{"id":11667,"date":"2016-12-16T08:44:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T13:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11667"},"modified":"2017-01-10T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T23:57:00","slug":"cartagena-columbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11667","title":{"rendered":"Cartagena, Columbia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, December 16, 2016 – Partly cloudy, light breeze, 88 degrees<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the ship’s log this morning, “the Pilot guided us through the narrow Bocachia Channel and through the Bay of Cartagena towards the inner harbour. \u00a0The Captain maneuvered the ship in to our assigned berth. By 0929 the ship was All Fast fore and aft.”<\/em> \u00a0It would be so much fun to be up in the bridge and watch all this going on instead of reading a report!<\/span><\/p>\n

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We had signed up for an “self-guided tour” of the Old Town which was just transportation from the ship to the historic district. \u00a0We passed through Las Murallas<\/em>, the wall, and under the\u00a0Monumento Torre del Reloj, <\/em>Clock Tower. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I’ll never understand why we had only a half day in Cartagena, Columbia whose historic districts of El Centro and San Diego,\u00a0are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. \u00a0Cartagena is\u00a0a big fascinating modern city of almost a million people with a lot\u00a0to explore, including the Spanish colonial walled district, 16th century fortress and churches, and scores of other historical sights. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The\u00a0local guide pointed out historic buildings and told us the weather in Cartagena is always “hot or hotter.” I wasn’t sure which we had today, but with 90 degree temperatures, direct mid-day sun, and 85% humidity, it was HOT!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Spanish colonial architecture is attractive with shaded wooden balconies hung over narrow sidewalks. \u00a0Many of the stucco buildings were brightly painted and some had shady arcades which extended to the street.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We became “shade seekers” choosing shady narrow streets filled with vendors and locals. \u00a0We had been warned about aggressive vendors who followed us around, but they were harmless, just trying to earn a living.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The walled historic district is an area of interconnected streets and alleyways which lead to many open plazas. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We followed a calle <\/em>to the end to look at the wall and discovered that it was wide enough to walk on. \u00a0It would have been fun to walk all around the district, but it was too hot in the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Standing on the wall we saw\u00a0a roadway around the perimeter near the water and the modern skyscrapers\u00a0of Cartagena in the distance across the bay. It was too hot to stand in the open, so we returned\u00a0to the shade of El Centro<\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Time passed quickly and we had to find\u00a0the\u00a0Plaza San Pedro Claver\u00a0<\/em>for our transportation back to the ship. \u00a0We got a little lost in the alleyways, but finally found the right plaza.<\/p>\n

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The bus drove through several other interesting-looking neighborhoods which just reinforced my notion that Cartagena is a city worth visiting and spending\u00a0a lot more time. \u00a0But it’s hot!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, December 16, 2016 – Partly cloudy, light breeze, 88 degrees According to the ship’s log this morning, “the Pilot guided us through the narrow Bocachia Channel and through the Bay of Cartagena towards the inner harbour. \u00a0The Captain maneuvered the ship in to our assigned berth. By 0929 the ship was All Fast fore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,34,31,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caribbean","category-central-america","category-cruising","category-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11667"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11715,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11667\/revisions\/11715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}