Hi Everyone!
We explored Cartagena today, driving through the old and new towns for an overview. It was founded in 1533 and was a walled city -- walls are 50 feet thick at some places, with rusted guns still in place. This fortress on top of a high hill guards the city from pirates and enemy attacks, while a statue of the sailor's Virgin in the harbor welcomes sailors and fishermen home. Several other low and high decorative walls are made of coral. The town was a typical Latin American city with a modern highrise skyline of offices, apartments and condos, while other parts of the town are slums, interspersed with some higher income residen
tial areas. We visited several shops and a je
wellery manufacturing store -- of course we had to buy emeralds in the Emerald Capital of the world!
The surrounding countryside is very dense jungle inhabited by unfriendly Amerindians -- anyone moving to Cartagena wanting to have their car with them, has to have it shipped because there will probably never be a highway built for easy land access to Cartagena.
COSTA RICA:
Spent the day in Costa Rica yesterday. The countryside is very lush and green, with lots of hills and jungle vegetation. It’s a typical Latin American scene, with small tin-roofed houses and a few larger more expensive villas, probably belonging to Americans. Pay is about $400/month with rents running about $250. Villas can probably be purchased for $85 to $100 thousand dollars, and there’s lots of For Sale signs around. Tourism is the main industry, with cantaloupes and melons next, followed by bananas and coffee. The literacy rate is very high, and they have socialized medicine.
They’re very ecologically aware, and protect their wildlife in their natural habitats. We saw a white faced capuchin monkey, a racoon, a scarlet mackaw which is absolutely beautiful with the sun glinting on it, lots of other birds, white oxen and horses, and alligators.
We’re at sea today, just catching up. It’s been very calm and we’ve been lucky to miss rain showers.
More later -- I still haven’t mastered how to include pictures -- I’m still working on it. Regards!
We explored Cartagena today, driving through the old and new towns for an overview. It was founded in 1533 and was a walled city -- walls are 50 feet thick at some places, with rusted guns still in place. This fortress on top of a high hill guards the city from pirates and enemy attacks, while a statue of the sailor's Virgin in the harbor welcomes sailors and fishermen home. Several other low and high decorative walls are made of coral. The town was a typical Latin American city with a modern highrise skyline of offices, apartments and condos, while other parts of the town are slums, interspersed with some higher income residen
tial areas. We visited several shops and a je
wellery manufacturing store -- of course we had to buy emeralds in the Emerald Capital of the world!The surrounding countryside is very dense jungle inhabited by unfriendly Amerindians -- anyone moving to Cartagena wanting to have their car with them, has to have it shipped because there will probably never be a highway built for easy land access to Cartagena.
COSTA RICA:
Spent the day in Costa Rica yesterday. The countryside is very lush and green, with lots of hills and jungle vegetation. It’s a typical Latin American scene, with small tin-roofed houses and a few larger more expensive villas, probably belonging to Americans. Pay is about $400/month with rents running about $250. Villas can probably be purchased for $85 to $100 thousand dollars, and there’s lots of For Sale signs around. Tourism is the main industry, with cantaloupes and melons next, followed by bananas and coffee. The literacy rate is very high, and they have socialized medicine.
They’re very ecologically aware, and protect their wildlife in their natural habitats. We saw a white faced capuchin monkey, a racoon, a scarlet mackaw which is absolutely beautiful with the sun glinting on it, lots of other birds, white oxen and horses, and alligators.
We’re at sea today, just catching up. It’s been very calm and we’ve been lucky to miss rain showers.More later -- I still haven’t mastered how to include pictures -- I’m still working on it. Regards!
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