At 6 O’clock I was having tea at O’Sheehan’s to get Kogilamani (Joanne) Balakrishnan from Malaysia’s signature on the crew scavenger hunt list and had a lovely conversation with her about her time working on board. This is her last sailing and then her 8 month contract is up so at LA she gets off the ship and goes home to Malaysia for a well deserved rest. 
Went back to the room at around 730 to drop off the computer and Margie was up and dressed. We watched the dancers forming up outside the ship to greet the tourists.
We had planned to go for breakfast at the grand but they were closed. We ended up going upstairs to O’Sheehan’s for breakfast again, which is not a bad thing. Oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar for me and Margie had the corned beef hash with 2 over easy eggs. Toast and Coffee and tea to finish it off for both of us and we were ready to go back to the room.
Our checklist of things to make sure we had everything done. pills - check, passports- check, money - Check, cabin card- check, sunscreen - check Hats - check. We were ready to go. 
Our tour bus was number 12 . Emily was our tour guide and Jason was our driver. She first brought us to the fortress Sant Felipe. It was very interesting, at first Margie and I looked at each other with dismay when we saw the walk up the hill. It looked rather long and difficult and it was already very hot out, above 80 F. and we had not brought water with us. 
Every tour was different, some gave you water and some did not. This one did not, so, as there were people there selling bottled water, I asked one of them how much. it was, 200 pesos. Do you have change? I asked as I did not have any smaller bills. No he said but you can pay me when you come down after getting change at the top. Juan Carlos is his name. Well thank you Juan Carlos.
We stayed the course and with only a few stops for “photos” and sips of our lucky water, made it up with the rest of the group. We were with the old group I think.
We gathered about halfway up for a bit of a history lesson about the fortress and the city. On the next level there was a gentleman playing the horn, taking requests, I said I was from Canada and he played our anthem or something akin to it.
We continued up to the top through a series of long tunnels with small alcoves off of them, alternating with tunnels off of the main tunnel which led to a small square and another tunnel up to the top, very defensible which is why the fortress never fell.
The reward at the top of the fortress is the washroom. There is one for everyone. And the three stairs to it are like 8 stairs anywhere else. There was a great view of the city and a gift shop where Margie bought a t-shirt and I bought some magnets. I need ed some change from my 50,000 peso notes to pay for the water that I had picked up from Juan Carlos at the bottom of the hill. we wandered around enjoying the vies from the top of the citadel.
Emily gathered us all together and we headed down to the bus. I located and paid Juan Carlos for the water that he gave me at the bottom of the hill on our way in, trusting that I would pay him on the way out, an honest man with a trusting soul. Back onto the bus and we headed for the walled old city. 
We entered through a side entrance and were instructed to meet there by 1230 so that we only had 2 hours to explore. Cartagena is a maze of streets that one could get lost in very easily. We stayed close to Emily and wondered how we would fare on our own. As long as we did not leave the walls of the city we had been told that we would be fine. why what happens outside the walls? 
Emily brought us down a few streets, through a few squares to a chocolate shop for a free sample which was very good. We wanted to find our way back to this shop so that we could get chocolate later on as we wanted to buy our jewelry first.
Emily asked us if we wanted to go and see Romancing the stone and we thought she meant the location where they filmed the movie seen in the fort with the crocodile. But she brought us to a jewelry store called Romance in the Stone. Some of us were not impressed so much, some thought it funny but no one bought anything in that shop. We did look at what they had in our price range, 20 to 40 $ but we did not like what they had. Margie and I just wandered off enjoying the city. 
It is wonderful with lots of old architecture, bright colours and friendly people. We passed several jewelry stores but went into a small one and did each purchase emeralds. I got a silver cross with an emerald in the middle and Margie got a silver star with the emerald in the middle and a silver chain.
After that we started off to try and find our free things. We did find a few of them. At one we got another free emerald each. It was of poor quality but it was an emerald. The next free thing was at the 'Coffee and ...' coffee shop where we got a free coffee, which Margie said was very good, and so bought some coffee and some postcards. While there we ran into some folks from the ship who were from Calgary of all places. They told us about their trip so far and about the cathedral that they had just seen which was very nice and very close. Sounded good to us so we said our good byes and good lucks and see you later on board maybe.
We walked off , not too quickly as it was getting hotter outside, with good directions from the young girl serving the coffee from the 'Coffee and…' shop. We turned right as we left the mall and left at the corner and proceeded up about two blocks past the park like square with the trees and the statue of some guy on a horse. there was the cathedral! Success.
The cathedral was lovely with a beautiful altar of wood. There were some lovely statues and I put some money into a candle box for two candles and was saying some prayers when the young couple from Calgary came up to us , saying that they had run to catch us as one of us had left our jewelry purchase at the coffee shop and that the coffee shop would hold onto it for us there. 
Oh My God. It was my jewelry, my Cross that I had just purchased with my columbian money. Back out the into the street, past the park , down 2 blocks turn right and then left into the little mall to the coffee shop to get back my jewelry purchase that I had left there. the owner of the shop was there and we told him what a great employee he had and that she deserved a raise.
After saying thank you a lot for saving my purchases for me, we thought we should start trying to find our way out to the bus area so, again, the young girl gave us great directions again and we came out in plenty of time. Time enough to continue shopping in the tent shops set up all outside the wall. Margie found a mumuu dress that was very pretty. We got onto our bus a little bit early which was fine as the bus was air conditioned and it was hot out there.
Everyone got back to the bus before time so we headed back to the ship, everyone happy and hot. It was an interesting enough drive although circuitous as it took us past the big hotels and the small beaches that were full of people where we did not stop anywhere, it was just to see that more exclusive part of town.
Our greeting at the dock was again lovely with cool wash clothes and cold juices. We headed back to our room and dropped our things off. we were hungry so headed off for a late lunch at the garden cafe upstairs but it was totally full so we went to the grand pacific downstairs which filled up pretty quickly after we got there. It was very nice to be in the air-conditioning and we drank great amounts of water. We left port early, around 2.
Back to our room to download pictures to our computers, pick out which ones we were going to upload and went online to upload them. We also checked to see if the funds transfer I did to Margie’s credit card went through yet and it had not. How long does it take? We did check our ship account and were curious about some entries. I signed up for the next cruise deal which gives me a discount on my next cruise and a 250 dollar onboard credit for this cruise. Which I believe I will use up in internet minutes putting pictures on face book.
I called Chris in Comox and he told me it was snowing there , lots. The kids were having a great time making the biggest snow man they had ever made or maybe they would turn it into a slide. We were melting and they were playing in the snow.
I tried to organize photos into folders, one folder for each day. But my computer was being weird or the memory stick or something. it took a long time to finish.
We went to dinner at the garden cafe for Russian night and it was good. the sunset was spectacular again. What a lovely although exhausting day.
Towel animal -bighorn sheep
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