CARTAGENA - COLOMBIA

Following a ‘sea day’ (A day at sea) on Thursday, we arrived overnight to Cartagena, Colombia at 08.00 am and we set sail again at 3-00 pm. As such we only have a short time ashore.

Yesterday we booked ourselves a short tour of the ‘Old Town and Panoramic View’ of the city. We had our breakfast and then set off to explore our destination as best we could considering the short stay we had.

Cartagena has some wonderful architecture and the Old Town is very pretty. Columbia seems to be a very poor country with an average income of only $300 – $400 per month! The people are very inventive and manage to eke out a living anyway they can, which includes harassing tourists to buy, buy, buy!

Poor Julie freaks at this but I love it; it’s great haggling and bargaining with them. I wanted to buy a Cartier watch but Julie wouldn’t let me. It was only $30 – bargain!

It was stinking hot and very humid; typical tropical weather. But it was worth the heat just to see the different cultures of the Americas.

It was back to the Queen early as we had a 3.00 pm sailing. As such we checked back in and then reclined on deck to the sounds of a live reggae band and cocktails on deck.

Bad photo as no flash allowed.

The evening was great too. We had our evening meal and took in the evening show’ a singer called Phillip Brown. He’s from England and certainly someone to watch out for. After the show it was a relatively early night because I intend to be up for 5.00 am in order to be on deck when we enter the Panama Canal.