What a shock, we’ve found yet another new city that is our new favorite….this time it’s Cartegena. Like Cadiz, this is a modern city that is living on top of their history. In this case, they were digging to build something new in the 90’s and found the remains of a Roman amphitheater! For 6€, and less than a 10 minute walk to downtown, you can explore the ruins that have been uncovered. Started as a Roman amphitheater built between 5 and 1 BCE, it partially crumbled and then when the Moors came the foundations were used to build a medina. Centuries later a cathedral was built on top of these ruins. You can see all three elements in the different parts of the excavations.
Not far from the amphitheater, you can also find a Roman colosseum, which fellow cruiser Jeremy told me was the foundation for most modern bullrings in Spain.
Exploring all these historical places makes you hungry, and thirsty. Of course Cartegena didn’t disappoint with the tapas, but the magical discovery was iced vermouth, which we sampled each night on our way home from dinner.
In between meeting new cruising friends on our dock (Horscht & Utte of s/v Appolonia, and Jeremy & Mary of s/v Mystique) we got an email from a friend, Martin, that he was heading to Cartegena, and would we still be there? Unfortunately he’s had foul fuel tank issues this season, and he and Dawn wound up getting towed into harbor. We were at least able to greet them with cold beer, and get them out to dinner to take their minds off the boat for a few hours. (A few days later, we see now on Marine Traffic that Martin is further up the coast so, yeah, engine problems at least temporarily solved!).
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