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Cartagena, Colombia

Happy Easter! Paul and I got our first footsteps in South America in our Easter baskets this morning!

Today we got to explore Cartagena, Colombia. Actually, it has a longer full name: Cartagena de Indias We took one of the cruise ship tours as we were only in port for a few hours and we wanted to see as much as we could in that time. We started the morning at the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. This is a huge Spanish-built fortress built in the 1500s and 1600s. It is quite impressive.

We were taken to Las Bóvedas, which historically were used as dungeons but now are shops. While most of the group was shopping, Paul and I walked out to the original city walls. These are known as las Murallas and were built to protect the city after it had been attacked. The fortress and the city walls are very similar to those in San Jose, Puerto Rico, which I suppose shouldn’t be surprising given their similar historical timeframes.

From there we were taken to the Palacio de la Inquisicion which is a museum about the Spanish Inquisition in Colombia. Nothing quite like rooms full of replicas of torture devices.

We also were taken on a walk through the old city, El Centro, to the main cathedral in Cartagena. Seeing as today was Easter, they were having an Easter mass.

It was a whirlwind as we had to be back at the ship shortly after lunchtime. It was hot and muggy in Cartagena…it probably would not have been an issue had we been coming here from an Oklahoma summer, but 90 degrees with 90+% humidity was significant seeing as it was cold when we left home.

We enjoyed our time in Cartagena and I’m sure there’s plenty more to do and see there.

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