Tag: Cartagena

April Ports of Call

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

Cartagena, Colombia

Saturday, February 8, 2025

I cancelled a HAL excursion for here on the 2nd day of the cruise because they moved the starting time back to 7:15. I wanted to see the National Aviary, but I didn’t want to leave that early and spend two hours on the bus. We were not really interested in going into Old Town either as we heard the vendors could be pushy. We decided we would go to the mini aviary at the Welcome Center at the port.

They had a number of pretty birds and some other animals and you could just follow the marked path to see them. There was no cost. The path was shady and there was a nice breeze. The path and aviary circled the huge gift shop which was a very good marketing strategy.

An argument broke out

While Chuck was watching a red parrot eat, the parrot decided to crawl up Chuck’s arm and made himself at home on Chuck’s shoulder. He soon became fascinated by Chuck’s lanyard and started chewing on it. While Chuck was trying to figure out how to get it out of the bird’s beak without getting bit, something hit the back of my neck -hard.

I thought someone had thrown something at me. Nope. A small green parrot had decided that my neck would be a great landing space. He eventually moved to my shoulder and dug in. I am not a fan of birds on my person. I moved closer to Chuck to see if he could shoo it away. The two parrots started squawking at each other and flapping their wings. I quickly got away from Chuck. His parrot started chewing on the lanyard again.

Another person was able to coax the green parrot off of my shoulder. Then Chuck realized the red parrot had chewed through the lanyard and was flying away with it – it had his keycard in it. Another guest was able to intercept it before the parrot got away. I was ready to move on from that area.

He almost got away with it
Before he decided my neck was a good landing spot
I am not happy

We soon came to an area where a staff member was holding a small monkey. It immediately jumped to Chuck. The monkey started trying to find something in Chuck’s shirt pocket. Luckily, there was nothing in it. The monkey, being unsuccessful at stealing, jumped to the nearest tree and posed for photos.

One hand in the pocket
A more polite parrot

After we finished walking through the aviary and bought a souvenir at the gift shop, we went back to the ship and had lunch. The afternoon was spent in the pool.

When we got back to the cabin to get ready for the evening, we found that our Mariner tiles had arrived. Everyone gets a tile every cruise. We have so many now that I don’t bring them home any more. We also had another nice gift from the Casino.

We had an excellent dinner at Rudy’s. I had the grilled shrimp Provencale. Chuck had the grilled seafood platter with a lobster tail. We split a bottle of chianti (also complimentary from the Casino). For dessert, I had the apple tart tatin with cinnamon gelato. Chuck had Rudy’s Face to Face Chocolate and Fruit dessert.

After we finished dinner, we went to one set of the Rolling Stone Lounge band and then to the main stage to see the second show of Doc Dixon. He was very good again.

Afterwards, Chuck went to play some cards, and I was ready for some quiet time on the balcony listening to the waves.

Tomorrow – Panama Canal