Cartegena, Colombia was one of our destinations on our Panama Canal cruise.  We hadn't heard about it, so we did some research before we left.  The description of a 15th century Spanish town was appealing and we  looked forward to our visit.

     Our ship was scheduled to arrive in Cartegena at 7 am. We awakened just in time to look out the window and see an impressive stone fortress guarding the entrance to the channel.  The view around the next corner really surprised us.  Dozens of gleaming white high rise buildings filled the skyline and introduced us to a bustling city of over 1 million people.  Not quite the quaint Spanish village we had been expecting.

     The cruise didn't offer any accessible tours, so we decided to hire a taxi for the day.  Our friendly driver was excited to help us plan our itinerary.  Our adventure started with a trip to visit the beautiful Le Popa Monastary, which is located on a hill overlooking the city. We explored the grounds, but the interior wasn't accessible, so I shared photos of the stunning gold trimmed alter with Debi.  The 360 degree view of the city  provided a good preview of the rest of our tour.

     We experienced crazy bumper to bumper traffic on our way to the massive San Felipe de Barajas fortress, which was built during the 16th century.  A guard helped lift Debi up some stairs and we were able to explore a good portion of the impressive structure. It was hard to imagine any invader trying to conquer it.

     We continued on to visit the original walled city and enjoyed seeing the shops and restaurants amidst the beautiful colonial Spanish architecture. It was striking to see the old buildings right across the street from modern buildings.  Colombia is known for it's beautiful emeralds and Debi wanted to buy one. Our driver took us to a highly regarded jewelry store. Unfortunately it was on the second floor of the mall and there were no elevators.  Our driver asked a street vendor to assist us and we carried Debi up the steps to the store, where she found the perfect emerald. We then bought a beautiful  shell bracelet from the helpful vendor.  We talked baseball with our driver as he drove us past the high rise hotels and beautiful beach.   It was sad to say goodbye to our new friend when we returned to the ship.