CARTAGENA, COLUMBIA

Today, around lunchtime, we arrived at our first port-of-call since passing through the Panama Canal yesterday; Cartagena, in Columbia, where we were berthed alongside the ‘Disney Wonder’.

We just had time for a quick lunch before heading out to the quayside. Today, we had escorting duties; Tracey’s was a carriage-ride through the old town; mine was billed as ‘Highlights of Cartagena’. Both tours visited more or less the same places, but mine didn’t include the open-top carriage ride, and was much longer.

Our first visit was to the old fort that overlooks the city. Here, we got our first taste of aggressive Cartagena marketing; as we disembarked the bus, we were set upon by street sellers, pushing everything from sunglasses to panama hats in our faces, repeatedly… resistance is futile…

We climbed the ramp to the fort, from where we had extensive views across the city; all to the tune of more sellers trying very hard to part us from our money. In my case, resistance was easy… I didn’t have a single cent on me – not that that stopped them believing that I had, and would willingly part with a dollar for a crappy pair of sunglasses – even though I was already wearing a pair.

Our guide spoke in a monotonous drone, so I soon became bored with his explanations of where we were, or what we were looking at. It might have been interesting to wander freely around the fort, but he kept the group tightly together, and rushed us through his chosen route like a man on a mission – clearly, he had a lot of things to get through in the time we had together.

After the fort, we returned to the bus, back through the army of street sellers, and were taken to a craft market. I say ‘Craft Market’, but actually, it all seemed like the same old tat, repeated in every shop. The guide herded us all into the back of one particular shop, in the pretext of telling us about the barracks that this building used to be, but I’m guessing the owner of the shop was probably a relative of his, or someone who paid the guide good money to take us in there, and the whole thing was obviously a ruse just to get us to spend more money.

I waited by the bus for the whole thirty minutes that we were at the market, and then struggled to gather everybody together and back on the bus for the next leg of our journey, which was a walk through the old town.

Cartagena Old Town is a brilliantly vibrant, and interesting place. It was a shame that we were on tour today; it would have been nice to explore by ourselves. Note to self; next time we visit Cartagena… no tours!…

On our walk, we visited a museum of the Spanish Inquisition (noooobody expects the Spanish Inquisition….)

… which was, sadly, quite boring. Our guide tried to tell us about the place, and its significance at the time of the Inquisition, but a second group, who were right behind us, kept piling into each room while we were still there, and their guide started talking at the same time as ours, so it was all a bit of a dog’s dinner. Unfortunately, most of the information boards were only printed in Spanish, so there wasn’t a lot of interest to be gleaned from them. Three rather pitiful examples of torture implements, and a guillotine and noose in an outdoor yard went some way towards livening the visit up, but even then, maybe I was expecting something more akin to the London Dungeon – so I was always going to be underwhelmed.

From there, we were marched through a small square, down some narrow streets, to another square, and into the Cathedral. Again, this was a place that deserved far more exploration that we were going to get on this tour, with a lovely cloisters area, bursting with trees, and illuminated by warm, late afternoon sunlight. I’m not sure it would have been worth the $6 per person admission price, though, which is one good thing about being on tour.

After the Cathedral, the guide once again led us to a small, but posh-looking jewellers shop. Once inside the establishment, we were herded into a small back room where the doors were closed, and a short speech was given by one of the employees. Several folks in the group really didn’t like this (myself amongst them), and left, to wait outside on the street. It all felt a little bit ‘off’, and too much like a high-pressure time-share scam than part of a tour. I’m sure the guide, or the excursion company, get a decent pay-off from the jewellers shop to get the passengers in there, and despite any misgivings I might about the practice; it worked… I saw at least 5 of the passengers from my group in there spending big money.

After being freed from the jewellers, we were given 45 minutes free time. For me, this was the best bit of the tour; I was able to wander around the streets taking some decent photos, and do a little exploring of my own… bliss!

For the final section of our tour, we were led into the Naval Museum, where, after more talking at us, as we looked at endless glass cabinets with models in them (and not much in the way of naval paraphenalia), we were treated to a free drink of water in a side room where a small but enthusiastic troup of dancers performed for us on a stage.

After three numbers, we were led back outside to the coach, which was waiting to take us back to the ship.

In the evening, we sat in the Captain’s Club, making use of a good wi-fi signal before we set sail.

We now have two days at sea, and the portholes have been closed again (booo!)