The Old City Walls
On the way to our next stop we passed this street art on the side of a building.
The next stop was the wall around the Old City. Bert seemed disappointed that we all wanted to walk up the ramp to see the views.
Back down the ramp, along the busy road, we passed a Jeep that was rigged out as a coffee station.
We followed Bert past lots of shops until we reached his ‘favourite’.
The shops were all under the wall and had arched ceilings. The rooms had been barracks for Spanish soldiers and after independence had been used as prison cells.
We did buy a bottle of water for a $1 (I should have had a beer as this became our only port visit where I didn’t sample a local beer.) There were loos by the door and we joined the queue. Once back on the coach we waited for 15 minutes for the last couple to make it back. Perhaps Bert should have said when we should have been back on the coach?
The Naval Museum
From the coach I took these images.
Next stop was the Naval Museum where we learnt about the history of the city and looked models of the various forts as they evolved over the years.
We were given the promised cool drink and we sat in a hall waiting for the dancers to show us some local dancing and music.
Into the Old City
From there we walked around the the building and into the Old City. Our first call was a museum, followed by an exhibition about the Spanish Inquisition, then a look at the associated church and finally one of the emerald shops in the city.
We were hassled at every step of the way between each of these venues. The temperature was now in the 90s and the humidity was off the scale.
We did have free time at the Emerald shop(!). Perhaps this was to allow us more time for shopping. Instead I went outside to observe the street and everyone passing by.
Where some of the Inquisitions took place.
We did a circular tour around a couple of city blocks
that lead us back to where we had entered the Old City …
… by the entrance to the churches and the museums. These were some of the sculptures there.
