A message to all: We are still experiencing difficulties with the posting of the photos. It has been most disappointing for us to be sending these pictures, only to find out that six get posted. It has been investigated, but have no solution to fixing it soon. Still, we are trying…….
Colombia, our first port of call on this voyage, is located in South America. The capital is Bogota and the language is Spanish. The population of the country in 2012 was 45,700,000.
Cartagena is considered the most romantic colonial city with a population of 616,230 people. The currency is the Colombian peso, but they will accept US dollars and credit cards…no problem.
One of their favorite foods is corncakes with cheese and pork, while their most famous beverage is coffee. Although you see Juan Valdez plastered everywhere, he never did exist. Only the name did, and has sold the product worldwide. As well as coffee, the country produces platinum, timber, and emeralds. The emeralds can be the best quality and more expensive than diamonds, we have been told. We were also reminded by our very own onboard shop manager to be extremely careful when purchasing emeralds here, as they may not be authentic. Already knew that.
A random fact is that Colombia is also known for lost cities, football, Shakira - the singer, and cocaine. The reference book said this, not us.
And we were not alone this morning as the newest ship in the NCL fleet, Norwegian Bliss, was in port. Sure made us look small in comparison. We heard later from a crew member that this ship is on her maiden voyage, re-positioning to Alaska for the summer season. She left for this cruise on April 18th, and sure had a wonderful welcome by the locals. First time ever in this port, we saw a band with dancers and 2 fellows on stilts performing on the pier. The guests numbered over 4000 we heard. And thanks to a Cruise Critic reader, we understand that this ship has a go cart track, as well as the thrilling covered slide tube you see on these mega-ships. Bet there is much more that we don’t see. One thing we did notice was that there were two gangways set up with the Bliss. However, we did not hear one person say they would prefer to be on that ship when we sailed out of the harbor. According to the crew member, they should be one hour behind us as we sail towards the Panama Canal.
The Amsterdam was docked and cleared by 8am, not 7am as planned. There were some tours here today – mostly city excursions from 2 ½ to 4 hours. The cost ran from $60 to $90. Since all aboard was 12:30pm, most folks stayed close to the ship. That included us.
The dining room was fairly empty this morning, because those with tours went to the Lido. So the service was excellent, giving the waiters a chance to visit a bit longer, since they had few customers. We went off for the short walk to the terminal after 10am. Took some good photos of the Bliss, then made or way to the “bird zoo” at the small store and café. It seems that there were twice as many birds here compared to last year. They had free-roaming flamingoes, swans, geese, and peacocks at the entry. But there were also so many passengers with two ships in port. It was a squeeze just getting into the store today.
Instead of the piles of souvenirs we always saw in this shop, more counters are set up with the high-end jewelry. The fun stuff is on the outside walls where we did find one pink and black jewelry set made from gourds, and a bag of coffee candies. For sure, we thought these would have sold out today. Nope, they were prepared.
Out the back door, we walked into the garden of the birds, monkeys, and now a pair of anteaters, we think. The birds were numerous today, but only a few little tiny monkeys were present. Normally the howler monkeys are here, but we noticed that one of their favorite foods, the mangoes, were still very green in the trees. In their place in the trees, were a lot of peacocks. They seem to have done well, as we personally know.
When we come upon the new enclosure with a small house, we saw some unusual creatures curled up together in the shelter. Big and furry, they looked like badgers with long fuzzy tails. They never moved, and we couldn’t blame them because it was so darn hot and humid. We found out later that this pair were anteaters or termite eaters, and they were friendly to boot. Brook had found them when they were awake, and actually petted each of them. Their mouths were tiny, but they had very long skinny tongues. While she was petting one of them, the mate was busy licking her friend’s foot as she was wearing sandals. Oh they are brave…..
After taking a bunch of pictures, we decided to go back onboard to drink a gallon of water. Sail away was at 12:30pm, so we headed to the aft pool to take more pictures. The rain never did fall, but it sure felt like it would any moment. On our way across deck nine, we found that the pickle ball court has been taken apart. The netting has been taken off, and bagged for disposal. Something will be done with the surface of the court, since it was trashed even on the world cruise.
Looking over on the dock side, we expected to see long lines of passengers boarding the huge ship, the Bliss. Nope. The long line belonged to our ship with several bus-loads of folks coming back from tours and the terminal. That was a surprise.
Once again, Brook joined us for the sailing out of the harbor. She invited us to dinner in the Sel de Mer with her and Captain Fred on Corinto evening. As we were already booked for a table that night, we were happy to accept their invite.
Lunch was from the Dive In Grill again. More of a wait today, however, because people were dining later after the sail out of the harbor.
We caught the last half of Joel’s piano concert in the Ocean Bar. He is attracting a bigger crowd every day. He’s got our vote.
The dining room was half empty tonight at 8pm. Guess the heat of the day got to many people. One of the entrees was a breaded pork chop, so we had to try it. It went well with the appetizer size portion of the lasagna. Small desserts of ice cream and an apple strudel finished our meal. And to make the day special, a nice menu with flowers on it said, Happy Mother’s Day on it, in color.
The dancers and singers of the Amsterdam performed “Dance”, a show featuring Latin, Spanish, and Russian dance. We do know the first performance at 8pm had to be crowded, as the folks begin arriving well before 7pm to wait for the start of the show.
Looking forward to going through the Panama Canal tomorrow, even if we just did it in January. Always thrilling.
Bill & Mary Ann
The Bay of Cartagena
Special for them & us too
Vine-covered arbor
Pair of swans
A diet rich in shrimp may deepen the color
Yes, I am pretty