Travel with Tobey and Sue: April 2, 2019

Day 4 – Panama Canal Cruise

We arrived in Cartagena, Colombia early this morning. We had a view of the dock from our balcony and watched the cranes loading containers onto the ships.

We arranged a tour of Fort San Felipe and the “walled city” (old town) through Viator.

We departed the ship and passed through the cruise port to meet our tour representative and were off!

Cartagena was founded in 1533 and served as an important trading post.When Spanish conquistadors discovered gold and emeralds, wealth of all kinds was shipped to Spain. Pirates from all over Europe soon began their attacks on the area, prompting the construction of the Fort of San Felipe. The king of Spain also ordered the construction of a 50 foot thick wall to be built and intentionally made narrow and crooked streets designed for protection during attacks.

The fort is located on the Hill of San Lázaro in a strategic location, dominating approaches to the city by land or sea. It was built by the Spanish during the colonial era. Construction began in the year 1536, and it was originally known as the Castillo de San Lázaro. It was expanded in 1657. It became a UNESCO site in 1984.Today, Fort San Felipe is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We only walked around the outside, not having enough time to visit inside.

Outside the fort, we were besieged by vendors trying to sell us everything from water and Cuban cigars to photos with their donkeys.

We continued our journey to see the walls of the city. We got back in our van and got to experience a true traffic jam! We waited for a couple of these big tour buses and cars to pass before a traffic policeman wanted us to squeeze between the parked buses and the ones coming toward us! Our driver refused to go so the police man had the two big buses back up onto a main road and allow us to pass! It was crazy.

We walked down and looked inside the walls. The tunnels were used for defense, as well as the armory for weapons storage.

Of course, all tours make stops at places to shop. There were almost as many vendors outside the shops as there were inside!

After our short shopping stop, we continued on to the old part of the walled city. We took pictures with this Palenque woman who is a descendant of the slaves brought to Colombia from Africa. Nowadays, they make more money posing for photos with tourists in their traditional dress than selling the fruits they carry on their head. It was a good photo opportunity for us!

Phil had an expresso and said it had too much “zing” to it! He was pretty well caffeinated but we are not coffee drinkers, so we were safe.

We stopped at the Cathedral of Cartagena (Basilica of Saint Catherine of Alexandria) which is located in the historic center of Cartagena. Construction began in 1577. In 1586, while the church was still under construction, it was attacked by the English privateer Sir Francis Drake, which caused severe damage and delayed its completion. The building was finished in 1612.

We also walked into the Santo Domingo Church Convento de Santo Domingo. The buildings are so beautiful!

Cartagena was the victim of five different sieges during the 16th century, the most famous by Sir Francis Drake. His residence was not far from the Cathedral. The lion door knockers is thought to signify strength, pride, protection and power and acts a guardian to the home. Since Drake was the leader of the soldiers, this was the door to his house.

These are a few views around the city.

The statue below is in the “market square” of La Herencia Africana, where the black population were brought to Cartagena de Indios and were sold into slavery throughout the West Indies and the Americas. By 1852, slavery was outlawed in Colombia. Like the United States after the Civil War, many of the freed slaves stayed and worked for the families who had previously owned them.

One of Cartagena's most famous landmarks is the Torre del Reloj, or Clock Tower. It was once the main gateway to the walled and is located along the La Herencia Square.

The missionary, Pedro Claver, was dedicated to helping the black slaves in Colombia and pledged to be a slave to the slave. This statue is next to the church where his remains are buried.

The church, Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, is part of a set of religious buildings which house the archaeological museum. It was built between 1580 and 1654. The remains of Saint Peter Claver, who died in 1654 are buried at its altar.

We spotted this guy and asked our guide what he was really selling. Fried ants. Tobey and I are pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new things, but I drew the line on this one and wasn’t crossing it. They were pretty good sized fried ants. Ugh.

And with that, we ended out walking tour of the Old Town of Cartagena! Our guide dropped us back at the cruise port and we wandered through the aviary there before getting back on the ship. The birds were amazing – and loud.