I think we are falling in love with Cartagena (pronounced Cart-a-hey-na).

If you can imagine a cross between the French Quarter of New Orleans and the Mission District of San Francisco it’s not like that at all. Nowhere in America could you put up a random scaffolding of 2x4s to prop up your balcony and roof, but it’s pretty common in the old town here.

Yesterday morning we docked Mantra at the marina, a tricky process that involved one of the marina staff diving down to attach mooring lines to an underwater chain.

As you can see the waterfront is lined with skyscrapers, mostly white. This is just a few of them, there are lots more. However, the heart of Cartagena is Old Town, a walled city founded in 1533. The walls are still all intact, armed and ready to defend against pirates, the Royal Navy, or battle swans.

Inside the walls is a jumble of alleys and squares, overhung with balconies and full of tourists (mostly from Latin America) and locals trying to sell them stuff. The vendors are friendlier and less aggressive than in Jamaica, though.

We have left Mantra and moved to an AirBnB apartment in one of the few modern buildings in Old Town. Yeah for air conditioning and a rooftop swimming pool. When we went up to the pool to cool off there was only one other couple there, a San Francisco night club owner and his wife. Our travels don’t seem so extreme when you meet someone who’s idea of a vacation is going on tour with the Rolling Stones.

Our neighborhood square…

… has a former church with stained glass windows that turn into a psychedelic light show at night…

… and a statue of a guy playing guitar and smoking a cigarette at the same time.

In the evening we ate at one of the restaurants there.

The food was really good, and quite inexpensive by US standards. Great people watching, too. Then back to sleep in a full sized bed which is not rolling around. Luxury!