columbia

This morning we pulled into Cartegena, Columbia at 8:30. Our tour left promptly as soon as we docked.
We decided to take the tour of the city, an ancient fortress, and a Monastery.

As we made our way through the extremely run down dirty city, we were beginning to think maybe we should have passed on this tour. The first stop at La Popa Monastery was an absolute zoo. Here were these holy, ancient beautiful buildings that were crawling with scroungy relentless vendors selling absolute junk and beggars wanting handouts. The people were so pathetic, desperate, and did not look very trustworthy. Our tour guide told us from the beginning to stay close together and in sight of him. I could see why-I felt if you strayed to far, you'd be mugged.

We were happy to be back on the bus. Our next stop was the Fort de San Felipe built in 1867, which was very interesting, but again the vendors were everywhere. Their presence just ruined our tour. At one point I was trying to exit the bus and there were about 6 of them blocking my way, holding their smelly junk right in my face. I finally lost it, waved my arms, and said "get out of my way." Usually, I would politely said no, but this time it was overwhelming and scary. Our drive took us by the worst slums we have ever seen before. Terry's description of Cartegena is, "take the slummiest part of Tijuana and multiply by 10." Our last stop was a 2 square block tourist shopping area where we had about 30 minutes on our own.

We soon felt unsafe, threatened and retreated to the bus to wait. There were countless military and policia everywhere with their rifles and fatigues. The strong show of force is there for a reason, to protect tourists from their own "??????" people.

We were so glad to return to the ship, wishing we had never left. Everyone we talked to on board agreed with us. Columbia was
definelty a huge disappointment and a place we would never return. We later learned that even the ship forbade the crew
from going ashore that day. Great-that made us feel real good-the crew can't leave but we could!! But better days ahead!