31st July 2010. What a wonderful place - full of history and culture.
Lindsay left to find Easyjet at 0800. We have not heard from him since so
can only assume that he made the flight and got back to the UK suffering
from the related collateral damage! A walking tour of the near city was
tremendous with much time at the old bull ring and arsenal. It being
Saturday the waterfront came alive at about 2100 with parties everywhere
including Spanish guitarists and fireworks. It was still in full swing at
0530 and the need for the Spanish siesta becomes readily apparent. Cartagena
is still an active naval base with several frigates and a submarine
currently here. There is some sort of naval vessel construction facility in
a huge shed but we have yet to figure out how it works as there is no
apparent access to the water from the shed. In the port the weather is
terrific with a constant easterly wind - the same one that would cause us so
much difficulty if we were at sea! There is a Burger King within 100 metres
of the boat so that was sampled on return from the walking trip -
fascinating trying to work out what is what in Spanish - but it tasted the
same. We had a number of visitors on board late evening including a beagle
called Toby and his owner. He walks past morning and night and inevitably
we got talking and he came on board for a drink. Sunday we will try and get
the boat ready to move around to the marina. We now have a large catamaran
astern of us and a big power yacht in front so we will have some fun getting
away from the berth and will have to capture some marineros to assist.