Turned out the ship only made a brief business stop here to exchange some crew. Luckily we visited the last time we went through the Panama Canal and found it a delightful city.
Cartagena, is one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia. Cartagena’s past role as a link in the route to the West Indies provides it with important historical value for world exploration and preservation of heritage from the great commercial maritime routes. As a former Spanish colony, it was a key port for the export of Bolivian silver to Spain and for the import of enslaved Africans under the asiento system. It was defensible against pirate attacks in the Caribbean. The city’s strategic location between the Magdalena and Sinú rivers also gave it easy access to the interior of New Granada and made it a main port for trade between Spain and its overseas empire, establishing its importance by the early 1540s.
