Our
early morning walk was quite a chore this morning. The wind was blowing hard and it was
difficult. But, we made it.
The
view of the city as we sailed in this morning was magnificent. The white buildings of the modern city made
for a quite a striking skyline. It
almost looked like the buildings were emerging from the water. It made us wonder if they have issues with
flooding during rainy season, etc.
We
docked in Cartagena at 10:00 am. We
chose a Crystal Shore Excursion today.
It was a Bay Cruise, Fortifications & Historic City. The mode of transportation for this excursion
was a motorboat. It was a bit
challenging to get in and out of it because of the variations in height between
the boat and the three different places we docked.
The guide did a great job filling us in on the history of Cartagena as we made our way to the San Fernando fortress, situated at the entrance to the port of Cartagena. The fort played an important role is discouraging and deflecting attack. Cartagena was a key stronghold and the Spanish protected it.
There was a folkloric presentation at the fort by some children performing traditional dances.
We were next taken by boat to the historic walled city, dating from about 1585. Unfortunately, we had very limited time for our walking tour – basically only about 10-15 minutes. It looks like a very beautiful city, with narrow streets, beautiful balconies, churches and squares. If we return again we would definitely spend time wandering this beautiful place.
We took our motorboat back to the dock
adjacent to the ship.
The guide did a great job filling us in on the history of Cartagena as we made our way to the San Fernando fortress, situated at the entrance to the port of Cartagena. The fort played an important role is discouraging and deflecting attack. Cartagena was a key stronghold and the Spanish protected it.
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The fort across from San Fernando Fortress. |
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San Fernando Fortress. |
There was a folkloric presentation at the fort by some children performing traditional dances.
We were next taken by boat to the historic walled city, dating from about 1585. Unfortunately, we had very limited time for our walking tour – basically only about 10-15 minutes. It looks like a very beautiful city, with narrow streets, beautiful balconies, churches and squares. If we return again we would definitely spend time wandering this beautiful place.
![]() |
We stopped for a drink before returning to the ship. |
We
returned to the ship a few minutes after 2 pm.
We had a quick snack in The Bistro, showers for both of us, and we made
it to Team Trivia at 3 pm. Another poor
showing – 8/15 correct. There were
several teams that tied with 10/15, and a tiebreaker question was asked for the
win.
Sail
away was scheduled for 3 pm, but the Captain announced that there would be a
one hour delay, something to do with provisions. Louis sang and departure came at 4:28 pm.
About 35 minutes after we departed Cartagena we sailed by the fort we had
visited today – San Fernando Fortress.
Pre-dinner
cocktails were in The Silk Bar. It was
quite pleasant up there. The atmosphere
is nice and it was not too warm up there as it sometimes is in the
afternoon. They have a new bar menu on
the ship and Bob has tried a couple of the gin & tonics. Tonight he tried the Basil Citrus Gin &
Tonic. It was quite tasty. Definitely a winner.
We
had dinner in Silk – the Chinese Specialty Restaurant. On our last cruise we had tried samplings of
various dishes. This time around we
decided to order things that we thought we would like. We shared:
Vegetable
of the Day - Broccoli, Celery and Carrot Stir Fry which turned out to have
Cauliflower instead of Broccoli, Lobster
and Scallop Wok with Black Bean Sauce, Stir-Fry
Black Pepper Beef and Chilean
Sea Bass with Honey and Pickled Ginger – the waiter talked us into this one and
we didn’t care for it
Overall,
the food was fine. For us, it wasn’t
anything special. On par with our
regular Chinese restaurants at home.
We
missed the evening’s main show – a Concert Pianist. We did attend the Latin Dance show and
enjoyed it.
Today
we walked 18,057 steps, 7.83 miles.
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