Cruise - Day 6-7 Cartagena, Columbia

Day 6 was an At Sea day and our second formal night.  Once again we had smooth seas and cloud free skies.  Daytime temperatures around 79-80 degrees.  Nice day to relax and sit out on out Veranda.  At noon we did attend the Mariner Society Lunch with the Captain and Hotel Director in attendance.  As usual yummy food.  Ray went to another Panama presentation and I went to Zuiderdam Celebrity Cookoff.  We had early dinner every night at 5:30pm.  We had our table for 10 and it was always nice to visit and hear what everyone had been up to all day.  Tonight we celebrated Pat's Birthday. Every night when we returned to our room our bed was turned down, chocolates, fresh fruit, next days schedule and a towel animal were always there to greet us.

 My cousins Stan & Karen (their mother was my dad's sister)

The whole group at dinner

Happy Birthday Pat!'

This nights towel animal an elephant.  Every night was a different animal

Day 7, Sunday, January 20, 6:30am Zuiderdam docks at Cartagena, Columbia. We had decided to not take an excursion, but got off the ship after breakfast and took shuttle to the cruise terminal to check out the duty free store.  We were greeted by flamingos, parrots and toucans.  Behind the duty free store there is a bird sanctuary that is beautiful.  There were parrots sitting on the benches and in the trees.  There was a really nice large duty free store that was air conditioned and very clean.  You could buy Columbian coffee, emeralds, trinkets and gifts.  There is also a Juan Valdez Cafe where you could enjoy a cup of Columbian coffee.  Outside the store there was a young man doing caricaturas for free so we all stopped to have him do ours and of course left him a tip.  We really enjoyed our visit to the Cruise Terminal.  The ship set up a large screened TV in the Queens Lounge for the playoff games.  They had lots snacks---little hamburgers, hot dogs, meatballs, chips, dips, etc.  Seven of our group are from California and are all San Francisco 49ers fans, so they were all ready to watch the game.  Sandy isn't a football fan so I went to a guest lecture on using DNA for genealogy and then to see the Filipino Crew Show.  At 1:00pm the ship left Cartagena sailing for Gatum Lake, Panama.  Early tomorrow morning we will go through the Panama Canal Locks.

 Lots of beautiful birds.

The Juan Valdez Cafe

 We had a good laugh at all the caricaturas

 Convento de la Popa is a 400-year-old monastery

 View of the Old City

 The statue is the Virgin Carmen, Cartagena’s patron saint of navigators

 Cartagena "new city"