were some nice sights.
On the list of “must see” items was the Cathedral, but it was closed for some reason or other and all we could get was a look at the exterior.
So, that was our visit to Cartagena. All in all a pretty blah experience. It wasn’t improved when we got back to the ship and ran into:
Hot. Humid. Tired of walking around. No food since breakfast. The crew did wander down the line passing out icewater-soaked washrags, which felt mighty fine on the neck as we inched forward. We did manage to reboard in time for afternoon tea (read: multiple desserts). Bye Bye, Colombia.
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