On our 22-day cruise in April, we had 10 ports of call. Cartagena, San Diego, and San Francisco were the only ports that we had visited before; however, we have been to Guatemala and Costa Rica before but at different ports.
Some people call the Panama Canal day a port of call because there are excursions that you can take during that day and meet up with the ship at the end of the day. But, I think the Panama Canal day is a unique blend of a sea day and a port day.
After two days at sea we arrived at our first port of call –
Cartagena, Colombia – Today was a short port day. We docked just before 7:00 a.m. and everyone had to be back on board by 12:30 p.m. Most of the tours were leaving between 7:00 and 7:30. We decided to do the same thing we had when we were there the last time. We ate a leisurely breakfast and then took the local shuttle to the port area. They have a nice area to view birds and some animals. I also wanted to replace the Christmas ornament that I bought the last time and promptly dropped and broke when I got home. 🙁
We remembered what a shady, cool area it was to walk the paths looking at the birds. Not today. It was still shady, but the heat and humidity slapped us in the face like a hot wet washcloth. I had brought my canon camera to take photos, but it wasn’t long before it fogged up so much the photos were blurry. We soon gave it up and went to the gift shop. It was crowded but at least it was cool inside. I bought my ornament and we took the next shuttle back to the ship.
Below are photos I was able to take before the camera fogged up.
Later on that day, we heard people talking about how unbearably hot and humid it was in Old Town. One woman said her companion tripped and fell on the cobblestones and was being looked at by the ship’s doctor. Another person said they were over-charged by their taxi driver.
Then as it was getting closer to sail-away, the Cruise Director kept calling for 2 guests to check-in with Guest Services. That is never good. Either they hadn’t gotten back or somehow when they got on the ship, the ship personnel failed to read their ship cards. The ship did not leave exactly at 1:00 which is unusual. Rumors were swirling that they never made it back to the ship. Scary.
I took a photo of the Cartagena skyline as we were sailing away. They call it “new town.”
Next up – The Panama Canal