Cartagena by land and sea

High speed skyline from the speedboat

Last night I noticed what an increase there was in people now going to The Glass House for drinks and meals. Earlier on in the trip, we were amazed at how few people there were, compared with the ratio of staff. I guess folks feel the need to utilise the areas they’ve already paid for in the price of the trip. However, from our point of view, if we’re frocking up and going out for a date-night Celebration meal, then we want it to be special, not just the usual restaurant where the food is mediocre at best.

Janice was rushed off her feet along with the rest of the team, but they all made time to chat and compliment us on our attire. They did their best to hide the additional pressure they were facing…the senior Officers had decided they wanted to dine in The Glass House last night also. Their job is perhaps, more on the line if the boss is in the house! The pleasure about yesterday evening was that we weren’t “hassled” through our meal. The main restaurant really does seem to focus on speed of service, probably to the detriment of everything else involved in a meal. Normally, by the time I have just about placed my knife and fork down after my starter, the plates are whisked away and our main is there. Not so at The Glass House. Everything is perfectly cooked to order, tastes lovely, is presented well and is served with a smile and a chat.

We opted for a bottle of Miraval. Being pink, we were thinking it would be light and lower on the alcohol volume than a red. Not so. A 13.5% volume, but very characterful. We were honoured to be noticed by Captain Love, who came over for a chat. He gets off in Barbados so is getting all demob-happy. 

Naturally, a bit of stargazing had to be done when we got back to our cabin, but it was incredibly breezy. With a bit of clever placing of the furniture, we were able to wedge open our balcony door and were gently lulled to the sound of crashing waves outside but a sense of being snug inside. I’m not entirely sure what happened at 1.30 this morning though, as, whatever it was, woke both of us up. Maybe my ingenuity hadn’t been quite as secure as I’d thought it was. OK, I had to admit defeat, it was too waggy out there and it was probably the balcony door that had banged into the furniture when we were experiencing a particularly rough wave. Balcony doors firmly shut, we resumed our slumbers….nearly, as then it started to bucket it down. Not for long thankfully, but a good dowsing.

This morning we woke up at 6.30am to 25 degrees, sunny skies and a calm sea. Well, to be more precise, a calm port. As we’d arrived in Cartagena. It was lovely to have breakfast on the balcony watching all the little speedboats whizzing back and forth. However, they were being way too busy for my tired brain to cope with at that hour.

Elkin was our guide today while we experienced Cartagena by land and sea. He was very excitable. So first up, it was off the ship, onto a rickety bus, then onto a speed boat. Cartagena seemed to be a high-rise city on one side and a low-rise on the other. Boca Grande, meaning Big Mouth, is the new city. My observation was that it wasn’t quite as grand and modern as Panama City, but clean and modern all the same. We did a 50-minute exhilarating high-speed boat ride with a couple of stops for Elkin to impart his knowledge to us. There were very lush Mangrove fishing villages, San Fernando Fortress on one side of the sea and a smaller fortress Bocachica. It was a fun boat ride. There were loads of other small boats all dashing back and forth at great speed causing spray on our boat when we went over their wake. 

Virgin Carmen statue in the harbour

We saw the Virgin Carmen statue. The statue of the sailors. There is now a lightning rod on top of it following a recent lightning strike that destroyed the original. We were shown the San Sebastián batteries which unusually, were at sea level. The area seemed to be mainly residential buildings with a few businesses and hotels thrown into the mix. There is a population of roughly 52 million in Colombia.  It was all clean and tidy though some of the gardens were a little sparse and dry considering the area is so lush. Elkin informed us that Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, houses more businesses due to its cooler climate being that much higher. 

The modern skyline of downtown Cartagena

The fortress

Sentry at the fortress

The ancient and modern

Upright cannon with strange bloke

After our high-speed boat ride, we went for an exceptionally hot walk around the city and the 17th-century Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas (San Felipe Fortress). There was an interesting-looking upright canon which was used for hauling stones up the hill. Ropes were wound around the base and then the stones were hauled up by the slaves who built the fortress. There was a massive police presence, all on bright green trial bikes. 

Vibrant colours in Cartagena

Floral balconies are everywhere

A quiet corner

The university library

Both the old and new parts of the city are quite beautiful. The old city is full of narrow streets with balconies over dripping with lush flowers. 

Street view in Cartagena

We walked around Plaza Bolivar and Plaza San Pedro. However, and maybe this was actually what made up the melée of Cartagena, there were a lot of hawkers. The favourite cry from a number of them was “almost free”. They simply followed us throughout our walk with our guide. It was a battle of us ignoring them and them shaking their wears at us. Maracas, tablecloths, fridge magnets, hats, sunglasses, and t-shirts. It didn’t matter that we were wearing sunglasses and hats already, they still tried to sell at us. Their view being that you will reconsider your position on tablecloths and Cuban cigars and you will buy from them. We didn’t. Meanwhile, all the tour guides were shouting over each other, who were shouting over the hawkers, who were shouting over the street performers. A constant din of noise from all concerned.

There comes a point in everyone’s life when a bit of time-out and a Colombian coffee is called for. Hindsight’s a great thing and later we found we simply turned left, where there were no coffee shops, rather than right, where there were several. Well, ok I will share with you that we were standing right next to a Starbucks, but need I say more?! So having gone the wrong way, we ended up stumbling across an ice cream stall and opted for a mango ice cream instead of a coffee. In this heat, I think that was the better option. We found an entranceway to a restaurant that was air conned. We cheekily cooled down in the entrance whilst we waited for the group to gather for our return back to the bus. 

Flamingoes in the aviary

Peacock showing its wares

Cocka-one

As port terminals go, having a tropical aviary at our terminal was pretty special. Having our lunch to the sound of peacocks and parrots shouting at each other and us was also pretty special. The parrots were so loud, they actually activated my loud environment alert on my watch.

Toucan play at this

Parrots' Parliament

As we reluctantly left this cacophony of noise and colour behind and made our way back to the ship, we were held up trying to get through security. No one was going anywhere until security located what they didn’t like in a passenger’s bag. The offending article turned out to be a plastic spoon! I was so taken with this that I forgot I’d still got my phone in my pocket and set off the alarms. That’ll teach me. We got back home to an invitation to the sail-away on Friday when we leave Aruba. Pop is mentioned. We’ll be there, naturally.