CARTAGENA SECOND DAY - DAY 27

A Look At What Is Happening Today:

 Wonderful Tour Of Cartagena ✔  Dinner At Prego✔

Last night was a reminder about trying to change things up. Sometimes, we all have our favorite places and activities to do on the ship as we do on land and sometimes just a small change is good.  For example, this year we are not doing Team Trivia so that we can do other activities in its place such as Keith taking the iMovie course and Anne Marie taking Yoga in the afternoon.

As to last evening, rather then going to the Avenue Saloon or to the Crystal Cove, we began last evening with a drink at the Palm Court.  We decided to go to the Palm Court to enjoy the views of Cartagena from the ship and to also listen to live music.  Some guests go there each evening to dance to the live music too.

Afterwards, we dined at the Crystal Dining Room.

The dining room was not as busy as it has been on this sailing.  Since we overnighted in Cartagena some of the guests decided to have dinner in town.  Also, some were out on tours and others decided to have a casual dinner up at Tastes which is located on the Lido Deck.  On most nights Tastes is open for dinner and the attire each evening is casual including shorts so that makes it easy for people who do not want to get dressed for dinner.  We did want to mention that last night was Casual in the dining room and that a jacket is not required or even recommended.  For us the dining room is elegant no matter what the attire is for the evening so on most casual nights Keith will wear a sports jacket.

These are the dinner menus.

We had looked at the dinner menu the night before and pre-ordered most of the items with Head Waiter Augusto.

We began our meal with Tuna Tartare which Augusto prepared table-side for Keith.  Anne Marie had a Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail which you can get on any evening even if it is not on the menu.   Keith really enjoyed the Tuna Tartare.  It was seasoned just right and Anne Marie enjoyed her Shrimp Cocktail.

We followed this with Caesar Salad which Augusto also prepared for us table-side. Again, Augusto made a very tasty Caesar Salad. Each Head Waiter makes their salad different from each other so it's always nice to compare.  

For our entree we each had the Fresh White Sea Bass but instead of having it Pan Seared as shown on the menu, we had asked to have it prepared differently and Augusto recommended grilling it just as he had recommended the other night for a different fish for Keith.  It came out perfect and we really enjoyed having it grilled.   The White Sea Bass is a little more flaky then the Chilean Sea Bass but it was very tasty.  This photos is from Keith's plate and rather having it served with the vegetables that accompanied the entree, he had vegetables that he normally enjoys on most evenings.

For dessert, Keith had mixed berries and Anne Marie had the sugar-free Chocolate Profiteroles and she enjoyed it.

After dinner, there was a local show performed on the ship with Colombian dance and music/song.  It is nice that on certain nights local entertainment is brought on the ship as it was the other night to add to the overall experience.

The ship was docked last evening at the Cartagena Pier as we had an overnight in this port last evening.  We believe this is the first overnight at this port for Crystal Cruises.

We did sleep well even though there was no gentle rocking of the ship to put us to sleep.  It seems that within minutes of putting our heads on the pillow that both of us were fast asleep.

Keith began his day at the Fitness Center.  

We enjoyed breakfast in our room as we do each and every morning. We asked for it one hour earlier then normal so we could get ready for a tour we had arranged for this morning.   As such, Anne Marie didn't walk in the morning.

Our first visit to Cartagena was in November, 2010 and including that trip this will represent our fourth visit to this city.  Last year, we hired a taxi for about four hours and toured around the city and spent time in the old town area.

The city has a population of close to one million people, making it the fifth largest city in all of Colombia.  It is the most popular tourist city in all of Colombia.

The city has its old town area but also a new very modern area on the other side of the city with close to 50 skyscrapers.  

Cartagena also has several beautiful beaches, many nice places to enjoy dining, music, dance and drink.

With that said, just like most major cities around the world, including our own country, it is wise to use precaution such as leaving jewelry on board the ship and for those venturing out at night to use caution.  

We took a private tour, which we booked though Crystal Cruises.  The tour was fabulous and we do mean fabulous.  

Cartagena is a very nice city but one that you may not get the right impression of if you just try to see this city on your own.  The tour allowed us to see many areas of the city and doing this private tour allows us to be able to ask many questions of the tour guide and to also be able to speed things up and slow things down as we desired.

We had a private vehicle, a driver and a tour guide.  Our driver's name was Luis.  We never spoke with him as he was concentrating on driving and he was a very safe driver.  We never saw any traffic lights so it can be a challenge navigating through traffic.

Shore Excursion Manager Daniel on left escorted us to the which was waiting for our tour.  We met our tour guide Roque.


Roque was fantastic.  He is a tour guide, speaks five languages, and is a lawyer.  He has five children.  He spoke English very well.  On days such as today after the tour he was going to his law practice in the afternoon.  

He provided lots of great information about the city, the country, the people, the history of Cartagena, and answered all of our questions.  

There are two seasons in Cartagena; Summer and Winter.  The high temperature is around 93 each day throughout the year.  The difference between Winter and Summer is that in Winter it is the rainy season and it can actually feel hotter due to the humidity.

Tourism is the number one driver of the Cartagena economy.  This included the 200 or so cruise ships that visit each year plus all of the visitors from other parts of Colombia that come in December and January and from other places around the world.

Cartagena is the fifth largest city of Colombia and has over one million residents.

At the same time Colombia has a very strong economy.  Major exports include Coffee, Bananas, and Oil and hit has many other natural resources which drive the Economy including emeralds, gold and silver.

By addressing most of the drug lord and gorilla issues about 12 years ago this had really helped the economy as well.  Keith first visited Bogota, Colombia in the mid-1990's for business and things were so bad back then that the the company jet he was on was not allowed to stay in Bogota overnight as Keith and a few of his work colleagues did due to a requirement by the insurance companies that the aircraft was insured with.  Back then for the only time ever Keith put a chair at the entrance of his hotel door and there were men with machine guns guarding the entrance of the hotel.  Today, this situation is much better.

As Roque explained, in Cartagena you will see many more dark skinned people then in other parts of Colombia because this city served as a major area where slaves were brought over from Africa until slavery was abolished.

Cartagena has the new city and the old city.  We visited both areas.


The walls of its famous walled city were first constructed to keep the pirates out and later were key to keeping the British out.

After departing the pier we headed towards the old city.  We drove to the highest point in all of Cartagena to the La Popa Monastery.  Today was a special holiday so it was good that we began the tour early since as the day went on this area would become very crowded.  As we drove up the hill every hundred feet we saw police and while we were at Monastery we saw the Mayor and other dignitaries which is why the police were there.

Roque always took the time to point out all that we were seeing.  In this photo Roque was explaining to Anne Marie areas that she could see as she looked down.

We enjoyed breathtaking views from the Monastery including this view of the new city.

 While we were at the Monastery, a Mass was being conducted.

We then visited the military Fort San Felipe de Barajas.  The construction of this fort began in 1536 and it was not fully completed until 1656.  The fort was built by Slaves.  The fort was rebuilt in the mid-1990's.  

During the tour we walked in several tunnels.  These tunnels were used for the security of the fort to keep intruders out.

The Flag of Colombia.

We also walked around the walled city.  Some of the old area is now used as shops and was originally dungeons that once stored provisions for the soldiers.

This is one of the stores.

We continued to walk around the old city and eventually visited another Monastery called the San Pedro Claver Monastery.

Throughout the day we ran into lots of people we know from the ship.  This included people on tours but also some who were walking around on their own.  

We ran into John Mentis who is the Pianist who performs in the Crystal Cove and also on days in port will go on one tour to take video that ultimately is used in both the World Cruise Video and also other video that is used for other Crystal Cruises Videos about Ports Of Call.

We ran into friends Allan and Helen who were on a tour.

The last 45 minutes of the tour we drove around the new city and saw many beautiful homes and other parts of this area.

We arrived back to the ship at around 12:30 PM and had pre-ordered lunch which we had in our room.  As usual, we had a salad entree.

After lunch, Keith read and wrote.  Anne Marie walked on the Promenade Deck for an hour.

Keith even took a Spin (indoor cycling) Class this afternoon.  Zeljko (sounds like Zelko) taught today's class and he really pushed us so Keith had a terrific workout.  Three other guests took the class.

We departed Cartagena at 3:00 PM and at 3:30 there was even a lecture on the program given by Ken Rees on the construction of the Panama Canal.  With less sea days then on past World Cruises it is nice that the program has been augmented to offer lectures and other enrichment programs if we are arriving to port or leaving port in the afternoon.  With so many talented people on board there is so much being offered in the way of enrichment programs and evening entertainment.  As we say often, there so much to do and our challenge from time to time is selecting what interests us the most.

This evening is formal night on the ship.  There is a Crystal Society Reception which is to honor those guests who have sailed on Crystal one or more times.  

All in all this was a wonderful day and it is not over yet.

This evening we will dine at Prego with three other couples who we invited to join us.  We will Blog about this tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY............

“Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight.” -  Helen Keller

Keith and Anne Marie