…well after 50 plus days of working and being on the ship, the crew was granted some much needed rest. We pulled into Cartagena, Colombia on May 20. As you can imagine, people (including me) were crazy excited and we all made a mad dash for the closest exit out of here. Since we weren’t docked in Cartagena, we had to take a boat to shore. The way they organized ship egress was by lifeboat number. They pulled out the lifeboat order from a hat or a jar or something…I don’t remember. My lifeboat number is 7 and I think that put us at like second to last boat to depart…booo for that. But there were some exceptions to the rule. Some people were granted leave while in Cartagena and therefore were allowed to leave the ship on the first boat…but I didn’t request leave so booo again for that. However, we have on the ship a personnel recognition program called “Person of the Day” which recognizes people who have done a great job at their job or through volunteering or whatever the case may be. People who have been “Person’s of the Day” were also allowed to leave on the first boat. Now I haven’t yet been a POD but my liberty buddy Shelly was! Woo hoo! So we were out with the first leg of departures. Yippee! At about 1130 or so, we headed down to board our boat and waited for a few minutes before we loaded our transit boat. We took off from the ship and landed at the BLZ at about 1230. We grabbed a shuttle and headed off to the hotel…but before we got there, we made a pit stop at the airport to drop of a couple people who were flying to see family. As we drove around, I saw some of the most beautiful, old architecture. Cartagena has a portion of the city that has some of the old architecture still in place. I saw some of the most unique and beautiful brightly colored buildings. The landscape looked like something directly out of a painting. There were bright green and pretty coral colored buildings. The yellow clock tower in the heart of the city stood high over a wall that enclosed many restaurants and establishments. Several vendors were also at their stands selling various goods ranging from rings to paintings, and shoes to handmade hammocks. There were also what I called ‘street vendors’. They were there also trying to make a living selling their treasures. And while I know they meant well, I couldn’t help being annoyed by them forcefully requesting you to buy something. The first day I replied with a polite “No Señor, pero Gracias” or just a plain old “No, Gracias” but that eventually went away and I just began to ignore them and walk away. Street vendors that I did support were the ones who asked for 4000 pesos ($2) for an ice cold “cerveza” Mmm hmm!

Much of my time in Cartagena was spent walking, relaxing, enjoying the scenery and just having a plain old good time. Sleeping? Not so much! LOL! I went dancing with my friends on both nights that we were there. It was so fun, and I absolutely loved the music! I hope that I can go back some day. Cartagena is a beautiful place that I spent too short a time in. I’m glad that we had a chance to recharge, though I must say that coming back to the ship from 3 days of relaxation and fun-ness was a bit tough. I think everyone felt some sense of wanting to extend our stay for another day or 10:)

We got underway again on Saturday and are now in Panama. New country, new beginning, and another opportunity to reach out to someone new. I pray that this country visit will be even more successful than the last one.

Thanks for stopping by…
Keisha