Holiday destinations 2019: The Caribbean’s hidden treasure

The only time you might feel it’s a bit thronged is when you go in the maze of narrow, sloping tunnels linking various parts of the fortress and also to be filled with gunpowder and blown up under the attackers in times of siege (Britain tried and failed in 1741). Not for the claustrophobic (fortificacionescartagena.com £6). 

Back on the ship we dined in the included Gallery 47 Italian restaurant where a calzone pizza filled with diced spicy beef was ‘molto bene’. 

It’s also worth noting that the cruise terminal here has a decent souvenir shop, a jolly cafe/bar and a menagerie with flamingos, black swans, peacocks and lots of colourful free roaming macaws. 

DAY 4: COLON, PANAMA 

(265 nautical miles sailed from Cartagena) 

A showstopper – we joined an excursion on the Panama Canal Railway which would take us from the Atlantic Ocean (ie the Caribbean) to the Pacific Ocean. 

Our bus took us through the streets of Colon (awful place, looks like a zombie plague passed through) out to the visitor centre at the new Agua Clara canal locks. 

There’s a terrific view from the waterway’s Atlantic entrance to the vast man-made Gatun Lake, though unfortunately no ships were using the new, larger locks, we could just see some using the older, smaller ones. Impressive stuff, nonetheless.