Jett and I visited Cartagena in 2018 on our first – and last – transatlantic cruise. It was aborted when Jett developed a critically low hemoglobin issue which forced us off the ship and landed Jett in the hospital. It was not a happy introduction to Cartagena. But with Jett in the hospital for 4 days I had time to explore the city. I liked it and was looking forward to sharing it with Marlene.
The Miracle docked early in the morning and passengers were let off around 8 am. The “back on board” deadline was 3:30 pm so it was a relatively short port day.
It was even shorter for us as we had a leisurely breakfast with 3 women who joined me at the table where I was blogging – Belinda, Karen and Regina. Marlene joined later. We had a lively chat and when Marlene and I excused ourselves to go ashore Regina asked if she could join us. Of course, we said. And off we three went.
The path from the pier to the town was lined with vendors of crafts and we had to inspect them all. And there were souvenir shops in the city. Also a museum that looked interesting and was inexpensive – 1 euro for a tour – but the tour didn’t start for an hour. We couldn’t wait so we continued on, up the hill to the fortress at the top. The entry fee there was 7 euros and we passed on that too. We walked down to the top of the Roman theater, getting photos of peacocks on the way. Then back down to the city to do a little more shopping, then back to the ship.
We had dinner with Sue, Mary, Steve, Angie and Lynette. Sue was doing the last *6* back-to-back cruises and had been on the ship so long that crew members were referring to her as the “Mayor of the Miracle.” Interesting dinner.
After dinner we visited the casino. I continued to lose, down $200. Marlene continued to win. She also continued to beat me at cards after we left the casino. Another 2 games for her, none for me.
We logged over 10,000 steps today. Got our exercise.