CARTAGENA

Tuesday 19 January

To start with, here is a photo from Cartagena, Colombia.

I expect this will be one of the biggest surprises to us on our trip. We signed up for a walking tour of the old city of Cartagena. Cartagena is in Colombia, South America, and it was our first time to be on this continent. I think we expected to see a city filled with slums and dirty but it was the opposite. The city was founded in 1533 and because of many pirate attacks they used slave labor to fortify it by building a wall around it. This fortification is the largest in all South America with a wall that is six to fifty feet thick.

Anyway, back to us being surprised. Inside these walls was a beautiful old preserved city with lovely painted buildings. It had many trees so it was shaded and had wonderful bright flowers. The national flower is the orchid. We absolutely loved the city. Everything was very colorful; the flowers, the trees, the buildings and the people, especially the women in their native costumes. It just made you feel good because everyone seemed to be so cheerful and happy.

Colombia has the biggest emerald mines in the world but we didn't buy any emeralds, just like we didn't buy any diamonds in the Cayman Islands. It was very hot and after two hours of walking we were quite tired. When we came back to the ship we took a little walk around the docks then came back on board. That about concludes our first visit to South America.

Here are a few statistics about the ship that we think you might enjoy. During this 15-day segment, New York to San Francisco, the Queen victoria will consume 70 tons of fruit and vegetables; 18 tons of meat; 12 tons of poultry; 20 tons of fish and seafood; 20 tons of cheese and dairy; 67,850 pints of milk; 4,666 dozen eggs; 8 tons of flour; 3 tons of rice; 1,680 pizzas; 11,200 scones; 70,000 cups of tea; 4,000 pints of beer; 8,750 bottles of beer/cider; 1,400 bottles of wine; 530 bottles of champagne.