Our first full day in Cartagena turned out to be quite busy.
First order of the day was to go ashore and find the agent to clear in. I wasn’t sure what the local time was given that we’ve now traveled 15 degrees west from Grenada. That’s 1/24 of the way around and qualifies for a shift of the clocks. I therefore decided to head into Club Nautico just before 9am by our watches. If it was only 8am them things may just open then.
Club Nauitica turned out to be a building site. One of the attractions was there used to be a restaurant/bar where cruisers could hang out along with showers, etc. to use. This is all in the middle of being rebuilt so we’re missing out there. It also turned out to be 8am and the place didn’t open until 9am so I was early. I did find out there was a cruisers net on at that time so I rushed back to the boat to listen in.
We caught the beginning of the net and let folks know we’d arrived. Then Gerald from Whiskers showed up in his dinghy to find out what we’d discovered and to say that they would like to accept our invitation for a meal that night but may be too tired. We had a brief chat before he left as we realized we’d all meet up at 9am.
Back ashore at 9am we soon found Davide, the agent, on the street outside the marina. It was odd handing a stranger our passports and boat papers but apparently this is how it’s done here. We also met the dock master / manager and arranged for our internet connection which is lousy – as he said it would be.
In doing all this we met Gerald again along with Dianne. We agreed to walk to the supermarket together. They needed some supplies and Helen to look at prices. We initially thought the exchange rate was 1,600 pesos to the dollar and thought the prices were reasonable. We then learned it was closer to 2,000 which made things look cheap.
We parted company with Dianne and Gerald and headed off walking towards the Old Town. The architecture here is really quite nice. The area we’re in is a mixture of some old and more modern buildings. Apart from the high rises, most buildings are of an old Spanish style which is very quaint.
As we walked towards the Old Town more and more of the buildings were of the older variety – I guess as one would expect. It was like walking back in time. Once in the Old Town it was sheer delight just walking around. There were fruit sellers on the streets selling cups of water melon for next to nothing. We had some of this as well as large cups of squeezed mandarins to quench our thirst.
As we walked around the Old Town we kept being astounded by what we saw. We could glimpse through halls into exquisite inner courtyards. The old churches and cathedrals looked astounding. We decided we would leave going into the buildings for a later date and just use yesterday to soak the place up. At times we would wander along the old battlements. At others we would find ourselves in parks or in covered allies filled with shops and merchants.
After midday we were wilting in the heat. The narrow streets offered little respite from the overhead sun. We eventually made it back to the boat which, mercifully, wasn’t too hot as there was quite a breeze running.
This breeze turned into an incident. Not long after we had arrived one of the cruisers (Eddie from Navy Blue) came onto the hailing channel concerned about one of the boats which had drifted off. I suggested we should go over and determine what to do. We agreed to head off as did four other dinghies who must have been listening in on the open channel.
Aboard we debated between stabilizing the boat by letting out as much chain as possible and moving it. Some of the cruisers were familiar with the boat as they’d help to tow it in a week earlier as it had transmission problems. In the end we settled on letting out the chain and watching the boat until the owner returned.
An hour or two we were all back to help move the boat. We tied our dinghies to the side to provide the propulsion and we moved him back close to the fleet of anchored boats here. Unfortunately his anchor didn’t hold on the first attempt and when lifting it again his windlass failed. It turned out to be the button which he had to dismantle to operate the windlass. This all added time to the task but eventually we had him set and were able to leave him. It all turned out to be a good way to meet folks. In retrospect I am really glad we didn’t attempt to move his boat the first time as dealing with a failed windlass on someone elses boat would not have been much fun.
Before all this I was also able to have a chat with Pam from Glide who gave us lots of useful local information. Among other things there is a Happy Hour that a lot of the cruisers attend at 5pm on Wednesdays. A number of the people helping out yesterday will be there so it will be good to meet up again.
We then had a few hours to relax and read. Gerald again showed up to let us know they definitely would not be going out that evening as they felt they may droop.
Helen and I left the boat at 7pm and walked a short way to a restaurant called Day Olivia. We both had delicious steak meals for a very reasonable price. The bottle of wine cost as much as the two meals. It turned out we preferred each others steak so we swapped.
Back on the boat it was now late (for us). I decided to spend a little hammock time taking in the surroundings. On one side we have the container dock that is brilliantly lit and operating all night. Off the back of the boat we see the Bocagrande area of town which is all high rises along a very thin strip of land. At night it all looks paper thin and almost unreal. I fell asleep in the hammock coming down below some time after 2am.
Here are some pictures from yesterday. They are taking an infernal time to upload so please keep rechecking until you see the last one which, as ever, will be a collage.
Footnote: Our windgen and support is in the country. According to the fedex website it has cleared through Bagota and is back in transit. Hopefully it will arrive today.