R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 56

Fun Photo Friday — Southern Caribbean; ABC Islands — Aruba

Royal Plaza Mall

Today’s Fun Photo Friday brings to a close the “A” in the ABC Islands. Next week we move on to “B”. That would be Bonaire, and we covered a lot on that visit so I’ll be running articles over a couple of weeks. Until then, here’s today’s photo gallery:

A fun reminder of where you’ve been is to photograph a local license plate Ursula sharing a bench with a friendly cow Blue on White SharQy’s Cantina

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Southern Caribbean Cruising — ABC Islands; Aruba shopping at Noble Jewelers

Noble Jewelers — Across from Royal Plaza Mall

The store I alluded to on Monday’s article was Noble Jewelers, which shares a building with Kay Fine Jewelry (yep, that Kay’s; like the one in your local mall). But before I begin, let me assure you that I was in no way compensated for this article, nor was it requested by the proprietors at Noble Jewelers. Indeed, this article will probably come as a surprise to them once I send word of it to them. Here is the gentleman who helped us on our quest...

Southern Caribbean Cruising — ABC Islands; Aruba

This Southern Caribbean series is not in my usual chronological order. It just made more sense to me to include the ABC Islands in a single grouping rather than interspersing these three islands of the Netherlands Antilles among other destinations. And to take it a step further, I’m presenting the ABCs in alphabetical order just for fun.

Oranjestad, Aruba — The “A” in the ABC Islands

Thus, today I present to you the “A” in the ABC Islands, Aruba, as I take you on a visual tour of its ca...

Fun Photo Friday — Southern Caribbean; Cartagena Favorites 2

Next week we travel to another Southern Caribbean destination from our February-March 2022 cruise adventure aboard Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas. So far, and not quite in order, I’ve shown you the Grenadines (Saint Vincent and Bequia), Panama (canal and Panama City), and Cartagena. Still to go are Dominica, Grenada, Port Limón in Costa Rica, and the ABCs — Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. We didn’t visit the ABCs in order, so I’m inclined to just go with those three alphabetical order ...

Southern Caribbean Cruising — Cartagena

Cartagena Cathedral sundial

At the southeast corner of the Cartagena Cathedral is this rather impressive looking fellow:

Cartagena Cathedral

Lost yet? Don’t let this street sign mislead you, as I’m posting it out of sequence from our walk:

Calle of the Inquisition

From the cathedral we meandered through several streets with bright colors:

Cartagena, Columbia Cartagena, Columbia

Eventually we found ourselves in Plaza de la Aduana (Customs Plaza), and there to great us was none...

Southern Caribbean Cruising — Cartagena

Last Monday in photos from the bastion I showed you a pink dome in the distance. Today I shall reveal what that was. It’s the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria. We’ll just shorten that to Cartagena Cathedral, like everyone else does. Construction began in 1575 and was completed 37 years later. This beautifully ornate pink and yellow tower looks great from the front:

Cartagena Cathedral

But it is equally impressive from the south wall as well:

Cartagena Cathedral...

Fun Photo Friday — Southern Caribbean; Cartagena Favorites 1

Time for Part 1 of 2 Fun Photo Friday Cartagena favorites.

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Southern Caribbean Cruising — Cartagena; Touring Old Town

Taking aim and the new section of Cartagena

We still have much to see and do here in Cartagena, so I’ll be showing you the sights both this week and next. But I’m going to depart from the usual and just jump around, mixing and matching photos as the mood strikes me. It’ll almost be like two weeks of consecutive Fun Photo Fridays, only with more text among the photos. If you like this little experiment, or if you don’t, just let me know. Before we go traipsing around Cartagena, though, let’s ...

Southern Caribbean Cruising — Arriving Cartagena, Columbia

Cartagena, Columbia has a rather unique cruise terminal. Exiting the ship you enter Port Oasis, which in addition to the usual tourist shopping, also has an extensive zoo area called Park Cartagena. The emphasis was on local birds. For instance, peacocks roamed freely everywhere:

Male peacock struttin’ his stuff

A wide array of brightly colored parrots perched alongside the walkways:

The Parrots of the Caribbean

This big guy seemed to really enjoy his closeup:

“I’m ready for my ...

Fun Photo Friday — Southern Caribbean; Panama City favorites

We had a wonderful time experiencing Panama City despite the poverty. And I got a lot of really great Fun Photo Friday material, as you can see from today’s gallery/slide show:

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