Cartegena, Colombia

Goooooooooood morning, Cartegena!  It's going to be hot, Hot, HOT.  Like, crazy hot.  So hot that by the time your tour ends, you'll feel as though you're approximately 30 minutes from requiring medical attention. 

See?  Doesn't this look hot?  Look at that flaming ball of fire.  That's the sun.  I swear it followed us with a vengeance today. 

 

Joshie!  Look at the tugboats!  You'd love these little guys.  They helped guide our big ship into the little port. 
 

 

Mmmmm....coffee...

This is a 350 year old elephant tree.

Here's one of the many traveling produce stands we encountered all throughout the town.

I told you the sun was following us.  Doesn't it look hot??  Yipes.

This fort was built several hundred years ago to protect the city.

 


This is part of the fort's water management system.  Water would flow here, if there were any.  But, alas, there isn't.  It's all suspended in the air.  Trust me on this.

We hired a taxi to take us on a driving/walking tour of the city.  The archetecture in the Old City (as opposed to the New City, outside the city walls) is incredible.  Look at that color!

Even the street signs were pretty.

 


See?  There's the sun again.  Hot.

 


This is a portion of the city's wall, built in 1614.  Wow.

 

 

 


On the other side of the wall is the ocean.  And a large street.

Here are some more archetectural gems.

And the sun.  Again.   

Converging lines, anyone?

 


Here's another "small" fortress built to procetc the city.  They were pretty big on protection, it seems.

This is Scott standing next to a statue at the entrance to the Old City.  Why he's on his tippy toes, I'll never know. 

The stone building on the far right of this photo is the second oldest church in Cartegena.  It's beautiful. (See anything familiar here?  Perhaps of the flaming ball variety?)

These strips of pokey thingies were laid in the window sills of the church.  Apparently, they'd prefer if we use the front door.

 


Speaking of the front door, it was reallly pretty.  See?

Here's a picture of the front of the church.  Our fellow tourist kindly entered the picture voluntarily, to offer perspective to the photo, I'm sure.

 

In front of the church were little works of metal art.  Apparently, the Colombian's highly revere those of the Artsy Fartsy type.  lol

Yep.  Hard Rock has a cafe here, too.

 


What did we order?  You guessed it...

Here are a few photos of pretties we saw on our trip.

 

  

 

 



I'd love to show you photos of the Museum of Gold, and the inside of some beautiful cathedrals.  But, alas, a good lesson was learned today.  Bring the spare camera battery WITH you.  It doesn't do much good back on the ship.  Boo.