Cruise The World With Us 2026

Wednesday – January 21, 2026 – cruise day 17

Featured photo today is a macaw that decided it wanted to be in a selfie with us. This bird is one of several we saw at an aviary next to the pier where MSC Magnifica docked.

Today we are in Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena is the 5th largest city (by population) in Colombia with around 1.5 million in the metro area. The largest city in Colombia (and also its capital) is Bogata with over 8 million. If you’d like to know more about Cartagena, click here. Virtually everyone on the ship took the same tour today – what is called a “city tour”. There were plenty of buses lined up on the dock (you’ll see that in the photos) and they were running all day to accommodate the 3,000 passengers.

We started with a short ride to an area of town called Getsemani which is inside a stone wall built to protect the city inhabitants. We exited the bus and began a walking tour that included narrow streets, wall paintings, art displays and a street filled with umbrellas. The story of the umbrellas can be found here (used to be a high crime area but the residents cleaned it up and used the umbrellas to indicate safe areas). On one of the streets a vendor with a cart of plantains stopped so we could see them in various stages of ripening. There are plenty of photos of the streets we visited in this area.

Next, we spent a few minutes atop the stone wall surrounding Getsemani from which you can see “little Miami” (high-rise area of Cartagena) and fort Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. We boarded the bus and drove to the fort for a few minutes to view the exterior. If you wanted to see inside, you could purchase a ticket, but it would have to be done after our tour finished.

From the fort we drove past an area that once was a prison and now has shops with items for sale primarily for tourists. Cartagena is a city with many poor people who approach you trying to sell items. It you want to buy from these street vendors, we were told always to bargain – if they say $40, you offer $20. If they say $20, you offer $10 – and so on.

We parked near an area that has an emerald museum (and stores offering emeralds of all types for sale). Lots of street vendors who are very persistent. Jan bought a couple t-shirts and did some haggling for the final price. I stayed in the bus because twice people “stole” my seat and I ended up sitting in the middle of the back of the bus. I didn’t want that to happen again. Jan and Kelsey told me I didn’t really miss anything on this departure from the bus.

We loaded up and returned to the area of the cruise terminal. When we arrived, we found an aviary that also included other animals. We saw primarily birds (like the one that photobombed us) along with turtles and an anteater. Took lots of photos of the birds because they were colorful.

While in Cartagena, the ship was resupplied with lots of food and now we have Coca-Cola products (something we haven’t had on this voyage).

We headed for our cabin and upon entering were surprised to see a chilled bottle of Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut and a plate of 4 different types of cookies. There was a note thanking us for our responses to the excursion surveys. As we were surveying these goodies there was a knock on the door. We answered it and found the chief carpenter and his assistant were here to fix the leak in our shower. They went to the bathroom and began working to put plastic strips on the bottom of the shower door which were intended to keep the shower water from leaking onto the bathroom floor.

There was another knock on the door and this time it was a waiter with another chilled bottle of Moet & Chandon and a plate of cookies. We have no idea why those came to us. As we were examining this delivery, another knock at the door and it was the ship’s facility manager (reports directly to the captain). He had come to check the work done by the carpenters. Also hanging in the hallway were 2 cabin stewards who accompany the carpenters and facility manager to let them into rooms where they work. With all those staff here, we decided to offer cookies to them. They all accepted and thanked us so they must have been good. We still had more than a full plate of cookies so I guess we will need to try them later today. The result of the visit by the carpenters was that the shower appeared to be fixed. The facilities manager gave his approval and left. Tomorrow we will know if the work did the job when we take showers.

To date we have been given 3 bottles of champagne and 4 bottles of prosecco. We have yet to pop the cork on any of them. Looks like we should have a party!

Tonight’s entertainment was Daniel Mime who also performed on the Sunday the 18th. I didn’t take any photos because the skits didn’t lend themselves to photos.

Tomorrow, we have a day at sea as we make our way to the East coast of Costa Rica.

You can view today’s photos here.