DAY SIX OF DISNEY PANAMA CRUISE

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 2015

We are in port at Cartegena, Columbia.  It is a very busy and industrial port as well as for cruise ships.  There were a lot of containers stacked, cranes and trucks ready to go.  

As we were leaving the ship you could see all sorts of busses lines up ready to greet the tourists on the ship.  The usual type of dancers and singers are also there to meet the next gullible group that gets off of the ship.  A lot of folks did take tours, hence all of the buses.  We did the waking tour of the old historic district and we also got a little drive through the new part of the city.

The old city city is a walled area and the streets are very narrow.  There were plenty of people hawking their wares as we took our walking tour.  We have been on tours before where the guide told the hawkers to back off, but not this time.  The city is huge, I believe over a million.  The main streets are busy just like any other big city.  They tend to drive like Floridians and not stop at stop signs. 😒

There is now a fancy restaurant at the top of this wall.

We also were in a museum of torture where they had a model of the rack and other methods of torture.  They looked pretty bad.  There was even a guillotine out in the patio area that is commonly used for weddings.  That seemed a bit weird.

The rack and the guillotine.

We also went into a large vault that housed gold which was part of the reason Spain had control over this part of the world for so long. The gold we saw was ornamentation or jewelry of different kinds.

Very intricate pieces of gold.

The streets were very narrow in the old town or town center, but cars of regular size used them anyway. Not sure how delivery trucks make it through.  Ordinary cars can not make the corners without backing up at least once.

The architecture was being maintained like it was in its glory days.  Many of the buildings are being restored and will be 5 star hotels or 5 star boutique hotels.  It is now too costly for most Cartagenians to live in this area of town.  

The skyline is of the new Cartagena.  The oldest building in this area isn't anyolder than 10 years old.  The water between islands was filled in and that is where the new section currently is.  Mostly expensive hotels and upscale apartments.  The air was heavy, hot and hazy.  It did smell a bit like Gary, Indiana.

There were a number of these areas along the water for folks to enjoy the beach without burning as much.  

Cartagena was like most South American cities.  The drive from the pier to old town was very dirty and littered, but we know that was an industrial area too.  There was an area that looked like a park but it was really littered.  Hard to get a good photo from the bus.  Now to set sail once again.

Panama Canal here we come.