Cartegena, Colombia..and more

Our choices for tours in Cartegena had two themes. The first traveled to all the religious sites, monasteries, churches and icons in the city. The second visited all the forts. War or peace , not much has changed. We decided on a third tour which offered a little of both worlds. We saw "La Popa"  the monastery on the highest point in Cartegena and the main fort in "Old Cartegena" plus some sights offered by our guide.

As i said, we had little time here so a tour would give us the most for the information here and guarantee  a timely return. As we stepped on the pier we met a line of buses. Some 50 feet long, some half that. Personnel directed Deb and me to the first bus in line and away we went. This 50 foot bus would take us up to "La Popa" as our first stop. I bring up the bus size because our travels included streets designed for donkey carts. These narrow streets hardly accomodated the small cars in town much less this bus. Yet, our driver managed to turn corners and battle traffic(motorcycles everywhere without regard for anyone) and never clipped a curb. To get to the monastery you must traverse a switchback road. During some reigious occasion the penitents would ascend on foot stopping at the 13 stations of the cross on their journey up. I became exhausted just watching our driver make the 180 degree turns while pointing, what i thought, straight up. In Cartegena one drives on the right so ascending the hill,one has the tightest of turns. Coming down proved no less harrowing even with the wider turn radius to our advantage. The monastery has special significance to the history but the structure still  consists of stone and mortar atop a hill. It does offer the best panoramic view of Cartegena though. 

Back on the bus, we spiral down the hill and travel on two way streets little wider than our one way streets. Next stop The "Old City". On the way we learn that Cartegena ranks fifth among the cities of Colombia in population. Bogota, the capital tops the list then Medellin, Cali, and two others that excape the memory.Of course, our guide thinks this wrong and insists Catrtegena ranks numero uno..

Cartegena,the Old City,  has a wall around it built in the 1500's for protection. The wall extends 11 mile around the city. I do not know the height but at times i saw 20 feet of brick. Coming into port we saw new construction. Tall buidlings of glass and steel, gleaming in the sun. All this construction, hotels, apartments and the like needed to begin construction before 2017 when a building tax would stop most new construction. The skyline fairly bursts with cranes and girders. You can get quite a deal on aprtments in this area with so much new construction. However, if you want to show how much money you really have buyng in the new city will not do the trick. Our guide said the highest priced dwellings in all of Cartegena stand in  the "Old City". He quoted a price of $12million.  I would like to know what you get for that money but i haven't  spent enough time in the casino to accumulate funds for a purchase. But i digress. In the "old City" we stopped at a market place with a building housing 20 "stalls", large shops. All carried the same goods. All had the same prices. Our guide directed us to shop 4 for the best deals. I did not look to see if "made in China"  stamps adorned any items.

I should tell you that everywhere you go. When you step off the bus. When you walk anywhere, the street vendors proffer handbags, hats,  silver jewelry and more for your review.  Their idea, if they place the item a foot from you face you will buy. My method of avoidance says no eye contact. I believe i missed a great shirt because of this method. Orange and white, my colors!!!

Back on the bus, all passengers returned in the required time. We traveled, next, to the main fort of Cartegena. Set back from the ocean you wonder why it stands where it does. Simple, many forts block passage to the walled city. should those not dissuade the attackers, this fort will. Of course, this fort constructed on a hill requires one to walk up a steep incline to discover the mysteries at the top. The temperature soared into the 90's and sweat poured profusely. Deb declined the climb up the hill but i soldiered on. A thin haze lay over the city, humidity i believe. Views from the ramparts seemed out of focus because of this. Stone walls, sniper lookouts, cannon ports with a few cannons pointed out and a small shop on top doing a brisk business in ice cold water for $2 a bottle rewarded my efforts and that of my bus mates.. Back on the bus(ah, air-conditioning).

Our last stop, 40 minutes of shopping, brought us to, what one can only descride as the "Emerald District". An island building with many shops, all selling emerald jewelry. It seems Colombia has a world reputation for it's gem stone. Our guide, helpfully, stopped our bus in front of the "best' emerald purveyor in the district. Deb and i had other plans, however.

Planned and packed many times over for our trip, I forgot a connector cable for one of my cameras, the underwater camera. As we realized that emeralds did not work for us, we ventured off(against advice to stay together) in search of a cable. Spanish speakers abound in Cartegane not English speakers. After seeing a window advertisement for a computer brand i know, we mimed and spoke loudly about  USB and pointed to connectors in our phones. The store person took pity and offered some cables and power supplies none of which would fit my needs. She conversed with her associates and with hand motions and some rudimentory Spanish words pointed us, "one  block that way and on the left near Hotel Dorado we  would find a Kodak store". We hoped they would have a cable.

Short version, they did! However, we did not have the camera so they didn't think the cable would work and, actually, hesitated selling us the cable. Assurances and $3 later we had cable in hand and made it back to the bus for the boat and a short nap.

We begin day two of sea days at this writing after we passed thourgh the canal on seaday one. More about that after breakfast.