20th Anniversary Trip - Day EIGHT

Our first port was Cartagena, Colombia.

No one in our family had ever been to South America before, so this was an exciting moment for us.

I got up early to watch the ship come into port.  The sun was just coming up and the air was still and cool.  The water was like glass and the sky was rosy. I can’t explain the quiet stillness that exists in moments like this.

As we approached land, we saw several small one person canoes on the water. They paddled right up to the ship.  As we glided by, the people would stand up and yell “BIEN VENIDOS!” which I found out later means “WELCOME!!”.    This was one of the most memorable moments of our trip.

After we docked, we joined our tour group.  We signed up for the “Hop-On, Hop-Off”bus as we didn’t want to deal with the taxi situation.  We drove through the neighborhoods of Cartagena until we reached the historic Old Town.

We got off at San Felipe de Barajas Castle.  Pictures do not do justice to how massive this fort is.  It was built by Spain to protect their treasure from the likes of Sir Francis Drake.

 

The sun beat down on us as we explored the thick walls,  broad plazas, and sub-terrarian tunnels.  At the top of the walls were charming guard towers.  A massive Colombian flag was flying.  From the top we could see the entire city.  We could see a school with children playing soccer.

After leaving the Fort we found Grandma and Grandpa across the street in a little corner market.  As we walked up, Grandpa handed me an ice-cold glass bottle of coke with a straw.  It tasted like heaven on that hot day.  This was another of my favorite moments of our trip. 

We sat there in the shade and talked and laughed and re-hydrated.  We fended off street vendors trying to sell Grandpa a hat. We did end up buying a musical instrument made out of a coconut and a Colombian soccer jersey for Nathan.

We rode the bus to the sea-side walls of the historical district.  We wandered through the streets until we found a charming plaza. 

While taking pictures of the church and fountains we ran into our original tour group. 

 

We finished the walking tour of the district with them, seeing the Cathedral de San Pedro Claver (commemorating a priest that dedicated his life to helping the slaves on the ships that came to port), the Plaza de San Diego, the Plaza Santo Domingo (along with its famous naked lady statue!), the Plaza Bolivar (where Grandpa and the kids fed the pigeons) and the St Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral. 

We explored the thick city walls and bought art from a street vendor.  The men hawking their wares were quite persistent and by the end of the day Grandpa had been propositioned to buy a hat about 100 times.

As we waited for our shuttle to take us back to the ship, our guide explained that the day before Colombia had qualified for the FIFA World Cup of Soccer.  This is why we had seen a consistent stream of yellow soccer jerseys wherever we went.   Our guide threw his hands in the air and proclaimed joyously, “THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS HAPPY!!!”.