See all our photos from Cartagena, Columbia.
Cartagena is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Considered by many as one of the world’s most beautiful, fascinating and magical cities, Cartagena was founded by Spanish conquerors as a main port to bring Europeans and their goods into South America, and transport gold, silver and all sorts of plants, animals, minerals and handicrafts from all over the continent across the Caribbean and on to the Old World.
Today we took a taxi from the cruise port to Old Town. But as we left the pier, the path led us through a really neat tropical bird “sanctuary”.
We hired a local taxi to drive us to the Old Town. The drive was not through a great area so we are glad we didn’t choose to try to walk or take a local bus. We were dropped off just outside of the old walled city near the Christmas and New Year’s decorations that were still up.
We entered Old Town and just strolled around looking at all beautiful buildings and sites.
While in Old Town, we ran across Colonel Sanders outside of a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
After our Old Town stroll, we hired a local guide and taxi driver to give us a short tour around the area before dropping us back at the port. We saw the famous Umbrella street and Flower Streets in a nearby neighborhood, the old bull arena, now an upscale shopping mall, and New Cartagena’s skyline along with our ship across the harbor.
On the way back to the ship, we passed Castillo de San Feilipe De Barajas. We were planning on visiting but it was so hot and time was starting to run short so we just did a drive by. We heard from others is was quite a hike up to the inside.
Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas: The entire Old Town is one giant fortress with still more fortifications outside its gates. The most notable exterior fortress is the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, which was first called for in 1533. Construction started in 1639, and it took 150 years to complete. When it was finished, the fortress proved completely impregnable, to the chagrin of various marauding hordes. You’ll have fun roving the battlements and exploring the warren of underground tunnels, which were designed to amplify the faintest footfall so that enemies could not creep through.
Once back at the port, we cleared security and once again found ourselves in the bird sanctuary. We took a few more pictures and reboarded the Coral Princess, having enjoyed our first visit to Colombia.
