After a night of being tossed about on the high seas, we pulled into the pier at Cartagena at 7am this morning. I think last night was the worst night we’ve had since our very first night on the Alaska cruise in 2011. Once I got to sleep it was fine but I had a hard time going to sleep – Bob, not so much, which is typical. We grabbed some breakfast upstairs in the Aqua Spa Cafe and sat with another couple from New Mexico (they moved from Chicago). They told us about the balloon festival and how magical it is – they live something like 12 miles from it. It’s on our bucket list. One day we’ll make it.Our bay and walking city tour left the pier at 9:30. I have to say we were very impressed with this excursion. We’ve booked excursions through Celebrity before and been disappointed so we tend to shy away from doing that. But being in Columbia we felt booking through the ship would be the safest. First we boarded a catamaran (that held at least 50-60 people) for a 20 minute ride to old town Cartagena. The crew (all of them) were wonderful. They were friendly, animated, excited to show us their city and very knowledgable. We ended up in George’s group. At 20 years old he’s been doing these tours for about 9 months he said. He’s so happy to be a part of educating others about his city/country and changing the perceptions about it. We saw so much of the original architecture (churches, museums, etc) and it’s eye opening to hear about their history from the people who live there.

The streets are filled with vendors. Everyone is trying to make a living, not unlike many other islands we’ve been to. One of the first sites we saw were the beautiful ladies dressed up with their fruit bowls to carry on their heads. You can take a photo with one for $1. We did. Plenty of others are selling all kinds of bead work (necklaces with crosses – the country is mainly Catholic, coral necklaces and earrings), leather bags, fans, delightfully colorful bags of all sizes, hats, sunglasses. You name it and they were trying to sell it. During the tour this group of street performers (Video) came around to entertain us – they were magnificent! Towards the end George took us down this alley that passed several painted mirror artists. The one we stopped at was mouth dropping talented. What he could create on a 5×7 mirror in less than 3 minutes was simply amazing. To top that off they were only $7 – but 2 for $10. We chose 2 for $10. It’s those kinds of souvenirs we love to find. Sarah called first dibs on the the very piece he created while we watched. (Video) Amazing. All in all the tour was perfectly paced and narrated. It ended up being about a 4 hour tour. Back on the catamaran going back to the ship we sat beside this couple who asked us if we were from Virginia Beach. Whaaaaaat? How did they know that? Come to find out we had to fill out a sheet of paper with our names and where we’re from for the port authority in Columbia. They were behind us when we passed the sheet back. So, small world. They just moved to the Tampa area in August last year from Indian River Plantation, about 10-15 minutes from us. They gave us the name of their realtor, Barbara McCormick, whom they highly recommend. You just never know who you’re gonna run into.

I don’t know what the weather was like at home today but here it was pushing 90 degrees and humid. Our first stop after boarding the ship was food. Our breakfasts were long gone. It was after 2:00 at this point. (Thank you Celebrity for keeping the cafe open later than normal [2:30] to accommodate all of us returning from excursions.) The first thing I did upon returning to our cabin was take a shower. Time for a nap now! Hoping the seas have calmed down since last night.

The nap felt wonderful. Having an 8-8:30 dinner reservation at the Tuscan Grill was nice since it gave us more time. We went down a little earlier to check in with the hostess in hopes they could seat us a little earlier. We don’t usually eat that late and figured this would not be a light dinner. Amazingly, they were able to seat us at 7:30 which worked out perfectly! They had a creamy burrata as an appetizer I just couldn’t pass up. Mmmmm it was so good. For my entree I ended up ordering the Lobster Rigatoni which was wonderful. Bob and Sarah both got the filet mignon – cooked to perfection. DE got the veal and it was good just not as good as everything else. And oh my word … they had a marbled pistachio creme brûlée for dessert that there are just no words for. Bob sampled the fig gelato and it was also yummy. But hands down the brûlée was the best dessert of the trip so far.

The Wedding Games (spin off of the Newlywed Game) started at 10:30 in the main theater. They do that on every cruise (Celebrity) we’ve been on and it’s always worth attending. We laughed until we couldn’t breathe. Of course the cruise director plays a big part in the comics of the event. Ian did not disappoint. We look forward to this part of the entertainment every cruise.

Note to self: we cross time zones tonight so we lose an hour. We’ll get it back in a few days though so all is good. We arrive in Aruba at 3:00 tomorrow and dinner reservations at the Barefoot Restaurant at 5:30. Looking forward to it!!

Next day …