CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA

A beach near Cartagena, Colombia
The Coral Princess in Cartagena, Colombia

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 high 90s / sunny and partly cloudy
We were quite satisfied with our trip into Cartagena. One tends to be very apprehensive about Colombia, but because of tourism they want to keep this city very safe.

The city’s population is 1 million. Now I better understand the term pre-Colombian—the original inhabitants were the Chibchas Indians who were excellent goldsmiths and skilled in weaving and pottery. Explorers plundered the Chibchas for their gold and emeralds. The Spanish conquistadors discovered that the interior of Colombia was rich in gold and emeralds and claimed the land as their own. Cartagena became the port city to trasport the goods home to Spain. Sir Francis Drake and others laid siege to the city so a great wall and fortresses were built. In 1741 the city was attacked by Englishman Edward Vernon (G. Washington admired this man and named Mount Vernon after him—Washington’s half brother was in on this raid—isn’t history intriguing?) with 25,000 soldiers and sailors, and 186 ships, against 2500 men. The city was never breached.

Ten out of the original 29 forts are still intact. We visited the “Old Town,” the walled city (surrounded by 11 miles of stone). We saw the clock tower, the cathedral, and especially the Palace of the Inquisition (of 1770) where instruments of torture from the Spanish Inquisition are displayed, “in the light of human rights, as one of the most terrible episodes of our history which must never return again.” Eight hundred people were killed in Cartagena, the Spain’s largest court in the New World (two others were in Mexico City and Lima, Peru) for practicing witchcraft or magic, or committing blasphemous acts.

Romancing the Stone and The Mission were a few of the movies filmed here.

We continued on to Pierino Gallo Plaza, a shopping area with many emerald shops. I had corresponded with Lee Miles, “Mister Emerald,” (Leland@MisterEmerald.com) and he welcomed us at his shop. Some Cruise Critic friends took tours organized by him. He is originally from New Mexico. Anyway, I studied emeralds and that should be good news to B2, despite her age!! TK visited “Coffee And,” and bought more coffee, Colombian this time! Another emerald store had a replication of an emerald mine that one can walk into and see the veins with the raw emeralds. There was also an emerald display that showed the pre-Colombian jewelry designs.

We liked doing Cartagena on our own and this is how we did it: At the port (8 a.m.) we hired a legitimate (blue shirt with blue pants and the word taxi written all over the shirt) taxi for the morning. We agreed to the price ($40—roundtrip). Julio, who did not speak English, took us to Old Town and waited for us. He also gave us directions to the Palace. He took us back to his taxi and then drove us to the Plaza. He waited for us there. I wanted more time than the tours offered for shopping. At about 11:30 we said we wanted to return to the ship. We paid and tipped him when we returned to the ship. How was this different from Acapulco? First, we made certain the driver was legitimate. We were smarter, made certain of the price, he was older, and did not take us to shops owned by his relatives. If he had done that, we were prepared to say “no thank you” to everyone. I am getting much better at that. The taxi driver in Acapulco was legitimate, but we were not as smart.

Dinner tonight: crab meat with shredded lettuce, apple, and melon; wonton soup, chilled fruit soup; surf and turf (jumbo shrimp and filet mignon); Sachar Torte (chocolate cake).

We hope to go to the crew talent show tonight.

TK’s Takes: Cartagena reminded him of a Spanish-European city, like Barcelona. The pool was closed for the afternoon because someone vomited in it. Princess did not take chances—they drained the pool, cleaned it, and then used plenty of chlorine—to be continued, will it be open tomorrow? The water temperature was up to 83 F from 72 the first day he got into it.
He also is impressed because someone is always cleaning the public restrooms. They are big and clean.