Something Borrowed, something blue....

Cartegena is definitely a very colorful city with shades of orange and yellow filling the cityscape in the old town. It is laid out very interestingly, somewhat like a horseshoe with very OLD spanish colonial architecture on one side and NEW modern buildings and restaurants along the other. It's really interesting to see the juxtaposition.

This was our first port of call and a relatively short one (7:30am -2:30pm). At first I was concerned but it was ample time to see the city. We shared a taxi to the old town with a gentleman who wanted to attend mass. I thought that was brilliant. Taxis are $20 into town, which is expensive for a less than 2 mile trip. But I do recommend taking a taxi into town if you're not doing an excursion. The town doesn't really start humming till 9am, so we had about 1.5 hrs to explore when it was quiet. Street vendors were only mildly aggressive, and they kept their distance. In addition to experiencing the beautiful colonial architecture, we also got to walk along the protective wall.

We chose a HOHO (Hop on Hop off) but not through the cruise line. That cruise package was $80 for the two of us. The HOHO you negotiate on your own is $15 each so along with the cab, today cost $40. We walked back to the ship (about 1.2 miles) because we love to see where the locals live, work and play. And we felt safe. The HOHO has 12 stops and takes approx 1.5 hrs to do the entire loop if you don't get off. Add 45 minutes for each time you get off.

Along with the time we spent in the old town, we felt like we got a great taste of the city. Lunch was relatively light, followed by an hour on the elliptical and 30 minutes in the sauna. I spent another 30 minutes in a hot tub, before realizing, I was running late for dinner. After a hasty exit, I returned to the room to find my wife all ready.

We sat with yet another interesting couple who have a home on Marco Island, which rents out about 330 days per year, so they travel when it's rented. Perhaps you can do that when you're getting $6k per week. Dinner was....salmon and french onion soup, which I love. Nothing to write home about today. I've just about had my fill of salmon so anticipate more interesting culinary commentary tomorrow. After a brief stint with our favorite musician on board, we headed back to the room for an early evening because we go thru the locks early tomorrow and we want to get a good spot up on deck.

For pics, please <click> on the Ports of Call tab off the main page. It was a very photographic town!!!!