Colombia

April 28

Colon: we booked a shore excursion to Panama City based on the recommendation of the ship. We asked for a tour where we could see something of the city and have some free time to explore the city on our own. Based on that they suggested, we booked a city tour with 3 hours at a mall, where they suggested we walk around the city instead of hanging out at the mall.

Unfortunately, it turned out there was no tour of Panama City; instead they talked about the Canal locks and showed us some crafts.then, at the mall, we tried to walk around to seethe city, but the locations. The mall was such that you couldn’t really walk around because the area was surrounded by highways and uncrossable busy roads. As such, as soon as we returned we request a refund, which has now been processed to our account (and we were not the only ones who complained, apparently).

We were, therefore, disappointed with the port. Most people seemed to have taken a tour of the locks, which we felt we’d seen with the talks and the Canal crossing. Otherwise, there was a “port” area that was safe, but you could not venture safely within the city.

April 29

We spent today in Cartagena, having booked a “hop-on-hop-off” bus tour, which was the only way to see the San Felipe de Barajas fortress that had been recommended to us. The bus included a 90 minute tour of the “old town” area, which we enjoyed and then we spent a couple of hours at the fortress (the next stop). There was an audio tour that was very comprehensive. It was very hot (ok the guide from the bus company said it was only “hot”, not “VERY hot” - they only have those two temperatures and today did not reach “very hot” . With the humidity it was plenty hot enough for us, so we had a good flavour of the fortress, without listening to every audio presentation. And we caught the bus in time to complete the round circuit and hear the bus audio and see the rest of the bus stops in the city before returning to the ship by 3pm.

We really liked Cartagena. It’s a beautiful city, very clean and,apparently, safe. We would definitely recommend it as a destination. We only had about 6 hours and wished we had a couple of days, at least.

I took a ton of picks, but here are a few.

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April 30

Another relaxing day at sea. We set the clocks forward again last night and then slept until after 8am. Incredibly lazy . The ice cream was really good today - sugar-free cherry-vanilla and there was a chocolate fountain - so a new meaning to liquid lunch.

This afternoon we played a San Juan (a card game) with one of the couples from our dinner table and had a good time.

And on the final “evening chic” (there are no longer formal-wear dinners), there was lobster on the dinner menu, so Steve was really happy.

Tomorrow is the last day of the cruise - another lazy day at sea, so no blog until we’re home - and we fly home on Wednesday - back to work on Thursday.

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