Cartagena

Friday 16th February

This is the first time that we have arrived at a port to find that  the entrance is through a zoo……….and gift shop, of course!

Lots to see……….

All with beautiful bright colours……..

Well except for the monkeys!

Old Cartagena is a lovely walled city

With great views, especially  if you decide to walk the walls.

You can see the modern city in the distance.

But we were so enamoured with the charm of the old town that we decided to spend our day walking around this charming vibrant place.

We were again lucky with the weather, the sun was shining although the wind was a little brisk!

They call Cartagena the jewel of South America and it doesn’t  take too long wandering around to see why!

The colonial architecture is evident all around.

And the colours so bright………..

It looks like you are on a movie set rather than a working city.

These ladies add to the colourful spectacle, they wanted $5 for this photo and I only had $1 so one of the ladies hid her face from the tight Englishman!

We had time for a little shopping but Jane thought this fruit bowl was a little over the top!

Whilst Jane was in the shops I took the opportunity to take even more photos!

As you know Columbia is world famous for its coffee (amongst other things).  So we thought we would try the local brew. Although coffee has been famous here for many years, coffee bars are a relatively new thing. They take their coffee very seriously, and we were lucky enough to sit next to a Colombian English teacher who was in the bar with her boyfriend. She got the barister to explain how he was making their coffee and why he had chosen the particular method to make this specific style of coffee.  I kid you not that it took 10 minutes discussion of what bean they wanted (they chose the Santander variety) before they started making it!

I choose the house special, and I was a little perplexed when they brought out a chopping board onto which they put some leaves, set fire to them, and then held the glass over the smoke and then whilst the smoke was still percolating they poured the chilled coffee in. Well I have to say it was well worth all the palaver, this was defiantly the best coffee I have ever tasted!  Jane also enjoyed hers although I think the Baileys in it helped!

Jane is always pleased when I indulge in the local customs, although in this case, when I was tweaking this statues nipples she did find it a little embarrassing!

So after a great day in the city it was time to head back to the port, and another look at the zoo.

Where I managed to pick up a couple of birds, one of which was so keen to undress me it clearly embarrassed the lady standing behind me!

That kept these two talking!

This one reminded me of working for a great cash & carry quite a few years ago!

What a great place Cartagena was, I would definitely like to return!