2/8/17 Wednesday Cartagena, Columbia
Photos Link
Slept in since the ship won't arrive until 1100. At 0845 we crossed the 100-fathom line and the bouncing around lessened. It never did get bad, it just rocked us to sleep.
We ate as the city came closer. Then D went to a cooking session while I took pictures.
At 1030 the first lines went over to the pier. It's in the industrial port. We had been told there are shuttles to take us to the Tourist Center from which we will depart on our various tours, but the tour buses came right on to the extremely wide pier.
In taking pictures of our entry into Cartagena, I took a couple of long-range 10x shots of the Naval Base, hoping to get a submarine or two. I did get one, but you'll have to examine the picture above and in the slideshow very carefully to find it.
Many of the birds were able to fly, so they were in enclosures to keep them. Others were not able to fly any distance, so the were within the confines of the facility fences.
And some of the birds were migratory, just stopping in for food & rest.
Some birds were attracted to the colors the ladies were wearing and wanted to peck at the shirts or watches or something bright. The largest birds were the South American condors, which are said to be bigger than the California variety.
The birds, especially the toucans, were brilliant in their colors. The picture at left shows one set of colors.
Back to the tour. It took 45 minutes to get to the Aviary at Punta Batu'. And 45 minutes back, of course. The walk took over two hours and in that heat, I rather wished it were shorter. Our guide Daniel said that it's always hot and humid here, close to the equator.
Daniel answered a lot of questions, political, social, all sorts of subjects. I won't try to explain the Columbian government's classification of each citizen into one of six "Levels" that determine your education opportunities and taxation percentages and neighborhoods. Sort of socialistic, but not entirely. Rather confusing to me, but interesting.
We returned from the Aviary but Daniel let us out at the tourism center at the pier-head. We wandered through the greenery looking for monkeys that were supposed to be there but we didn't see any. Perhaps they're nocturnal. We did take pictures of the peacock and some other birds that were wandering around. We went into the store & bought Columbian coffee and some other little things for those at home. Then we scurried to the ship to do Happy Hour in the Crow's Nest.
Ivy, the manager of all the drinks places, came by so we chatted with him and praised those people we've been happy with. He noted that the Navigation flyer for each day is printed double-sided in colors on matte paper with 850 copies each day. Must be one hell of a printer somewhere on this ship. We left the Crow's Nest to hurry to Sip & Savor.
Sip & Savor had a mushroom-soup tasting thing with a white blend from California that was really good called Conundrum. Dolores sat next to Barbara and chatted with her through the session. We signed up for the red wine tasting session tomorrow and took pictures of Keri, Raj, & Ivy. A lady was sitting alone at the end of the session so I invited her over and the two of us talked while Barbara & D were at it. We talked about genealogy and how hard it is to do genealogy in Germany.
I couldn't stand me anymore so I took a shower and changed for dinner in the dining room. I had an antipasto & sauerbraten that were quite good but not as flavorful as the dishes I've had in Wisconsin or Michigan. D had mussels and steak.
After all that, which started slowly but ended in bunch of activity, we returned to the cabin to settle.
