Back to Cartagena, Colombia

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We were last here in 2008. There has been a whole lot of highrise construction since then! As we had been here before and had a very comprehensive tour and today's port stop was only 6 hours long, we decided to do something different here. We booked a 90-minute Segway tour of the Historic Old Town. It was a good choice. Once again we were the first ship of the season to arrive here and we got another private tour. The only low point of the day was that we had scheduled a port pickup and return. We arrived early to be sure we could find the pick up point only to be abandoned. Needless to say we were fending off an army of taxis and tour guides while we waited futilely. Clay finally was able to call on his cellphone and the operator, Cesar said he expected us at 1pm but we had no pick up scheduled. Finally between one of the guides who'd been tailing us and Cesar on Clay's phone and a random taxi that appeared we got a ride. The original pick up we'd arranged was $15 per couple in each direction. The taxi drivers were all asking $10 each way, including the one we used. When it was time to pay on our return the price had doubled to $20 each way. When we arrived at the Segway office, Cesar asked to see the emails I had printed out and brought to follow instructions, as Billy the guide had told him about it. Cesar was truly contrite and apologetic and though we were annoyed and hot and bothered we carried on and Cesar took $30 off our $70pp price. So fair enough. What else could we do? The private tour was very nice and their maximum tour size is 10 people. Cesar had a nice pace with lots of stops to get off and hear about what we're seeing. He would have included an inside visit of a church but it was currently closed. It was quieter in Old Town than during our last visit but Cesar assured me it would return to what I remember once tourist season picks up. It was a good day. It was actually too sunny today! It was the first day since Vancouver that we didn't bring some rain. But with all the breaks Cesar had a shady spot with a breeze planned out so it was pleasant.

Everyone was back onboard early and the Captain got the pilot aboard early and we sailed about 30 minutes early. He announced that we would be skirting within 100 nautical miles of tropical depression #16 and we would feel it and should take care tonight and tomorrow. He feels he can avoid the worst of it and promised to keep us posted as to what he would do to avoid it. Tomorrow is a sea day. The next day is our Key West replacement port of Georgetown, Grand Cayman. It is a tender port that we have visited before. So if it winds up being missed we won't mind as we learned about the port replacement after boarding Regatta and have no firm plans made. I'll keep you posted.

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