Cartenaga, Columbia

Cartenaga, Columbia was our second stop on the cruise.  We'd never been to Columbia before and both of us were surprised as we neared the port.

I was expecting either a "manufactured" cruise ship port (one of those tourist towns built solely for the entertainment of cruise passengers) or a Third World Country setting.  Not so...  huge skyscrapers and a very modern city awaited us.

I love lighthouses, and this one  perched on a beautiful spit of land jutting out into the bay.

I'd been trying to get a decent photo of the Magnificent Frigatebird...  the adult male has a gorgeous orange-red throat.....  I did see one red throat, but had to settle for this picture of a female.  

We had to be back on the ship by 3:00 pm, As this was our first time here, we decided to take a city tour.  

That's our ship on the left...  another cruise ship is docked on the right.  Look at all the buses lined up to take folks on tours!  And all the folks getting off the ship to take those tours.  I'm sitting on the top deck of a double-decker bus and we're about to head off on our tour.  Sometimes Bill and I stay on the bus for a complete tour, then make a second round getting off at places that look especially interesting.  No problem doing this with those "hop on - hop off" kind of tours.

I love cemeteries...  it's always interesting seeing the different customs of how we bury our dead.  

The old fort is of particular interest.  A person could spend their whole shore leave just stopping here.

This man and his burro and cart makes me think there's still a bit of third world country left here.

Gardens...  landscaping....  architecture....  all meticulous.

More of the city using space for flowers and green space.

The major stop for tourists is here.  The photo above shows a part of the bay....  looks like a city park along the water.  On the other side of the street began a walking tour of the old part of the city.  The churches, the businesses and the shops.  Often these tours are designed to allow tourists to shop.  We aren't big shoppers so stayed on the bus here.

Again...  another local....  looks like she's been grocery shopping (or selling) and is done for the day.

Here our bus is heading back to the ship.

Lots of pleasure boats in the harbor.  

The temperature was 99 degrees and I'll bet the humidity was darned near that...  and after our (about) 2 hour bus tour, we decided not to make a second round but to return to the ship.

Of course I had an ulterior motive...

I knew there was a geocache hidden within walking distance of the docking area.  We hunted without success until we were just too hot to stay out any longer.  We headed back to the ship and had lunch...  after which I left Bill at the ship and walked back to the GPS coordinates to hunt the cache.  I was about to give up and was about 50' away from where the cache should have been...  just kind of ran my hand under that sign at lower left....  WoooHooo!  Found that little rascal in a magnetic keybox behind the sign.  Another country added to our geocaching statistics....  I did a happy dance all the way back to the ship...  even in that heat!

That's All For Today!