The second stop of my Celebrity cruise was to Cartagena, Colombia. It was founded in 1533 and named after the port of Cartagena in Spain’s Murcia region. It was a huge center of early Spanish settlement in the Americas and continues to be a popular tourist destination. From the colonial architecture and religious monuments in Old Town to the modern metropolis buildings of New Town. Cartagena was beautiful! And let’s not forget the nice beaches. Mui bien.
It was nice to get a chance to explore the city of Cartagena. Instead of taking a taxi, we took an air conditioned tour bus for $15 per person. There were several buses waiting when we got off the ship. The tour bus took us all over Cartagena seeing the highlights of the city.
We stopped at San Felipe Fortress. This was a huge tourist attraction and folks would come at you left and right trying to sell their goods. This was the common theme in Cartagena. I didn’t want to be the typical snotty American but it got exhausting having people follow you for blocks trying to sell you something.
We also visited La Popa Monastery which is an ancient monastery located on the top of a hill that can be seen from any point in Cartagena and offers a view of the city. We shopped at Las Bovedas and Pierino Gallo Shopping center where we browsed leather, emeralds and handcrafted gifts. Also note that Colombia is the best place to buy diamonds in addition to emeralds according to several cruisers on my ship. That was the running theme. Only buy diamonds in Colombia.
Lastly on our tour, we drove through and admired the marvelous architecture of New Town. It was simply beautiful. The buildings looked so futuristic.
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2 comments
The sites are gorgeous. Looks there is a lot of culture to see there.
I think Colombia was my favorite stop of the trip. Very rich with culture.