It was early morning when we first glimpsed the coastline of Cartagena. The visibility was rather hazy, but the high rise blocks were still visible.

At first sight you would have been forgiven for thinking you had taken a wrong turn and ended up at Miami!! It was something of a shock after the primitive coast of Roatan.

It is not only a container port, but also a naval base and they have some very impressive looking vessels.

But amidst all the naval vessels, container carriers, yachts and all, the local fishermen still paddle out their cayacas and spread their nets and throw out their lines.

In fact as we were coming in, dead ahead of us was a cayaca with 3 fishermen in wildly waving their arms and pointing to port. I looked and saw the floats of their fishing nets and we managed to avoid fouling the prop, not to mention destroying their nets.

We continued into the harbour, avoiding the restricted military areas and dropped anchor just off the marina Club Nautico.

It was such a relief to know I was actually going to get a full nights sleep, in a bed!!.

After dinghying ashore, we were hijacked by Hernando, a rather colourful Columbian with a patch over his eye. I have to say it was a little disconcerting. Anyway, he showed us where we could find an internet café, which was just around the corner in a fabulous supermarket. It made Eldons, in Roatan, pale into insignificance.

Hernando also called David for us. David is the agent who handles all the clearing in.

David is very efficient and speaks very good English, we paid him $70 to clear in and that price also includes clearing out, we also had to give him our passports, so he could get our immigration stamps.  It never ceases to amaze me how vulnerable we yachties are, as we hand our passports over to virtual strangers.

That night we slept like babies, perhaps not, after all we slept 12 hours, straight through.

We went ashore again to meet John, the marina manager, as Roger wanted to see where they were proposing to put Beaujolais.

They have an unusual system here. You tie up either bow or stern too. You then give their divers 2 lines (in our case stern lines as we went in bow first) and they tie them to some posts out in the bay.

Then comes the ‘fun’ bi, as you have to literally walk the plank to get on and off the boat. What they do is lash a plank across the pontoon, with a bit protruding over the edge, which has a little box on it which you use as a step!!

The plank flexes like a diving spring board and also the boat moves not only to and from the plank, but also up and down as the tide changes.

So when it is low tide I cannot just swing my leg over onto the box as it is about a foot short (my leg not the box). So I have to climb over the life lines on the boat, stand on the toe rails and stretch to reach the box, quite nerve wracking I can tell you.

By 14.30 hrs we were tied up alongside. The marina is very friendly and I have already met several of the other occupants.

One in particular that comes to mind is Cheryl. She is a lovely lady from ‘New York’ who, every morning, sets up her little stall and sells her freshly baked New York Style Bagels.

She does a wonderful onion Bagel, which she serves with cream cheese, tomato, red onion and capers. But on a Sunday, she serves bagels and Lax. Which is the addition of a generous helping of smoked salmon to the aforementioned onion bagel combo. I have to say they are the best Bagels I have ever had, not chewy at all. So I already have my order in for when we set sail for the San Blas.

Cheryl is also a mine of information. She told me as it is Friday, you have to go into the old town for the evening. It comes alive with dancing and music as the weekend starts.

I, of course needed no encouragement! So off we went, first stopping by Exito, a Target style store, to pick up a cheap camera.

Cheryl wasn’t kidding, there was music everywhere as we wandered through the beautiful streets on the ‘Centro Historica’.

All you had to do was follow the sounds and you would come across musicians and dancers in full swing.

It was wonderful to see, and hear, excellent musicians accompanying the dancers rather than recorded music.

We found ourselves in the Parque de Bolivar, watching the incredible displays of dancing. They danced with amazing energy and speed. Indeed one dance was so frenetic, it was as though you were watching them through a strobe light. Amazing!.

It was also great to see young children also dancing the traditional dances.

Turn another corner and you will come across the human statues, they too are very good. What was interesting was the comparison with European ‘human statues’.

Most European performers are made up in white, silver or gold, whereas the Columbian equivalents were, without exception, black from head to toe.

One school of thought is that as most statues here are bronze, black represents the nearest thing to a bronze statue, after all that is what they are trying to be mistaken for!!!!!

After walking for what seemed hours, we selected a little restaurant called San Paulo, which had live music. The guitarist was very good, as was the food and the price.

I simply had to return in daylight to capture the beauty of the buildings and the streets.

Once again Roger has abandoned me and flown the coup.

I have to say this time he has left me with not 1000 peso notes, but 50,000 peso notes!! Surely he doesn’t think I won’t be able to get them changed???

I decided I would head back to capture the Centro Historico by day.

One of the great things about Cartagena is that as the streets are narrow, one side of the street is always in the shade, which it makes it much more pleasant to explore in the heat of the mid day sun (well I am English !!!)

The architecture is so elegant, buildings painted in terracottas, yellow ocres and azure blues many with huge beautiful solid wooden doors opening into beautiful courtyards.

Many of the buildings do not have windows, simply wooden newalls and shutters.

The door furniture is also grand with elaborate bronze knockers and handles in a variety of different designs, I imagine the grander the ‘knocker’ the more affluent the owner.

The many balcony’s decorated with vibrant coloured bouganvillia add to an already beautiful picture.

Talking of knockers, the artist Fernando Botero, donated a huge bronze of his Figura Reclinada ’92 to the city. I have to say she is a typical Botero figure, full and rotund!!!

I think Freddie Mercury probably had something like her in mind when he recorded Fat Bottom Girls??

Not only is the Centro clean and beautiful, but it is also colourful, not only the buildings, but also the people out on the street.

Street Vendors ply their trades, young men push big drums filled with ice containing cold drinks around on trolleys, ice cream vendors appear on most corners and shoe shine stands or should it be seats are readily available.

Touts try and seduce you into visiting one of the many emerald factories (no I haven’t been seduced…..Yet!)

Ladies in brightly coloured dresses carry huge trays of fruit on their heads shouting ‘Mango, papaya, pinas’.

I was trying to capture one of the fruit vendors on camera, but she was determined I wouldn’t. No matter how innocent I tried to make it look, she saw me and moved.

Finally I snapped her and for a split second I thought she was going to come and punch my lights out (check out those ‘bitch wings’!).

She was certainly not the type of lady you would want to cross, or meet down a dark alley!!!

The street art is very whimsical and pops up everywhere in the form of metal sculptures.

And all of this majesty rubs shoulders with the brash ugliness of its high rise neighbours. I think they call it ‘progress’!!!!!!

May I take this opportunity to apologise for the disjointed text and photos. My editor had told me I have to put them all at one side as they don’t load properly otherwise. That’s all well and good, but I have so many photos I want to share and I can’t get them all in!!!