On March 20th we arrived in Cartagena for an overnight stay.  Over the past several years this city and port has been cleaned up to be a very nice tourist stop.  The port area has a few shops (duty free and local crafts/food items) in addition to a mini wild life area with many different species of birds and monkeys.  There are well over 25 parrots and macaws in addition to lots of peacocks and flamingos among an assortment of other birds.  There are some monkeys that can be seen swinging from the trees and a few iguanas roaming the grounds.  At night we were amazed to see the peacocks all high up in one tree together.  We are not sure whether they fly up there or jump up and walk along the branches but some of these huge peacocks were 30 feet up in the tree.
We went to the old walled city in Cartagena and walked along the beautiful streets that have bougainvillea everywhere and unique wooden balconies overlooking the streets.  All along the streets you could find many food vendors selling fried plantains, ice cream, candy and a potato like pancake with cheese (queso) and butter in it.  We tried one of these potato cakes and they were OK but not our favorite.  There were several craft market areas under covered tents that sold many different items.  Some sold clothes and shoes while other areas were dedicated to food items like a farmers market.  There are several very pretty churches in the area and many buildings with unique architecture.  We walked along the walls in a few areas and looked out over the ocean and saw some of the old cannons used to fight off the pirates and the British in the old days.
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We had been to Cartagena only last year and had done a very nice tour and elected not to do too much on this trip.  We took a few night walks outside the ship and took in some of the sites of the city at night.  Our ship looked extremely colorful lit up at night.
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Our next stop was Cayman Islands where we took a taxi and stayed at Calico Jacks on Seven-Mile Beach until early afternoon and took a nice walk back stopping for lunch and taking in some of the local sights before heading back on our ship.  Unbelievable to view 7 cruise ships in port at one time - all tendering!

Greg and Sharon

On March 14th we headed out on the Celebrity Equinox for an Exotic Caribbean Cruise.  This cruise goes to Cozumel, Costa Rica, Panama, Cartagena (with an overnight stay) and Grand Cayman Island.  We primarily took this cruise to host a Distinctive Voyage group.  Distinctive Voyages is a program with Vacation.com that provides a cocktail party and unique excursion for their clients that go on these specific cruises designated as Distinctive Voyages.  A host for these cruises coordinates the on board activities and helps members of the group with any issues they may have on board.  We are hosting another cruise later this year in the Baltic and thought we would try one out closer to home prior to this European cruise.

Our first stop was Cozumel where we decided to relax and enjoy one of the local resorts with a day pass.  We spend the day at the Occidental Grand which was on a side of the island we had never been too previously.  The beach was beautiful and the day was perfect.  Sharon spent the day laying out in the sun and enjoying frozen cocktails as she baked.  Greg enjoyed the day on the beach scrambling for shade and enjoying a few cocktails.  It was a beautiful day at the resort!

After a day at sea we arrived in Puerto Limon (Costa Rica) where we were hosting the Distinctive Voyage excursion.  We had 53 persons in this group board two buses to go to a very interesting animal rescue center and botanical gardens (The Tree of Life).  At the rescue center we saw many different species of monkeys, a few sloths and some other animals.  The sloths were by far our favorite animals to see.  We have previously seen sloths way up high in trees when we had been to Costa Rica in the past but seeing them up close and personal was really something.  These animal were very cute and cuddly although they had two to three inch claws which could certainly scratch you pretty bad if you weren't careful.  They looked just like little teddy bears without the big ears!  The monkeys were fun to watch also and they seemed to like to entertain the group.  We also so a pig like animal that had been someones pet in their house until they realized it sprayed a very smelly odor from a hole in its back.  It had a nickname of a "skunk pig" but looked like a wild boar.  All of the animals we saw were rescued from various situations where they couldn't be released back into the wild either because they had been pets or had been injured.  The rescue center was trying to "train" the animals to be ready to enter the wild again over time after they recovered from any injuries they may have had.  Besides the animals at this Tree of Life, there were also many beautiful plants that were in bloom and very beautiful.  In addition to this stop our excursion also included  a visit to the Cahuita National Park where we did a short half hour walk and saw many monkeys in the wild.  The guides on this excursion were really great and made the trip a great success.  They spoke great English and told us all about their country and the sites we were seeing.  Everyone on the excursion seemed to have a great time.

Our next stop was Colon, Panama.  Since we had no excursion or resort planned for this stop we decided just to use this port to find some internet and write this blog in addition to answering a few emails.  There is really not much in the port of Colon unless you plan to visit the Panama Canal locks.  Since we have been to the Panama Canal several times (most recently last year) and the new canal has not yet opened, we decided not to take the time to see the locks again.  The Panama Canal is a very fascinating place to see and we recommend it to everyone to see it, but after you have seen it five or six times, it does lose a little of its fascination.  We will go back in a couple of years when the new canal has been completed to see it in action.

From here we will head on to Cartagena and Grand Cayman.  We are excited to go to Cartagena and get a chance to see it in the evening.  This city has really turned into a great port stop and the old walled part of the city is a great place to visit to see the shops and restaurants.  We will share what we find there on our next blog.

Greg and Sharon