Thread: Cartagena Columbia Excursion with Dora

After doing a good bit of reading we have decided to book a prvate excursion with Dora de Zubiria for our port time in Cartagena for a combination of the New City and the Old Town with stops at the fort, a church, a monastery; a combination of a driving tour and a walking tour in the Old Town. We chose this as we will be able to get to some of the sights that the larger cruise ship buses cannot get to easily and it seems from reviews her approach is very engaging.

I know my camera will be very busy on this tour.

Has anyone had experience with Dora?

Here are some highlights of our day in Cartagena. The city is described Old and New and many of the tours that can be taken include both aspects. Once underway on an Old and New Tour it becomes easy to step back into the very old history and enjoy the contrast of the modernization that has taken place.

Sailing into port, we were amazed at how large the bay is and how impressive the Modern City is. The New City is made up of similar colored skyscrapers that are residential and beautiful when viewed from this distance. It must be magnificent sight lit up at night.

Our first stop was up through the streets to the start of the hill of La Popa; the highest point in Caragena. A large portion of the religious history was based on the elimination of the people who worshipped goats. Traveling up the long and winding road to La Popa, each year on February 2nd a procession takes place to honor the Virgin of Candelaria.

From this place, many views of Cartagena can be seen. The large and busy Industrial section. The smaller homes and apartments, the market areas, the Old City and the New City.







The Monastery is simple and not very museum like. We learned much about the history of Cartagena from the spoken information our guide provided us with all along the way. At the foot of the steps of La Popa there are many people trying to sell their wares or have you take a photo with their donkey or with their parrot. There are also sun hats and bottled water being sold too.

We stopped at base of San Felipe de Barajas Fort. This fort was built to protect attack from the land rather than from the sea. We did not take the tour of the fort, there were several ships in Port and the city was very, very busy. The street vendors were out in full force and aside from a few pictures, it was time to move on to next stop.

Next stop was The Dungeons. This tourist market area was once storerooms for munitions and then used later for jails. Here again, street vendors fill the sidewalk and ladies in colorful dress wait for you to take their picture. I don't have any 'souvenir pictures' of the ladies in the colorful dress but can tell you that the vibrant colors of the Columbian flag are what the tiered ruffled skirts are made up of along with the yellow for the blouse and head turban. This is a very busy place.

Heading into the Colonial Old City we are able to see the architecture and color and charm. We see Catedral de Cartagena and we see the Sundial that sure enough by its defined line told us it was just about 12:30.

We enjoyed the colors and the textures of the places we saw and enjoyed along the way.

Our last stop before headng to the New City that we saw when we sailed into port was to the Home and Church of San Pedro Claver. Cartagena was a huge center for African slave trade. The statue above is in the square where the slaves were brought to be branded and sent to their new owners. Some of the slaves had several owners before, so several scars from earlier brandings with a hot poker that bore the owners initals.

Peter Claver, a priest, came from Spain and as a humanitarian opened the doors to his home for the slaves to be cared for. Their heath was poor and they were nursed and given religion. Paintings on the walls of the museum portion of the cloister depict San Pedro Clavers efforts up until the time of his own death.

We enjoyed our tour with our Julie and our driver Fernado. We saw Dora several times along the way making sure that we were doing well. We had very good dialog throughout our tour, we spoke of the drug wars, the impact they have had on Americans traveling and we learned that much of those issues have been calm for some time. We found the city to be clean and cared for, we felt comfortable in our travels. We were picked up at the foot of the gangway and were returned to the ship in the same good order.

We did make one stop while in the New City to an emerald store, Joyeria Caribe. I saw a fantastic emerald in a ring that if I loved emeralds I would have kicked myself for not getting. That and the $17,000 that it cost. But it was a stunner!