Day 13

Friday, Oct. 7

I woke up about 6:00 this morning, got up and had my shower, and then went out on the deck to watch us enter the port of Cartegena, Columbia.  On our side of the ship, it didn’t look very spectacular until we were in fairly close.  Then we began to see some container cranes and what looked like some heavy industry.  The sky was fairly overcast, but I think it was from the moisture and humidity.  Then, we took a sharp left turn, and the city started coming into view from our side.  The skyline was quite spectacular, very much like Vancouver, except most of the high rises were white.

We docked at a pier, and watching that was very impressive.  The ship was heading straight in, and then they reversed and backed in.  I guess this is a lesson in how one parallel parks a 1000 foot long ship.  Once the gangways were in place, people started getting off the ship.  There were many tour buses lined up on the pier.  We could see our tour number among them, so I was a bit concerned that they had changed the time of our tour.  However, not to worry, we still didn’t get have to meet until 9:30 for a 10:00 tour.

I had again ordered room service and it showed up right on time at 7:30.  Unfortunately, I forgot to order the salt and pepper, so the egg “McMuffins” weren’t the best, but it did save us from having to go up to the buffet for breakfast.

Our tour was of the city, the old fort, the old city, and some artisan shopping.  We boarded the bus and met our tour guide, Niba, and our driver, Jose Jose.  Niba tried to speak to us in Spanish, but realized that none of us understood her, so she changed over to English.  She said she didn’t speak it well, but she was great – had a Spanish accent, but spoke very clear English.  She gave us lots of pointers and pointed out many sites of interest, giving us a great deal of the history of this large city (1.2 million).  Again, we took tons of pictures so there are lots to show when we get home.

It was very hot and humid, and everywhere we went, we were quite uncomfortable.  We did stop a couple times and the street vendors were terrible.  They were very pushy, and “in your face”.  We had to continually tell them “no thanks”.

This felt like the hottest day we had seen, but the temperature wasn’t as high as we have had.  It was 83 F, but with the humidity, it seemed quite a bit hotter.  By the time we returned to the ship, it was a blessing and we were happy to get into the air conditioning of our stateroom.

By 1:50, we cast off and headed back out to sea.  Again, the harbour provided spectacular views, and this time we were on the right side of the ship to take it all in.  We were able to get many more photos while leaving.  I hope they do justice to the place, which was quite beautiful.  However, it was the first place they warned us about drugs and the penalties for buying and/or bringing them on board.

Anyhow, we were off on our way to Aruba for tomorrow afternoon.  About an hour and a half after leaving Cartegena, we could see a squall off in the distance.  There was an amazing water spout coming down out of the clouds.  I noticed it after I had felt the ship turn, and now I wonder if we turned to ensure we didn’t go into it.  The spout was very large, clearly coming down from the clouds and it looked like it was hitting the water.  The funnel cloud was clearly defined, but I had taken the camera into the stateroom quite a bit earlier and due to the temperature difference inside and out, it fogs up for a long time with the condensation that forms on the lens.  To make a long story short, I didn’t get any photos, but if I had, and they had turned out, they would have been a spectacular sight.

About 15 minutes of the waterspout, and then it broke up.  At this time, we were about even with it.  We could see a rain squall coming, and when it hit, it was amazing.  Even from our level (deck 12), we could hear the rain hitting the ocean.  It just poured!!  The temperature went down a bit, but nothing too big.  Then it was almost dark and time for supper so off we went.

There was an announcement asking for some medical help.  Someone was in big trouble and they needed anyone with O type blood who had their medical card and who has donated blood recently and who would volunteer to donate to come to the main desk.  I have type O blood, but don’t have a record card showing it, and haven’t donated in a very long time, so I didn’t go.  I do feel somewhat guilty, but there isn’t much I can do about it.

After supper, we went to the theatre to watch a comedian.  He began about 8:20 and went until about 9:30.  He was pretty funny, and we did a lot of laughing.  They once again asked for blood donors.  I should go down and see if they still need it, but I likely won’t.