Cartagena, Columbia was founded in 1533 by the Spanish. The Spanish discovered that the interior of Columbia was rich in Gold and Emeralds. These riches used the port of Cartagena to be shipped back to Spain. To fend off attack the city was protected by a wall, and the streets were made narrow and crooked. When completed the wall (50ft thick) had cost Spain 59 million ounces of gold to build. The treasure that flowed out of the area soon attracted the pirates of the high seas.
It was this walled city that we toured in the heat and high humidity. The start of our tour was in and air conditioned bus which was great we got out an number of times but we were glad to get back in after about 15 minutes. The tour wrapped up with about and hour walking in the old walled city to see the narrow cobble stone streets which were as they were in past history. There was a visit to the Gold museum and of course to a jewellery store that sold Emeralds. Never have we seen so many street peddlers and they would not take no for an answer. They mainly sold hats, watches, sunglasses and bead necklace. I was wearing a hat, sunglasses and a watch, I guess they felt I needed a spare of each! The town was very interesting but the poverty and traffic was unreal.
We were back to the ship about 3pm. It was time to have a shower and a change of cloths, a cool one and put up the feet. The heat had taken it's toll we did not get down to the Stardust Theatre to take in the show. Early to bed as tomorrow we will be getting up early to see the entrance and passage thru the Panama Canal.
No comments:
Post a Comment