Colombia

The vacation hotspot.  No really, Colombia was so hot!  There were customers for all those hat sellers.

The only thing I knew about Colombia two years ago was their reputation for drugs.  When we moved to Peru I was surprised at the pride the Colombians have for their country because were they not aware of their reputation?  Their stories about their beautiful country and the amazing food was convincing so we had to see for ourselves.

So our four days in Cartagena, Colombia. 

Our first stop was lunch.  Emily and Lonny have already widely discussed that juice will be one of the things they miss when we leave South America. You just can not imagine the flavors available at any ordinary restaurant.  Emily is hooked on strawberry and trying to replicate it's production.  Lonny will try about anything.

Our last meal in Colombia Emily had pineapple juice and Lonny had limeade with mint. They were so lovely we had to take a picture.

And from Wikipedia; Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is a fortress in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. The castle is located on the Hill of San Lázaro dominating approaches to the city by land or sea. It was built by the Spanish beginning in the year 1536.

In other words, really old.

When I first saw the climb to the top of the fortress I thought, No.  We had left our house on Wednesday night at 9 to go to the airport.  After a night of flying and sitting around the Bogota airport during the night we arrived in Cartagena Thursday at 9 a.m.  We left our suitcases at the hotel until we could check in at 3.  So being completely refreshed:( we climbed a mountain in the very hot sun with all the senior citizens fresh off an ocean cruise.

The climb actually was not that bad and from the top you could see in every direction all of Cartagena.

Emily wants to know how many pictures we need with her and a cannon.  I don't know if you can have too many.

There were tunnels all through the fort and open to explore.  I don't mind but Emily and Lonny have both been known to have claustrophobia when underground and I don't want to be left with them.  My phobia is them and their phobias.

Fortunately we always found our way out.

Emily was wearing a BYU shirt so some of the cruise people told us they were on a Book of Mormon cruise.

Our hotel was in old town which is a historic part of the city where you guessed it, everything is old,

and surrounded by a massive wall.

Emily posted this photo on Facebook and was told that the 80's movie Romancing the Stone takes place in Cartagena.  Now I need to watch it again.

There were so many beautiful buildings.  We took a horse drawn carriage around old town in the evening.

Many of the buildings were beautifully restored, others needed some work.

The streets were so narrow and only one lane and one way.  The taxi's were all the same and very small.

Yellow is their favorite color, or else there was a sale on yellow paint.

Our hotel was across from a park,

with a courtyard inside where we ate breakfast.

Our room had two floors,

a balcony,

and two beds for Emily.  One where she could hit her head and the other where she imagined falling over the railing.