Holiday Hullabaloo: Chapter 2

Ok, maybe not so much a party but a lot of QT with the fam and relaxation. My family arrived in Panama City on Saturday as well and it didn't take long to get into the groove of things. Dinner and taste testing some of the local fare, taking in the city's lights and seeing some of Panama City's claims to fame. We spent the morning checking out the Bridge of the Americas (the entrance to the Panama Canal from the Pacific side) and the Casco Viejo (old colonial part of Panama City) before heading to Colon (port town on the Caribbean side) to board the ship.

Once we had checked in, we boarded the Enchantment of the Seas, made our spa appointments (well I did, Marty opted for the more distinguished option of beers with my brother), discovered the Concierge Lounge which would be our saving grace (financially speaking) for drinks on board the ship, got oriented to the most important things (food, bars, and pools) and settled in for the week.

We left Colon, Panama that evening and headed for Cartagena, Colombia. Its one of Colombia's most beautiful cities in terms of Colonial architecture. We didn't get to the beaches here but walked atop the old city wall, visited the fortress- Castillo San Felipe- that used to defend Cartagena and Colombia from pirates (successfully too, as it was never sacked) and then off to the Palacio de la Inquisicion to learn about all sorts of Inquisition history, most notable the torture devices they used. The best part about this Palacio however, was the sloth in the banana trees in the courtyard! (Pictures coming soon)

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Cartagena walking the cobblestone streets (pictures really are worth a thousand words in this city, and most of the trip to be honest. When they are edited and up you can find them here), trying to stay cool by means of beer and ice cream.

Day 2 of cruising was spent in Santa Marta- another popular tourist destination on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Unlike Cartagena, the city of Santa Marta itself is not the gem that attracts people, but more the watersports, beaches, national parks and outdoor activities that surround the tropical city. We heeded the advice of our guidebook and Marty, Mike and I headed out to Taganga- a small town about 15 minutes outside Santa Marta famous for scuba diving and its beaches. We didn't have the whole day so we opted for snorkeling off the beaches of Boca Grande where clear waters yielded quite a few fish, shells, corals and the like for being so close to the shore. Despite our ambitious trek out to Boca Grande by taxi, then boat, then hiking along the rocks, our bigger mission was to get rum back on board. On the ship you can buy bottles of alcohol, but we discovered that you get them only when you disembark at the end of the cruise. It was no surprise that our volunteer salary really doesn't cut it for buying drinks at the shipboard bars so we were going to be resourceful. However our attempts at bringing rum aboard were squashed by the all to vigilant security at the boarding dock who knows this whole drill. Luckily, our Aguardiente did manage to slip through their system and the fam was able to sample Colombia's drink of choice (a anise flavored liquor that is taken in tiny shots).

At the end of the day we made it back on board, rum-less but just in time for the concierge lounge to open for happy hour so we couldn't be too upset. Every evening post-concierge lounge we made it to dinner for delicious food and a wonderfully entertaining waiter named Everton.

We would be sailing out of Colombian waters that evening and checking out the Dutch Lesser Antilles or the ABC Islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire (check out the pictures at http://beyondbogota.shutterfly.com/).