Cartagena and Panama Canal

Tuesday 17

Wow, wow, wow.

What an amazing place.

As we woke this morning we were cruising the bay into the Port of Cartagena, Columbia.

A great view of high rise buildings, small coves, old fort battlements and finally the container port where we are docking.

Cartagena was the victim of 5 sieges during the 16th century, the most famous being led by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. Spain built a wall around the city (50 foot thick), completed in 1686 at the cost of 59 million ounces of gold. When England attacked again in 1741 with 24,000 men and 186 ships, Cartagena was successfully defended.

Much of the original walls are still in place and the city inside the walls still original. Its a beautiful, quaint, bustling place, with much to explore. Unfortunately we are only here for 5 hours. We could easily have spent more time poking around inside the walls of the city.

We started off with a bus tour and then spent time within the city. Colourful old buildings with flowers draping the windowsills, narrow streets, vendors selling wares of all types, stores and coffee shops. A stop at a cafe for some Columbian Coffee and cold drinks for the kids was quite the experience. (Jo – and the best coffee I’ve ever had!) Then back to the ship for a swim and lunch before departure. We were moored beside the Niew Amsterdam and as we departed both our ship and the other competed with horn sounding. Kids thought it was great.

We even found some fabric shops but only had time for a quick look inside as we were on our way back to the ship.

(T- the coffee was delicious (jo has only just started to drink coffee)

(T- the street vendors were much more polite than I thought and would sell you a cold bottle of water straight from a foam esky with more holes than the titanic

Jo here (I’ve taken over)…

Cartagena (pronounced car-ta-hey-na) was a beautiful city. And the coffee was just divine, even if it did cost Tristram a years salary to have one ($43,000). (P- It was actually Pesos conversion rate bought it back to about $16.00 USD). Riding through town on the bus to the old walled city we were a little astounded by the powerlines draped across roadways which frequently hit the top of the bus or poked in the windows. The tops of buildings lined with razor wire or broken glass bottles as protection. As we arrived at the old walled city there was a large group of police at the clock tower gate that Hugh was fascinated by, I think it was the large machine guns they were toting that piqued his interest. We were all fascinated by Cartagena and it was sad to have to get back on the ship and depart so early.

The following day brought us to the Panama Canal. An early morning for everyone as we were entering the breakwater just before dawn. The captain had opened up the bow of the boat so that we could look out and watch the lock gate open and close and the workings of the canal. The history of the building of the canal was very interesting. The canal is 104 years old this year, yet the technology used to manage the locks 100 years ago is the same now as it was then. After going through three lock gates we reached Gatun Lake (a large man made lake at the top of the canal).

From Gatun Lake we got on the tenders to go on shore and take our tour to an Embera Indian village. A little over an hour of bus travel through Panama (Colon to Chilibre and then on to the village of Parara Puru). Once there we took a dug-out canoe to the village where we were greeted by the chief and told a little about the village way of life and how it has changed over the last 20 years including how they have changed some of their traditional practices due to the Panamanian government making their area into a national park prohibiting them from hunting and fishing. We were treated to a meal of fried plantain and tilapia.

Claire:

In Cartagena the power lines were everywhere. If I stuck my hand out the bus window I would have been electrocuted! Ma was scared and nearly sat on Pa’s knee in the bus. I was sick while we were in Cartegena because of the heat and humidity. Mum and I got off the bus on our own and walked through the walled city and met the others on the other side. Dad brought a coffee shop in the Old Walled City for $43,000.

I saw the Panama Canal. We went through some of the Canal. We went to see a little native Indian village. We took a bus ride through Panama to get there. Then we got on a dug out canoe to get to the village.

(P- it’s been a couple of busy days Cartagena was fascinating as covered above! The Vendors selling their wares were almost in plague proportion but a polite “no thankyou” from us was responded with “have a pleasant day “ or similar, they were so polite, well dressed and just trying to earn a living.

EAST TO WEST AND EAST AGAIN IN A DAY

Another “big tick” off the bucket list as we traverse the Panama Canal one of the “Worlds modern wonders” and as expected from me if it is engineering related it’s a must see and explore! The first 2 locks were on board our cruise ship the “Zuiderdam”. 2’ (600mm) clearance on each side and 16’ (5m) forward/aft required and displayed some precision manoeuvring . Once in Gatun Lake Judith and I (well I with Judith tagging along) chose to travel the rest of the Ditch to the Pacific Ocean on a much smaller vessel, the day ( as we were warned was quite long and tedious) was fascinating and interesting. Dredges, Pilot boats, Tugs, Canal Police boats and Pleasure craft intertwined with Huge Freighter and Cruise Boats.

Our small transit vessel had to share the Locks with 2 private yachts and a fuel tanker. It is an amazing and somewhat daunting experience to have the bow a huge freighter towering above us in the locks! A 33’ ( 10m ) drop or raise at each lock takes 26,000,000 gallons of water and the raise or lower process takes around 8 minutes! After the locks we cruised to Panama City Marina area – Wow was there some flash pleasure vessels in this Tax haven!

As with all Central American countries there is Security Bars on almost all buildings. We drove thru some areas of extreme poverty, contrasted with areas of opulence in Panama City. We returned by coach to Colon to meet with our cruise ship. In Colon cruise passengers are restricted to a small shopping area security fenced off by the port. Driving thru the city (known for its crime and poverty) we could understand the restrictions imposed on us!

The Canal Transit was a long day but fascinating!

I have a feeling there will be a “payback” shopping trip or two for Judith to balance out the patience she had on the transit!