The 1984 movie “Romancing the Stone” mentions Cartagena thru out. The movie characters of Jack and Joan undergo several perilous adventures in the wilds of Colombia. The treasure turns out to be a valuable jewel, an Emerald the size of a baseball. This is what Columbia is known for, Emeralds!
Interestingly, the destination of the bus she got on, Castillo de San Felipe, is in Cartagena and where she was instructed to go to hand over the ransom later in the movie. We went by this as well as other locations thru out the movie. The Castillo took 19 years to build and was finished in 1566.
Cartagena has a population of 900,000. The average temp is 90* with 40 inches of rain a year right at the Caribbean Sea so you can imagine the high humidity here coupled with the extreme heat!
This was a heavy slave trading center. It is a walled city and was attacked for it’s ‘white gold’, the emeralds. The walls are 12 feet high; a lot of the stone work is coral rock. There are 2 forts upon entering the harbor, one on each side.
One fort coming into harbor
High tides flood the streets everyday. There is talk of the city erecting a sea wall.
Narrow streets, with many flower boxes, it is a beautiful city. The architecture is definitely Spanish. Very clean environment, we saw no liter on the streets.
There are many street vendors as in the other countries but not as pushy. There are beggars here with their cups out for coins, some are handicapped. We are told that kidnapping is frequent, just for the ransom monies. A lot of silver jewelry as well as necklaces being sold, a constant flow of vendors in your face as you keep up with tour guide. T-shirts, leather goods from wallets to shoes, sandals, coffee are sold.
We go to the theater for a local folk dance.
As we enter we are given our choice of a free water or Pepsi bottle. A swarm of us around the table as we are told it’s on the other side too. We turn and take a step towards the other table when another tour guide is showing someone where something is. She has her back to me and as her right arm flings out… Bull’s-eye! Her knuckles right into my left eye with my contacts in. Yes, it is very painful! I’m worried tho about where the contact went cuz I can’t see ~ it’s been pushed off the eyeball and upwards leaving behind a nasty blood blister. Next thing I know someone is saying my eye is bleeding and B dabs for me. My vision is not lost altho I have a huge red eye and a big bruise on the eyelid. The lady that hit me quickly disappears into the crowd w/o uttering a word. It was an accident and an “I’m sorry” would have been nice. We thankfully have brought our own wet washcloth for the heat and we soak with water to use in keeping the swelling down for the remainder of the tour.
I don’t see much of the dance but B captures the pics. Also thankful the theater was dark and air conditioned. I don’t think I could have survived as well in this intense heat. This is not the souvenir nor birthday present I expected!
There are mimes thru out the city in various poses, until one moves a small bit, you would never know! 
"Flavorful" Cartagena! 
Tonight is a formal night and B has ordered a small cake, Riesling with dinner and all the specialties for the evening. Balloons have been placed outside our cabin door and here I am with a horrible eye.
But it was a fabulous birthday that I will never forget!
Happy Birthday Too.
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