Thursday November 12, 2009

I woke up when we picked up the pilot at 5:15 AM. I tried to take some pictures coming into Cartagena but it was so humid the camera lens just kept fogging up. It took us until 7 AM to get into the harbor and docked. We had coffee delivered and got dressed as we need to be on the pier by 8:15. for our City Drive , Shopping and Inquisition Palace Tour. It is very hot already and a beautiful day. More when we return. Our tour was the second bus out of the lot and our first stop is Plaza de Bolivar which of course they stop at jewelry store and want you to purchase from this merchant. We walked around for the 45 minutes or so that they gave us before meeting at the bus. We quickly realized that the street vendors were going to harass us like they do in Cozumel. It was worse and they drove us crazy to where we finally just got back in the bus but then they were banging on the windows trying to show us their scarfs, jewelry and shirts…UGH! Our next stop in the Las Bovedas (The Dungeons) which was like the prison turned shopping mall we saw in Recife, Brazil. Vendors were just as bad there but we weren’t there as long. The last stop is the Inquisition Palace. If people were not Catholic or were suspected of being witches or such, you would be brought to this palace and convicted by the magistrate and tortured until they died and then the government seized their property—not a very pleasant society. The torture machines they used were horrible and if I didn’t know better I would think they were Islamics. The square surrounding the palace was very pretty and we took lots of pictures today. Our last stop is the walking tour of the old walled city which netted us some interesting sights to take pictures of. We left to come back to the ship by 12:45 and it was a good thing. It was so hot and humid that I can’t even imagine what it would have been like at 3 this afternoon. They had cold towels waiting for us again which is a nice touch and cold water as well. We sailed promptly at 2PM. We went to the casino to the $1.00 event. They put a dollar in every slot machine and whoever got there first got to play it until it was gone. Debbie and I managed to play several of the penny machines that still had the $1.00 in them. We came back to get showered and finish writing and will be heading to dinner shortly. Tomorrow the Captain says we will pick up the pilot at 6AM and enter the first part of the canal at 7:30AM—Gatun Locks. Those that want to watch can see it on the www.kroooz-cams.com site and click on “Port Cams” and then “Central America”. Then you can choose the Gatun, then Centennial Bridge and finally Miraflores Lock at the end of the day tomorrow. I am excited now about it and we are planning an early turn in tonight so that we will be up and rested in the morning. Until then…..