Well, it was an absolutely gorgeous day in Cartagena, Columbia. Cartagena is 100 miles north of the equator, and so the weather today was a balmy 87°. We are in what they call the tropical dry season, as opposed to the only other season they have, which is called tropical wet.
As one would expect, Michael went off to a rum and chocolate tasting today, and had a great time. The tour bus took his group into the heart of the old city where they walked around some narrow, picturesque streets, and managed to lose two participants. Michael has his ways, and managed to find them even when the tour guide couldn’t.
The rum tasting was just great. They tasted a total of five different rums. The first was paired with sweet peppers, the second with cheese, and the third, fourth and fifth with different kinds of chocolate. Each was better than the last. They next went to the rum salesroom where people had a chance to purchase their favorite. They even gave everybody a free bottle of rum.
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They From here they had a quick tour of the historic fortress, and then a ride back to the ship. Unfortunately, they don’t take you directly back to the ship here. They drop you off at an aviary, where you must walk through and visit all the birds (which were quite spectacular), and then walk about a mile to the ship.
Today I learned a very valuable lesson: read the tour description. Little did I know that the requested beach excursion was going to leave at 7 AM in the morning. That’s the middle of the night for me. So it’s 6 o’clock and I laid there wondering if I should do it or not. Since I’m not a quitter, I decided I had to go and so I went, and I was sorry I went.
The group boarded two small boats and getting onto the boat was the first clue that this was not going to be a good day. We had to take our shoes off and then climb on the gunnel and hang onto a railing and hope that we didn’t fall either out or in. Many of the people are elderly, and most of us have some sort of physical slowing. So off we went and drove by the fortress, which is pictured above, and then proceeded to have a one hour choppy ride out to a group of 27 islands that compromise the Rosario Islands marine preserve national park. As escort, I have a list of stops to be made, and in what order, and the people running the excursion observed none of it.
They took us to a place for snorkeling, and you could not see more than 5 feet down which means it’s not a good place to snorkel. A couple of people got in the water and said no way, so they moved the boat. I like to snorkel, but given a lack of a safe and efficient way of getting back onto the boat, I chose not to go, as most of the others chose not to go as well. Then we stopped by a shack for local treats. This shack had rotten floorboards and getting on and off the boat again was a real challenge. People were not happy and started to complain. When are we going to get to the beach? After I encouraged the excursion people to leave we went to an another island to have brunch and then go to the beach. Brunch was local foods, lots of fruit and stuff I had no idea what that was. Since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, I ate quickly and headed down to the beach. That was the goal of the whole idea of the outing – – the beach. And what a disappointment it was — it was a really crummy beach and the water was real murky. But being so darn hot, I jumped in the water anyway.
We only had a short time at the beach and then we had to head back to Cartagena. And the water was even bumpier and the skipper had no idea how to drive a boat. Drawing upon my own experience as a boat owner and driver, I told him what to do so we could get a better ride. And to add insult to injury, I was going to wait for the shuttle back to the ship but it was so darn hot in the sun and I didn’t know how long it would take for the shuttle to show up and they said it was not a very far walk, I decided I would walk it. Oh, what a mistake that was. It was a lot farther than a short walk, and in the heat carrying bags and wet towels, I slowly ambled to the ship. And wouldn’t you know it, the shuttle arrived and dropped everyone off at the door while I’m still walking. 🤣🤪😢 In any event, we were beaten up pretty bad and tonight I am absolutely exhausted and can’t wait to get in bed and take some pain pills.
Tomorrow, Michael has another nine hour long tour and I am going to stay on the boat and float in the pool.