Cartagena was our first stop after two days at sea. One of the oldest cities in the western hemisphere with about 1.5 million people. Since we’ve never been here before we decided to take a ship’s tour passing through the old city to the la Popa Augustinian monastery.

Instead of taking a tour we got off the ship and walked into the town. There are many of the old Victorian houses no converted to bed and breakfasts, all with beautiful gardens. In fact it almost looks like there is a garden competition with each garden trying to outdo the next.

We entered into a beautiful central courtyard filled with flowering plants and a church with the entire altar area covered in gold leaf. The monestary, atop the highest hill in the area offers panoramic view of the city. Before going to la Popa we stopped at the fortress of San Felipe, the largest Spanish fortress in the new world.

After the monastery we went down to the old city and a stop for cold drinks and a folkloric presentation – music and dance. After that we went to the old city. We found an interesting plaza filled with contemporary metal sculptures and another with the typical monuments and cannon but with people made up to look like statues. After walking around the old city for a while we got back on the bus and then back to the ship.

On the way back we looked in on a shop that specialized in blue pearls. They are produced by inplanting an object in an oyster shell which produces a irridescent blue pearl. We'd never actually seen one before.