No... thank you.

Cartagena, Columbia

After sailing through the day and night out of Falmouth, we arrived in Cartagena on April 5 at 6:30AM. The morning low was 77 degrees and climbed to 82, which wasn’t really that bad except for some humidity.

They boarded us on large, comfortable touring buses and drove to what they call the Old City, which is a 17th century colonial Spanish walled city. The cobblestone streets served as narrow passage ways through this port city, filled with magnificent churches and idyllic pastel-painted houses dripping with tropical flowers. Beautiful in every respect, except one —— the street merchants.

As background, our tour guide told us before we left the bus that the people out there know who we are and where we’re from and that we represent the top 1% of the wealth in the world and that these folks are well down the income chain. So, they want some of our money and they will tend to be aggressive with respect to their sales techniques. We were told to clutch handbags tightly to the body and to say NO early and often when pitched with items like beads, hats, rugs, etc. As soon as we got off the bus, we were mobbed by residents and to be honest, that continued thoughout the whole walking tour of the Old City.

Another highlight of this visit was the San Pedro Claver Catholic

Church in the town. It was built between 1580 and 1654 which gives you an idea how old this town is. At its altar lie the remains of Saint Peter Claver, who died in 1654 in Cartagena, after devoting practically all his life to evangelizing and redeeming the black slaves of Columbia.

On the plus side of the shopping scene, Columbia is said to be home to over 90% or the world’s emerald mines and there are jewelry stores in Cartagena that sell emeralds almost exclusively, at good prices.

Exhausted from saying “no”, we stopped to enjoy a drink at a well-known American restaurant Hard Rock Cafe. It was quiet, uncrowded and cool. Departing the restaurant we headed back to our bus. On our way, we purchased some real Columbian coffee from a street vendor just before reboarding the bus back to the ship. Juan Valdez would approve.

All in all, it was an interesting, short (5 hours) stop that allowed us to see a neat city in a country we’d probably never see on our own.

Once back on board our ship, we enjoyed dinner and then a magician/comedian show in the theater. It was very entertaining.

We were looking forward to the next day to see the reason for the cruise. We departed at 12:30 PM to travel 278 nautical miles to the Panama Canal.