Our excursion started on a large and comfortably air conditioned bus.
We immediately noticed that the city seemed a bit unwelcoming. Every building was surrounded by a fence which was either spiked or topped with razor wire. Many of the buildings had the low cost security option of broken glass bottles set upside down in cement. If you look hard, you can see the broken glass bottles atop the yellow wall in the picture below. This is actually much more disturbing when seen in person.
This is a picture of a hotel in Cartagena.
We drove up a long and winding road lined every 1/4 mile or so with armed guards. Our goal was La Popa Convent, at the top of the hill. We were all hoping that the armed guards were there to protect the nuns... until we found out that there were no nuns in residence. La Popa was strictly a tourist site.
We had a surprise waiting for us when we arrived at La Popa. As soon as we arrived and stepped off the bus we were accosted by hawkers shoving hats, t-shirts, a small donkey(!) and other assorted goods at us. We were absolutely not prepared to run this gauntlet to reach our destination. One man actually started to put a hat on Sweet Pea's head until I shouted at him, "No! No!" He looked surprised, but did not purse his hat placement. We hurried across the parking lot and through the gates of the monastery, where thankfully, the native hoards of salespeople weren't allowed.
The convent very high up and had a beautiful view of Cartagena, however, our tour guide, who I will call "Vinny", wouldn't let us near the overlook. He herded us back into a shady corner by the building and lectured for 20 minutes on the Spanish conquest of the New World, which was moderately interesting. We learned that Cartagena, founded in 1533, is one of the oldest cities in the New World. The location was chosen because it sits behind a bay that is so shallow the large ships of pirates and other enemies could not cross it.
When some of our tour group tried to wander towards the overlook or started chatting amongst themselves, Vinny would sternly rebuke them, "Stay here. Listen to me. This is important!", he would shout. He was by far, the most strict tour guide I've ever had. At first we thought this corralling of the tourists was maybe for our safety, but we soon came to realize that this was incorrect; it was just because Vinny was a jerk.
When he finally did let us move to the ledge, we got to see a spectacular view of the bay and the city.
However, he only let us stay for a couple of minutes before leading us quickly into the convent.
We entered a beautiful courtyard and got another lecture.
We entered a chapel and got another long lecture.
We made our way back through the crowd of hawkers to reboard the bus.
We only stopped for 2 minutes at one of Cartagena's famous forts for a quick photo. Mimi, Poppy, Sweet Pea and Ross stayed on the bus, while I ran out to take a picture. The area was thick with street vendors and I accidentally almost dumped over a tray of jewelry that a man was trying to sell me because he wouldn't step out of my way.
We drove by a statue of Princess Catalina who has a story similar to Pocahontas. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Catalina)
Then our guide stopped the bus, made us get out and marched us a mile through dirty streets filled with more hawkers. He stopped in a park and made us watch a bunch of boys dance, who then asked us for money. Our excursion was only supposed to last 3 hours, and we were supposed to be back to the boat by lunchtime, which we were rapidly approaching.
We walked through cobblestone streets until we arrived at the Gold Museum. Our entire tour group crowded into a tiny room and tried to listen to our guide tell us about how native people had created beautiful gold works of art. They first used wax to carve a figure, then covered it in mud / clay until that had hardened into a mold of sorts. Then they poured hot melted gold into the mud / clay mold which caused the wax to melt and run out. When the gold had set, the mold could be be broken away to reveal the gold figure. There were so many people packed into the room, it was hard to see all of the pieces. However the pieces that we could see were amazing in their intricate detail. It is hard to image that someone was able to create such fine filigree work without modern tools.
We were herded into another room and then quickly back out of the museum. It was a very interesting spot and I was sorry we did not spend more time there. Later, another passenger told us that the museum had other rooms and even an upstairs that we weren't shown.
Finally. Finally it was time to go. We arrived back at the port, but were held captive on the bus for another 20-30 minutes before they finally let us off and we were able to rebound our cruise ship. There was nothing open for lunch except the buffet, which was packed. It was so busy, a cruise employee was stationed at the door telling people there were no tables available. We had a quick lunch and then Mimi, Poppy and Ross needed a nap. I took Sweet Pea to the kids club and played a round of trivia as we sailed away.
So long, Cartagena!
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