“Mangrove Eco Canoe Journey” was the title of our shore excursion today. The forecast was heat with thunderstorms. There were no cancellations today as we took a bus trip through the city to Boquilla where the mangrove swamps provide a fishing spot for locals.

On the way, our tour guide gave us some general facts about his country. The population of Colombia is 50 million, with 8 million of those coming in as immigrants from Venezuela. Living here for six years without leaving makes immigrants eligible for citizenship. The capital city, Bogotá, has 9 million citizens and is cold with an elevation of 8,660 feet. Major contributors to the economy are tourism (we are part of the 3 million visitors per year), agriculture and car racing (maybe he’s a fan?). He didn’t talk about textiles or mining, but we did visit another Jade shop after our canoe trip. Locals here consider themselves Caribbean people in language and culture.

The last picture in the group above looks very green and beautiful, but we were a bit disappointed by the lack of wildlife to be seen. We saw mostly crabs, but few birds or fish. The water was cloudy, but that could have been because of the rain. A sunny day may bring a different experience. We did have one demonstration of net casting and a fisherman showed off his morning catch for us as the warm rain fell and thunder sounded a bit close. Tony had our raincoats in his pack, but we were too nervous to move much in the canoe to put them on. As promised, we did not row the canoe at all; we had a guide in the back with a pole and paddle to move our very tippy canoe through the mangrove. We got to drink fresh coconut juice when we finished, which was a new experience for us. We were not cold, in spite of being wet.

After we returned to the bus, we stopped at a Jade store across the street from the San Felipe de Barajas Fort. Due to the thunder, we did not attempt to explore the fort. The photos below were taken from the bus on our way to the Mangrove. There was a famous one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed Spanish officer who managed to turn back the English here in the 18th century. He only had six boats and this fort to defend the port from 195 English ships.

We had the option of getting off the bus early on the return trip to walk through the Cartagena Port Oasis before walking back to the ship. This is a small wildlife sanctuary with a store that is adjacent to the cruise terminal and with many colorful birds to watch.

Even though the thunderstorm was a little scary in the mangrove swamp, the rain kept us comfortable in these 80+ degree temperatures. It would be fun to go back to visit the fishing village and explore the fort ruins and more of the city.