Thursday Jan 11, 2024
Hi Gang! We had another hot day in Cartagena so we took an excursion with four other passengers into the hills outside the city where it was slightly cooler (and didn’t have all the street vendors bugging you!). But it was still hot!
Since today was our “transition day” (the first leg of our cruise ended and now the next leg begins) we had to get up early and do some paperwork to get new room keys. Luckily we kept the same room so no moving of our clothes and stuff. It was weird seeing all the people with their luggage all ready to disembark and head to the airport. But not us! YAY!
Right outside the ship a nice air conditioned bus was waiting for us and drove us about 30 minutes to this cute little town called Turbaco. When we got there this young girl dressed in a traditional colorful dress explained the history of the town in a sort of a comedic play. We then walked to the town museum and learned more about the relics found there thousands of years ago. We also got to visit someone’s house where they gave us a taste of traditional cookies and a sweet lemon flavored drink.
After visiting the town we drove to the Botanical Garden of Cartagena. The trees there were massive and there was lots of flora and fauna. They had several Howler Monkeys there but we did not see them but we surely heard them. They howl very loudly so we thought we were out in the jungle!
After our excursion, we stopped by the free animal park at the port and saw monkeys, peacocks and even anteaters! We then boarded the ship and had lunch and did what we did yesterday, took a nap since we were drained by the heat!
We had dinner in the French restaurant Fil Rouge and Kathy had the lobster (of course!) and I had the Dover Sole (what, no lobster?? Lol).
After dinner we did our evening routine of watching the show, pulling some slots and listening to our favorite piano player that we were happy to find out is still on this leg of the journey. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
The Wandering Italian 