Is there no Colombia board?

[GloriaF]

Hi,

I'm trying to plan shore excursions for our upcoming Panama Canal cruise (partial transit) on Coral Princess 10/31/07. We will be in Cartagena on Sunday, 11/4, and can't decide what to do.

 

We usually like to take private tours, but are a little nervous about roaming freely in Colombia. We would appreciate any helpful information and tips any of you could provide.

 

Thanks in advance!

[jff50]

Hi,

I'm trying to plan shore excursions for our upcoming Panama Canal cruise (partial transit) on Coral Princess 10/31/07. We will be in Cartagena on Sunday, 11/4, and can't decide what to do.

 

We usually like to take private tours, but are a little nervous about roaming freely in Colombia. We would appreciate any helpful information and tips any of you could provide.

 

Thanks in advance!

We are doing a full transit on the Island Princess on 12/4/07, also stopping in Cartagena. I have stopped there twice on prior canal cruises (about 25 and 15 years ago), and am really looking forward to it. I think that we will end up taking a Princess excursion (best of Cartagena and fortress). Whatever you do, please post and let us know what you did and how you liked it.

[mii]

Gloria I found by looking at the South American Board and then to Search this forum and putting in Cartegena some stuff does comes up. Now some of it is old but there may be some info there you want.

 

marilyn

[GloriaF]

Thanks for the replies. I had also considered the Cartegena and Fortress tour. I think first I will do a search and see what I get. Again, thanks mii and jff50.

[Grannycb]

We are on the same cruise as jff50. I think we will be doing the Panoramic Cartagena, Folkloric Show & Shopping. I'm not much on the shopping but do enjoy folklore shows.

[elaineagogo]

I did go to the South America forums and put in Cartagena and did get help in finding LeLand@MisterEmerald.com I sent him an email to see what he is offering in the way of tours I see that some people just get a taxi in Port but I am not comfortable with that. We are on the Island Princess November 3th and I don't like the ship tours to many people but I will see what this Mr Lee Miles has to say if he replys I will post when he does.

[ecslady]

Yes, it seems that Columbia is kind of here and there. I will also be stopping there in early November on the Azamara Journey - actually we make 3 Columbian stops - Cartagena, Santa Marta & San Andres Island -all belonging to Columbia. It seems that there is not much info out there at all. so,, if anyone has info...please post.... Thanks...:)

[britsbest]

Any cartagena info yet?

[cruzobsessed]

anyone know anyone who has taken an excursion to ROSARIO ISLAND?

[frqntcrzr]

Check out the Web site http://www.tourcartagena.info/ run by Cristian Martinez

 

My wife and I just got back from a repositioning cruise from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale on board the Coral Princess. We had previously arranged a three hour walking tour with Cristian Martinez over the Internet for October 7th. Cristian was unable, because of knee surgery, to conduct our tour so he had one of his associates name Antonio (see his Web site) do the honors of conducting the tour. Antonio was very knowledgable and informative making it a very pleasant experience. The only thing uncomfortable about the tour was the relatively high temperature and humidity at the time.

 

It seemed that the Coral Princess was the first cruise ship of the season. Cartagena made a big presentation of greeting the ship and its passengers with a lots of music, treats, and dancing on the dock.

 

We felt perfectly safe walking through the city. There did seem to be a fairly large police/military presence in the city, but they were friendly. We even asked a member of the policia comercial to take a picture of us, and he seemed pleased to oblige.

 

We had heard of fearful rumblings on the part of several of our fellow cruise passengers about Cartagena, but did not see anything to indicate something to be really wary of. There were many vendors selling their goods as well as the occasional beggar, but no one got overly aggressive or pushy.

 

Antonio, we learned, was a high school teacher of French and Spanish in Columbia. He was knowledgable about the city and was able to answer questions about various aspects of life in Columbia. He is a very pleasant individual and made the tour interesting.

 

Because of the short time that we were in Cartagena, we did not have time to stop for lunch - something that we would have liked to do.

 

We highly recommend taking one of Cristian's walking tours.

[leonadeb]

How was the walking in Cartagena? We were thinking of doing the shopping/Monastery tour but my husband has a heart condition and I was wondering how much climbing was involved with the tour.

[takemewithyou]

Just returned and was in Cartegena on Sunday. We did a tour through the ship - HAL Volendam. We docked at an industrial area. The buses met us at the dock. First went to La Popa Monastery - high on a hill overlooking Cartegena. They took us to the top and there was very little distance to walk to the monestery. Beautiful views of the harbor. There were many vendors trying to sell us things. Then we went to the fort, but did not stop. I think because it would involve lots of stairs and it wasn't suitable for most of the people on the tour. Then we went into the walled old city. Beautiful architecture. We did have to walk aways as the bus left us off and we walked to the Palace of the Inquisition down narrow and uneven cobble stone streets that the bus couldn't have gone through. We went to a town square near the palce and there were more vendors and some beggars. The city has a lot of poverty and there were lots of military and police around. Never really felt unsafe, but I was glad I had gone with a tour and not on our own.

[leonadeb]

Thanks for all the info!:)