A Party in the Desert - Cartegena

View of dry Mucia coast from Observation Lounge of Silver Spirit

Cartegena public art or petrified gentleman after earth slide. Note old town wall.

Ruins of Roman amphitheatre and of old cathedral, Cartegena   

Silver Spirit in Cartegena Harbor

Circular elevator, Cartegena

Crew members Skyping home from free hot spot on Cartegena pier

Looks like we "did" Carthegena during our morning walk

Underwhelming "old Roman road" in Cartegena museum

Little girl in "traditional" dress for Cartegena festival

Old couple in "traditional" dress for Cartegena festival

Gigantic paella cooking for Cartegena festival

Street celebrations started up after lunch for "traditional" festival in Cartegena

Kid in "traditional" garb for Cartegena festival

Even the bar waitresses celebrate "traditional" festival dancing in Cartengena 

Bartender Logie effecting a modest pose

Saturday - 3 May 2014 - Cartegena, Spain

As were many of the ports on this two ship 25 day cruise, Cartegena founded in 227 BC was new for me. Our first view of the Murcia Coast of Spain from the Silver Spirit's Observation Lounge did not look promising. Unlike around Malaga some two hundred miles west, the landscape here was very dry and the air was dusty. It reminded me of Greece.

But we had heard nice things about Cartegena from Dave and Ellen who had been there on a cruise recently. Barbara and I ventured out as soon as we had been "cleared by the local authorities", whatever that means, and found a pretty modern small boat harbor and a pretentious redeveloped waterfront with curious public art. No big deal but pleasant enough for a morning walk before the heat came up. We headed for the Roman Ruin which was adjacent to the ruins of a cathedral, ascended the adjacent hill, and then took the traditional picture of the ship at the small pier, small at least for the cruise crazy Mediterranean. 

As we walked around the nice park on the top of the hill I couldn't help noticing an interesting pedestrian bridge and circular elevator. Now I was more interested. We took the elevator down to sea level and found that they had no provision for selling tickets for the tourist who takes the lift down only. Things were now looking up. See picture. (Pun intended). We returned to the pier, observing that the free WiFi at the tourist office had attracted a bunch of the ship's crew members, and then boarded Silver Spirit for lunch. The walk covering pretty much the entire town was nice enough, but I guess Barbara and I have walked around enough quaint, redeveloped, touristic towns that may have begun to be corrupted by the cruise trade.

But we were a bit intrigued by the somewhat hectic activity we had observed by the residents during our morning's explorations. There were decorations were being strung across alleyways, lots of beer was being loaded onto makeshift outdoor bars and restaurants, and even more than the usual number of delivery vehicles that seem to block the pedestrian only downtown streets worldwide. Nothing had been mentioned in the port briefing by the ship's tour desk manager*, but we decided to check out what might be going on after we had lunch on board. 

I figured that at worst I'd come back quickly to the pier and join the crew at the free WiFi provided by the Cartegena Tourist Bureau (providing that they hadn't sucked up all the IP addresses). So we walked back into town, visiting on the way a modern looking museum under an old building claiming it was a, "well preserved Roman dwelling." Actually, it was a small fresco and remnants of an old Roman Road. Now, that was 8 euro well spent, if seeing some 2000 year old paving blocks is worth 8 euro. But things started to get very interesting when we walked down the side streets.

First we saw a little girl dressed in traditional garb, then an old couple already partying, but most of all we knew something was going on when we saw a paella cooking that appeared to be bigger than my Corolla. This explained the huge quantities of beer being delivered that morning. Festivities had already started. By now, bands were playing traditional music on every street. It was not hard to track each separate venue down since amplifiers boosted the already loud bands to Boeing 747 taking off levels of decibels. The kids were adorable, but the best sight was at one of the makeshift bars where a number of women were dancing and singing a traditional dance while the two women bartenders were performing the same moves at their stations. Apparently, the Cartegenians know how to party, exactly the same party, but they all know it well.

We returned to the ship shortly before sailing and had a celebratory beer behind the Panorama Lounge's veranda served by one of my favorite bartenders, Logie. She has been with Silversea for the better part of its 20 years existence and is now sending her son through medical school. Pretty good for a ship without tipping.

At six pm we sailed for Valencia, the last port call on our 16 night Silver Spirit cruise.

*Follow up: The ship's cruise desk personal not only did not know of this once a year festival but also gave the traditional, it's someone else's fault we were ignorant, excuse blaming the tour operators, Silversea HQ, and I seem to remember the Spanish economy, or the weather. Everything else but their lack of interest in googling a few days in advance what might be going on locally in each port. I suspect this is a consequence of the tour desk staff being overloaded with other duties, but a number of passengers who had been on all day tours said they would have loved to have seen at least a little of the festival had they known about it. For our own information shortly before sailing I ventured back to the Tourist Office onshore, pushing my way past the ever increasing crowd of ship's crew members skyping back to the Philippines, only to find the office had closed. (Something about their Internet being unusable due to overload, or something like that.) But I did ask the security guard on the pier who spoke some English. He told me that the annual fair in Cartegena was based on "some Roman holiday", but the locals had decided to make it a traditional Spanish celebration. Kind of like the cathedral (now in ruins) that was built with stones from the Roman amphitheatre and temple.