Cliff hurt his back in NY (must be from me walking all over him) so he spent his day in Curacao resting in our cabin while I went out to do some window shopping. Willemstad looks pretty, but away from the tourist areas it's not quite as pretty & there appears to be very little to do & it's extremely expensive, but the locals are very friendly.
Close to shore the colour of the water is absolutely beautiful
And cute little monkeys
There were many eager tour operators trying to secure our business, one man approached us to go on a private tour in his taxi - with Cartagena being the 10th biggest kidnapping city in the world I was too scared for us to go alone, so we opted to do a small tour bus with other passengers from the Sea Princes. "Marlon" our guide was extremely informative - a little hard to understand but very keen to try to please us.
You could probably spend 3 days exploring this city - our very quick tour included the 17th century Santa Cruz monestery on La Popa Hill with a hazy view of the city & suburbs
The Castillo de San Felipe fortress which was built in 1657 by the Spanish. The fort was built for protection from pirates for the gold the Spanish stole from the local indians. It would have been great to see inside the fortress but we would have needed at least 1 hour, time we didn't have.
the old walled city, it would have been great to have been able to spend a few hours wandering the streets.
Our next stop is the port of Manta, Ecuador - not sure what to expect so I guess we will just have to wait & see.
After wandering for a couple of hours I needed a rest so I sat quietly enjoying a frozen mojito slurpie mmm mmmm very refreshing.
Audrey & Patricia (our dinner companions) were passing by & joined me for a mojito or two (or three!)
Tomorrow at sea & then next stop
COLUMBIA - THE CITY OF CARTAGENA
This was not what we were expecting to see - a massive city of highrise buildings. I think maybe I had watched "Romancing the Stone" too many times & imagined a very old city.
It was only a short stay from 7am-1:30pm & as we hadn't booked any tours we were unsure what to do. Cliffs back was still playing up so we couldn't do a lot of walking. As we left the cruise terminal we entered a bird park full of exotic birds.
We visited the brightly coloured shops in the old soldiers quarters
Oh my goodness - what an unusual sculpture
A local women carrying fruit on her head - I thought she was selling fruit but she was actually there for photographs.
we enjoyed our brief stop in Cartagena.
PANAMA CANAL
Nessie - far from home & the wrong kind of loch
Check out the size of this crane "Titan" was it's name, let me tell you the small crane was pretty big, this crane was enormous.
how incredible is this lock system.
Looks like we're almost home - made me feel homesick but sadly not our Harbour Bridge.
Panama is an amazing looking city - we can't understand why this is not a port stop for cruise ships.
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