April 21, 2018 – Cartagena, Colombia

It was a 280-nautical mile journey from Colón to Cartagena, and we arrived before 7:00 this morning. We couldn’t see much scenery from our balcony, as the view was blocked by the enormously large Holland America ship Eurodam. In fact, we were surrounded by cruise ships today. In addition to the Eurodam, there was Pullmantur’s Monarch and, later in the morning, Regent Seven Seas Mariner joined us. That’s a lot of tourists for one city to absorb.

Luckily, we had a tour of Cartagena with a private car and driver – the last one of the six set up by our travel agency and the Signature Connection group for this world cruise. We were able to go  to places in town that the large number of tour buses couldn’t fit into. Our driver Jose and tour guide Julio were great, modifying their itinerary and avoiding crowds as much as possible.

Cartagena has a long history, dating back to the first Spanish settlers in 1533, and it was part of Spain until declaring its independence in 1811. It retains much of the historic flavor in the “old town,” but today it’s also a big, modern city with a population near 1 million people. There are many modern office buildings, hotels, and towering condominiums – quite a contrast.

The tour was scheduled to start at 9:00, but we left the ship at 8:25, as we remembered what a long walk it is to the bus and cab pick-up point. Today, a Crystal shuttle bus took us part way, and then there’s a large shopping complex and bird aviary to navigate through. Once more, we were lucky, as we spotted our names on a sign that a local gal was holding. She greeted us and guided us through the maze of people and other distractions to where Julio was waiting. We actually got started early today.

We have been to Cartagena twice before and told Julio that we didn’t need to visit some of the most popular spots for visitors – for example, climbing to the top of the old fortress, seeing the Palace of the Inquisition, walking through old town, etc. That was fine with him. Julio told us he has worked as a tour guide in Cartagena for 39 years. Amazingly, almost everybody in town seemed to know him and called out to him by name. Not only that, but Julio & Jose work together often, and they seemed to anticipate what each other planned to do.

Cartagena is the city most visited by tourists in Colombia, and there is much to see. We started by driving out of the port and through the community of Manga which has fairly large, older homes, along with a lot of mango trees. Then it was off to the fortress Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas for a photo opportunity and to walk around a little at the base of San Lazaro Hill, where the fortress is located. The fortress was built in the mid-16th century and was the biggest and strongest fortification built by the Spaniards in the New World. Its purpose was to protect the gold and silver they were collecting before shipping it to Spain. There were always threats from pirates and other foreign powers. From what we understand, it successfully protected the Port of Cartagena for centuries. Every tourist that comes to Cartagena stops here, and many of them climb to the top for the nice view of the city and the port. It takes several hours, and we’ve done It before, so today we snapped photos and departed. Interestingly, Julio told us that the fortress was closed yesterday, because Hollywood was filming a movie there, starring Will Smith.

We went immediately afterwards to Convento de la Popa, for what is the best view of the city. In the second photo below, our ship is the small one, next to the two big Holland America and Pullmantur ships. The Regent ship (same size as Symphony) had not arrived yet.

The convent was built in the 17th century by Augustinian Monks, but there are only three monks remaining here, and they’re all in their 90’s. Julio says the population of Colombia is close to 50 million, and 90% of them are Catholic. He showed photos of Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict visiting this convent’s small wooden chapel. The monastery has a beautifully restored courtyard and an image of their Patron Saint, the Virgin of La Candelaria in the center of the altar. Once per year, she is removed from the altar and carried by a team of 40 men down the (very steep) hill, paraded around the city, and then brought back up the hill. We bought a magnet from a blind, one-legged vendor here. He, of course, is a friend of Julio.

Julio and Jose drove us all around Bocagrande (meaning “big mouth”), which is apparently also called “New Town.” This is definitely an upmarket neighborhood, containing the bulk of the city's tourist facilities, such as popular hotels (from 1-star all the way through 5-star), shops, restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, and art galleries. It is located between Cartagena Bay to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west, featuring popular beaches on both the bay and the Caribbean sides of the community. On the bay side, there are many condos and a palm-lined promenade. We saw it all. The beaches looked crowded to us, but Julio said it gets more crowded on Sundays and during North American holiday periods. Upon leaving this area, we saw the large Bolivar Naval Base, which is also located in Bocagrande, facing the Bay.

Last on the itinerary was a short drive through historic “Old Town,” which is surrounded by the city wall. This is Cartagena's main attraction and its most crowded. Driving through here isn’t possible in a bus, as they aren’t allowed in this district of narrow streets and hordes of pedestrian tourists. Julio pointed out small stores and boutique hotels, along with churches, monasteries, plazas and unique architectural styles. On the way into “Old Town,” we had to pass through a hole in the town wall that circles the old city – nine miles in circumference. We were told that the wall was started in 1585, and it took 200 years to build and later rebuild due to destruction from raids by pirates and pillagers. At one point we had to take a detour off the planned route, as camera crews were setting up for more filming of the Will Smith movie.

We didn’t take any pictures in Bocagrande or in Old Town, as there was too much traffic and it wasn’t possible to park and walk around.

We then returned to the port and encountered a massive traffic jam of buses, taxis, and construction vehicles. It must have taken Jose 20 minutes to get us to the drop-off point. We think traffic is bad here every day, but with four ships in port, it must have reached capacity. We then wandered trough the bird aviary and large store before finding the shuttle bus back to Crystal Symphony.

It was a very good day, and we’re glad we had the private tour.

Jim & Ginny