Yesterday, we flew to Cartagena.  Colombia really knows how to keep things moving at an airport — we were through customs in 20 minutes and made our connecting flight with time to spare.  The U.S. could take a lesson…

Today, we explored Cartagena.  I think we might be falling in love…Everyone has been so friendly so far and the city is beautiful.

We walked all around the old quarter:

Old quarter of Cartagena

We walked on the old walls:

On top of the old walls of Cartagena

We sat on cannons:

Robert on a cannon

We saw cool door knockers (apparently, the door knocker used to signify who lived there — lizards were for royalty because of some myth that lizards could detect snakes from a distance):

Lizard door knocker

We stopped at the Juan Valdez cafe (come on, you know we had to…):

Drinking coffee

We saw an old pope (not that we even knew it was a pope until our tour guide told us although I guess the pointy hat should have been a dead giveaway):

Pope John Paul II

And Simon Bolivar (right next to the inquisition museum, which we are hoping to visit later):

Simon Bolivar on a horse

And Christopher Columbus (apparently considered a bit of a hero around these parts):

Statue of Christopher Columbus

And a famous fat lady made by Botero (apparently, we will see more of these in Medellin, as the artist is from there):

Botero statue in a square

And the creepiest statue ever (apparently, it is supposed to be a priest and a slave):

Creepy priest and slave statue

We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe (but only because they have clean bathrooms — it was getting to be an emergency — and only for drinks):

At the Hard Rock

We saw an amazing sunset:

Sunset of the coast of Cartagena

And we finished the day with pizza and popsicles (seriously, they have stores here that sell nothing but popsicles):

Popsicles!

Tomorrow, we are going on a street food tour.  If we aren’t head over heels tonight, I suspect we will be by tomorrow night….