Cartagena! Or, as we've heard it called repeatedly on the ship: Carta-GINA. :/

We made it to the beautiful port of Cartagena today.  This is a new port for us, AND we've never been to South America so it's doubly exciting.  This is a beautiful city, but it's definitely a city with more than 1 million people living here.  Today, being a Sunday, things were a bit quieter, despite the fact that there were two ships in port.  

We booked a tour privately (meaning, not through the ship) with a woman named Marelivy.  She was born in Columbia, and has lived in Cartagena for most of her adult life.  She toured us around the city for almost 5 hours, showing us all the it has to offer and we had a fabulous time.  Cartagena has history that goes back to the 1500's when it was a port city.  That section of the city, known as the Old City or Walled City was, at one time, completely protected by a wall that they made of coral.  There was one main gate to get in and out, and it was only open from 6 am until 6 pm.   This part of the city was our favorite because it reminded us of some of our favorite places - Italy, New Orleans, and Puerto Rico.   

Marelivy was very knowledgeable about the history of the city, and she told us many great stories.  We also got to wander around one of the large public markets for a while.  We didn't buy anything, but we did get some food from the street vendors (a preferred activity for me), including an arepeas, which is like a grilled cheese sandwich except the bread is masa flour, and a lemonade (which we would call limeade).  $4 well spent for the two!   

When the tour was finished, we spent a few minutes wandering around at the port, where they had a bunch of different kinds of birds wandering around.  Andrew was in heaven.  

Tomorrow is the Panama Canal - stay tuned! 

Green parrot sleeping after gorging on papaya

Parrot eating

Tiny monkey - he could have easily sat in your hand, but that would be gross.
Also, he didn't look very friendly. 

Squirrel!

View of Cartagena from La Popa

Inside La Popa.  The bougainvillea everywhere was gorgeous! 

The chapel inside La Popa.  The center is the statue of the Virgin Mary.  She has an ENTIRE wardrobe
that people have made for her, and they change her clothes on a regular basis.  Weird. 

The balcony and ceiling of the chapel

Steps leading up to La Popa.  It was built in the 1600s, which I always find amazing. 

Castillo San Felipe - the fort built starting in 1536 to protect the city from land attacks.
Like the wall around the city, it's also made of coral.  The used slaves from Africa to build it.

A typical street in the Old City

Door knocker in the Old City.  The size and type of door ornaments indicated
the social class and, sometimes, occupation, of the residents.

More of those coral walls, and more bougainvillea.  

A huge banyan tree.  Couldn't fit it all in the picture it was so big!

Some church.  I was really fascinated by the coral stones they used everywhere. 

Large public square.  Reminded us of Italy.  

This building was the site of persecution during the Spanish Inquisition. 

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Sorry - I could NOT get enough of the coral stones.  

Look carefully - the grey blob to the upper right of the middle of the pic is a sloth
hanging out in a park. 

Andrew thought this bird might want to be friends.  He was wrong.  Chomp! 

More birds.  

Pretty, but still gross.  

What the hell is this thing?  Anyone??

The port that tourism built

Today's port was Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic.  We were in the Dominican a few years ago, but not at this port.  Today we only had 6 hours in port, so we didn't plan any tours or other excursions.  Instead, we thought we'd just wander around port and see what we could find.  It was a very strange experience, to say the least.   The port is new - built by Carnival in 2015.  It was clear to see that "Built by Carnival" means that it is customized to the cruise crowd.  In other words, they built a US mall and waterpark in the middle of the jungle, and then put a wall around it to keep any of the local residents away.  

 The vista outside of the compound walls was beautiful, lush jungle.  The original Jurassic Park movie was filmed here and the scenery was exactly like you saw on the big screen - minus the velociraptors, of course.  Inside the compound walls, however, was very artificial and contrived.  We much prefer to try and immerse ourselves in local culture and get off the beaten path, whenever possible.  That was not to be the case today, so we didn't stay terribly long.  I will say, however, that if you had kids you would probably love this port.  There was a huge series of pools/water park complex and, because the port was "private" (for cruise passengers only) security was tight so there is unlikely to be much in the crime department.  There were also a couple of waterslides and a zipline.  The pool and waterslide were all free; the zipline was $10 for kids for unlimited zips during the day ($20 for adults).  

We had lunch at Andrew's favorite place onboard - Guy's Burger Shack (Guy Fieri for those who know Food Network).  They have them on several of the newer ships, but this is the first time we've encountered one.  Andrew is a fan of the Pig Patty, which is a lattice patty made of bacon that they put on top of your burger.  He then tops it with more bacon from the toppings bar.  It's quite the site to behold. 

Stuffed, we waddled back to the cabin.  Andrew had a nap, and I spent a gorgeous few hours out on our balcony working.  Seriously, I need to get an office with a balcony.  In the Caribbean.  Sigh. 

Coastline off to the right of the port.  There were some locals fishing off the shore.

Amazing scenery!

If you look carefully, you'll see an irrigation canal running from the mid-left of the picture.  The "swamp" in the middle is full of snakes and other nasties, I'm sure.  

View of our ship from the top of the hill.  

Little cabanas over the water that you can rent for the day.

Pretty

In my line of work, we regularly use "woody's" to do condom demonstrations for patients.  One of the shops was selling items carved out of local hardwood - including woody's!  I had to buy one to take back to the clinic.  They will love this one - it's so much nicer than the ones we have.  AND it was $7.  

Guy's Burger Shack

My office for the afternoon.  What a view! 

Grand Turk

First port today - Grand Turk.  We've been to this port three times before today.  To be fair, however, one of those times we didn't actually stop because the seas were too rough for the ship to dock safely.  We have docked on three other cruises.  One of those times we got off the ship and toured around the island on a golf cart (before it broke down, that is).  The second time, we stayed on the ship.  This is a small island and mostly set up for diving, so there isn't much to see.  We aren't diving on this trip (too much gear to bring for one dive), so we decided to get off and walk for a bit.  After about an hour of exploring the beaches, we made our way back on board and sat up on the Serenity Deck for an hour and read.  

This afternoon, Andrew had a nap and I worked.  I'm making good progress on my grant proposal and most of the 41 pages of narrative are finished.  I've spent most of the past three days working on it, however, so I'm glad to be feeling like I'm getting somewhere.  I'm still waiting for a bunch of data that I've requested, and that will need to come before I can finish.  In the meantime, I can work on some of the appendixes, like the budget, staffing and work plans. This will be the last project I do at my current job, and it's bittersweet to hand it off to someone else after 15 years.  

Onward and upward!  Or, in this case, full steam ahead to the Dominican Republic! 

View of our ship, the Pride, from the beach

View of the Carnival Magic as we were leaving port

Small boats moored off shore.  

Governor's Beach and the wreck

T'was a dark and stormy...day? And night.

Our first sea day dawned cloudy and a little rainy, though the swells were still fairly small.  We had coffee and a light breakfast up on the Lido deck and then took a little tour of the Pride.  This is a new ship for us and we like it very much.  It's a considerably subdued theme compared to most Carnival ships.  In other words, it looks much less like someone went crazy with a 64 pack of Crayolas.  

After exploring, Andrew went back to the cabin to do whatever it is he does in the cabin all day on sea days (mostly nap).  I, unfortunately, have a federal grant proposal to write while we're on this trip so I gathered up my pile of "work" and headed off to the library to hunker down for a few hours.  By noon, the weather had worsened and the ship was really rocking.  The combination of that and my glasses that I don't wear often enough to be used to them made me completely motion sick, so  I went back to the cabin for a break, some Gravol and something salty to eat.  

After some crackers and a ginger ale (Andrew had a big ol' greasy burger from Guy's Burger Bar), I was feeling better so I made another stab at working.  I only lasted about 15 minutes on this round before I had to come back to the cabin and lie down for a bit.  Blech.  

Luckily, I was feeling very good by dinner.  Tonight was the first of what will likely be three "elegant" nights.  These used to be called "formal" but people complained that they were on vacation and didn't want to pack fancy clothes, so they've eased up.  People now come in everything from black tie & evening gowns to khakis & polo shirts.  Andrew & I tend to go somewhere in the middle, but a little closer to the casual end.  The fun thing about the formal nights are that the food is fancier.  Tonight it was prime rib and lobster tails.  Yum!  Also, the rough seas provided much entertainment watching passengers try to make their way to their tables as the ship rolled and pitched.  Don't worry, no one fell. 

Despite the continued rough seas, I was feeling so much better after dinner that I went back to work for a few hours (without my glasses).  Because I'm leaving my current job and this proposal will likely be due before they get a replacement for me, I am going to have to finish this grant application myself.  To that end, I want to try and work on it as much as I can on our sea days so that we can enjoy our days in port.  That's not actually such a bad thing, as I find the sea days drag quite a bit for me.  Unlike Andrew, I find naps a waste of time.  Also, we're both happier when I have something to occupy me! 

About 8 am - cloudy but not looking too bad. 

Noon - rough seas just before sailing in to a hard rain. 

View of the Serenity Deck (adults only) and the waterslides.  If it wasn't raining, both would be packed. 

Andrew doing his second favorite thing on a cruise.  First fav is napping.  

Baltimore! Baltimore? Baltimore!

We're headed out on our winter holiday for this year.  We'll be traveling via the Carnival Pride through a partial transit of the Panama Canal.  This is a trip that Andrew has wanted to do for years.  We've actually booked it a couple of times and then cancelled for various reasons so I'm happy to report that we're finally going to make it.

The ship leaves from Baltimore, Maryland.  Yes, Baltimore, Maryland.  We always fly in a day early because you just never know with Minnesota weather and flights.  In addition, Cowboy & Peanut had to go to Kindred Spirits on the 31st, due to the holiday, so we decided to have two nights in Baltimore instead of one.   The weather was gorgeous on January 1st!  50 degrees F (10 degrees Celsius) and sunny so we were able to do one of our favorite things, which is get out and explore a new city on foot.  

Bromoseltzer Tower - the view from our hotel window

Washington Monument - the oldest public monument to Washington in the country

Washington from another, less flattering view.

Beautiful old church in the Mount Vernon neighborhood.  This iPhone pic doesn't do it justice - the varying colors of the slate tiles were amazing.  

Statue of George Peabody in a park.  The plaque reads that he is the father of philanthropy.  We got a giggle out of the fact that someone had given him a real beard.    

Baltimore Harbor

With brick & mortar bookstores closing all over the world, it was exciting to see this monster still standing proud.