trip to the cities of the mar caribe

We enjoyed our trip to the famous Colombian city of Cartegena, especially walking through the old walled colonial city. The streets are narrow and the buildings very old, some of which have been restored and renovated for business and government use. The streets were filled with lots of North American looking people from two cruise ships anchored nearby. US dollars were accepted. We walked through the narrow streets, sat in the inevitable plaza with the statue of the gran libertador, Simon Bolivar. We had our picture taken with native-dressed women, and with a statue of a black man, which was an actual man. We walked on the wall with its canons and guard outposts. We were told two interesting but unsubstantiated facts about the wall, one that it was made from coral reefs, thus destroying this spectacular under water treasure, and the other that the blood of black slaves was used as mortar.