Distance from Willemstad to Cartagena: 450 Nautical Miles
It’s a hot and humid day in Cartagena, Colombia
The plan today is to visit the Passenger Center. We have done many of the tours at this port so are staying with the ship – because of the heat, the day might turn out to be a short one.
The Pacific Princess is docked, as usual, in the commercial port. Most times, we walk to the Visitor’s Center but this time we grab the free shuttle to avoid the heat.
The Visitor’s Center has a Coffee Shop, a Gift Shop, and a small zoo. One of the areas is filled with flamingos and other birds and a member of the deer family that we couldn’t find.
The Animal Area without and with us
It seems to be that the Visitor Area has been spiffed up a bit since our last visit. Lots of flowering plants now dot the grounds. Some of the trees in the area are spectacular (like the one in the picture below).
Also a new addition and roaming around the grounds were several peacocks ready to strut their stuff. Ellen got a little to close to one and was chased by the bird.
The “Killer” Peacock
I was curious as to what the port had done to the neighborhood just beyond the cabbie pickup area and the gate. I was stopped by security but I told him I just wanted to walk a few yards and see the stores. I did just that and found that not much had changed – no stores or shops within walking the distance. The gas station that I was treated to a beer at last time was still there but now much else. I returned to the visitor center. On the way back, we took a picture of a wall of flowers. We had seen a similar wall on one of our previous voyages – in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands. The flower wall there had a denser growth. Still nice.
Wall of Flowers
Another new addition to the Center were animals – one of the animals allowed to roam free was a monkey – I identified him as a cotton-top tamarin, an endangered species found in Colombia.
Cotton-top Tamarin
The heat drove us back to the ship. Before dinner, Sarah and the Boys were playing in the Casino Lounge.
We have seen tonight’s production show, “Cinematastic”, but we wanted to see what it was like performed by a new cast on a smaller stage. Some of the songs were the same but I think some different ones were added. It was a pretty entertaining show although some blockbuster themes from famous movies were not included in the show.
Above two – “The Heart Will Go On”
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
Finale
Tomorrow – the Panama Canal
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