So today was our first day in port, Cartagena, Columbia. For this excursion we opted for a pretty standard sightseeing tour of the Popa Monastery and the Gold Museum. We boarded a bus around 8:45 and were touring around the city until around 1pm. The monastery is the highest point in the area and offered great panoramic views of the city and the port. It is no longer a running monastery but they do still hold mass there on Sundays. On the road up to the top of the hill there are the 12 stations of the cross, each marked by a large white stone and concrete cross. The roads are very narrow so it was a bit of an interesting ride up in the bus, especially when encountering other cars. It was a very stark contrast driving up to the monastery, as there were a lot of old and rundown homes, contrasted with the exceedingly touristy areas that we were brought to initially when leaving the ship.

Our tour guide Elkin (we wore name tags around our necks with his name on them to identify our group) called us his VIP tour and offered us “10 star service”. It was helpful when we were in crowded areas with other tour groups to hear him call “Elkin’s VIP tour group over here!” He talked back the dozens of vendors who would cluster around the bus when we would get off somewhere, selling hats, t-shirts, necklaces, fans, purses and bottled water, soda and beer. There were also folks wandering about with sloths who would let you take your photo with it, for a tip, as well as ladies colorfully dressed with baskets of fruit balanced on their heads.

We were dropped off at a little tourist mall to shop at the end of the tour and we finally introduced ourselves to one of the other newlywed couples we had seen around on the ship. They live in New Mexico, he is an Air Force pilot and she is an industrial psychologist. Before dinner we sat in the Rendezvous lounge purposely at a table for four and ordered cocktails in the hope they may pass and stop by on their way to dinner, and they did, so we had a chance to chat a bit more then. But back to the shops in Cartagena, we realized we had not called the credit card company to notify them we would be making out of country purchases so Jeremy turned on his phone and made a call to them to notify them (booo to roaming charges). We then purchased a kilo of medium dark roast Colombian coffee to use ourselves and distribute as gifts.

When we returned to the ship we went up to the buffet deck and staked out a corner window, had some lunch, split a bucket of beer, played Scrabble (Jeremy and I each won one game) and watched as we departed port.

For dinner our friends John and Karen returned, raving about their dinner the night before in one of the specialty restaurants Qsine. Our dinner buddies from the previous night ended up getting seated at the table across from us (much to the surprise of one of the wives, who thought we’d be sitting with them again). Tomorrow night it’s likely they will be sat with us again, as the older couple from the first evening we haven’t seen in the dining room since, and John and Karen are eating at the Olympic.

We opted out of seeing the comedian tonight and just decided to go back to the room and read and relax.