Party in Columbia

Day 8: Cartagena, Columbia

This is one of the ports that I have been looking forward to the most. Yesterday the captain gave us a rough timeline of how arrival would go; apparently, I misunderstood. I woke up in time to see the pilot arrive at the ship to bring us into port, but it was so dark at 05:26 that there wasn't much else to see—this was my fist time seeing the pilot arrive which is cool. I thought that our transit into port was a but longer based on the captain's phrasing yesterday where he emphasized that sunrise was at 06:26, so I went back to sleep for a bit, waking back up at about 06:15 when we were already arriving at the pier.

I am hoping that on the way out of port in a few hours that I am able to take in some of the sights that the captain had described. There is a lot of military history to this city due to it's strategic importance centuries ago so I am hoping to see some of the remanence from about the 1700's that still lines the waterways of Cartagena.

Autobús de fiesta

I joined Deanna and O-box on the excursion that they had booked, but it was not my scene. It was a party bus at eight in the morning! It was decent as we got to drive around between old and new Cartagena and see a fair amount of the city, but I didn't get as much history as I normally like on a excursion. The crew was great and made sure that we all had a good time and stayed safe.

Here is a photo of our stop at the walled city.

Zoo

The port that we are at has a nature reserve attached to it, and after our party bus ride was over, that is where we were dropped off. It is full of exotic wildlife that has been rescued from trafficking from monkeys to macaws. Most of the animals roam freely thought the preserve and are easy to get close to. Today I learned that peacocks like to chill up in trees—in all of my travels, I have only ever seen them on the ground.

Pool

The temperature when I got back to the ship was 89 degrees Fahrenheit with some nasty humidity. I popped my trunks on and made a mad dash to the pool to cool off. It is nice getting back from an excursion early so that you can enjoy the pool area without it being a madhouse. With what I have been hearing about the weather in Panama and Costa Rica, I am sure that I will be spending many of my afternoons in the pool from here on out.