Around the World:
107 Days, 40 Ports, 30 Countries, 12 Seas
One Eye, One Arm, One Leg
By Camilia Guendel
Don Blas de Lezo, hero of Cartagena, Colombia, lost all three of the title’s body parts in his battle against the British but emerged victorious, and Spanish is still spoken in that picturesque city as a result.
Cartagena was the second stop on our 2010 world cruise. We had sailed from Fort Lauderdale on January 27 and after a day in Aruba and several at sea, we entered the Bay of Cartagena at dawn on February 1. Expecting a small South American city, we were surprised to see high-rise buildings etching the skyline.
As we sailed deeper into the port, an ancient monastery loomed and below it sat a huge fort. Built in the shape of a trapezoid with no vertical walls, it had deflected many a British bullet — ingenious technology for the 17th century. Forgoing the ship excursions — which can be costly — we joined another couple and hired a taxi to take us through Cartagena’s Old City. With great gusto he drove us through cobblestoned streets, past brightly covered homes, picturesque squares and proudly showed us a 16th century wall, 15 kilometers long, which had protected the area.
History came alive as we learned of British Admiral Vernon (for whom Washington named his estate), who attacked the city in 1741 with a fleet of 180 ships and 28,000 men — the largest se invasion in history until WWII’s Normandy invasion. It was during this invasion that Don Blas de Lezo, lost his three body parts while defeating the invaders. Before the battle, Vernon assumed he was about to win the battle and so informed King George II who had a coin forged — then quickly destroyed when the true story arrived; a copy of the medal is carved into the statue of Don Blas, so the British humiliation lives on.
Along with history, the Old City offers excellent shopping in the boutiques housed in the beautiful colonnade of the former prison and its dungeons. Street vendors abound and the quality of their wares is amazingly good. My husband Neal’s t-shirt survived many a shipboard washing and still appears new. In the newer part of town reputable high-end stores sell quality emeralds at reasonable prices; I resisted temptation, however, and stuck with the t-shirt!
The next day of the trip was a highlight as we crossed from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Panama Canal, a journey of 10 hours and 80 kilometers. The day began with breakfast on the balcony and live commentary from our stateroom TV as we entered the first of the six sets of locks. Pacific Princess was tethered fore and aft of both port and starboard sides to chunky little railroad engines that pulled us forward and kept us steady as busy little tugboats scurried about nudging the ship in the right direction. Water quickly filled each lock and we moved on to the next as workers on shore wave and shouted greetings. A parallel set of lanes is under construction to allow for today’s increasingly larger ships that cannot fit the current canal locks. A container ship passed us in the opposite direction with a mere two feet of space between its bulk and the wall of the lock, an incredible sight to witness.
Three sets of locks took us up to manmade Gatun Lake dotted with beautiful islands, then three more sets took us back down, past Panama City, to sea level and into the Pacific, and we headed up the Central American coast.
More about that in next month’s chapter, so stay tuned.