As we glided into the port of Cartagena we were still in dreamland and were gradually brought to the surface by the fog horns.  My husband peeked out the curtains and saw nothing.  Literally nothing.  The fog was thick as can be, we couldn’t even see the water below.  As I mentioned in the post about the ship the port had been closed but the captain convinced the port to reopen for the ship.  Occasionally there were pockets of cleared air and we got glimpses of the port.  At one point a Navy ship headed out with the crew lined up and it was blasting rock music.  Because of the thick fog no one rushed off the ship.

To give you an idea of the skill needed to dock the ship in zero visibility here is a picture of the ship in bright sun.  Notice how small the port opening is and that you kind of have to do an S shape line before turning round and sidling into the dock.

Needless to say, once we finally saw the full port we were impressed.  When we got off the ship it was still very foggy so we decided to kill some time at the underwater archaeology museum right on the water.  Archaeology fascinates me and to be able to do it underwater is something else.  So many more variables!  So I found this very interesting looking at the tools, finds, etc.

Once the sun came out completely we started wandering around the old city which fortunately was right at the port.  We decided to stop and get a snack at one of the cafes.  It was here that I started to realise that Cartagena is a city of big food.  I asked for the calamari as a small snack and a large sandwich came out!  Maybe it would be a one off.  Not really.  First on our list to see was the Roman Theatre.  It was discovered about 120 years ago but wasn’t excavated until the late 80’s.  There was a church and several buildings on top of the theatre.  All that had to be removed or partially removed in order for that to go forward.  The museum was great as it had examples of the various occupiers and their building techniques.

We wandered up to the castle to take in the views.  It was getting quite warm so it was nice to be up high enough to catch a breeze.  We also saw this guy wandering around the grounds.

Then it was time for more tapas!  We found a place on a square that had great people watching.  One street performer would pretend to do the running of the bulls.  He had tiny bulls on the ground then he would take off with a great yelp and run round the square.  Some people would race with him.  I was waiting for someone in a mobility scooter to run over the bulls.  We ordered several dishes as tapas is small.  Not in Cartagena!  The toast plate was enough for 4 people!  It was very tasty though.

After that we decided to wander back to the ship as there wasn’t a lot of time in Cartagena.  We had a lovely day just puttering about.