I’ve mentioned before that I document our trips by making Shutterfly books. I love these books, but it’s funny, after I order a book, I’m never initially all that excited. Sure, I glance at the pages to see if anything major when wrong, but then I put it down. I blame my temporary lack of excitement on their outrageously unrealistic deadlines for their fantastic discounts.

Case in point, last fall I got a $20 off coupon that came with the stipulation that I use the offer within the next three days. Not wanting to waste such a fantastic deal, I cancelled all my appointments (of which I probably had none) and buckled down to start and finish our Colombia book. By the time the last paragraph had been spell-checked and the last photo had been cropped, I was sick to death of it. It never fails though, now that some time has passed, I love flipping through those glossy pages.

Here’s our Colombia book… Click here to view this photo book larger.

This week, as I was tidying up the house in preparation for a visit from the in-laws, I found myself in the living room needing a breather. (Yes, I understand how ridiculous this sounds, but remember, I’m 34 weeks pregnant with twins and my physical abilities are insanely limited.) Anyway, being a good six feet from the TV remote, I instead decided to kill time while I caught my breath by perusing my stack of Shutterfly books and I realized there are so many fantastic pictures of Cartagena that I never shared on the blog.

A lot of these pictures were of the beautiful Caribbean. In fact, so many were taken from the sea that I’m splitting the post into two parts: by land and by sea. This one is the by sea edition and the waterscapes were truly amazing.

Lonely Planet describes Cartagena as a tale of three cities. Bits and pieces of all three of these can be seen by the water.

• First up is Cartagena’s old town, the historical and charming area where we stayed that’s so darn historical and charming it landed a spot on Unesco’s World Heritage list. More photos of this area will be in my by land edition but here’s one vantage point from the water:

• Next up is the upscale Cartagena with its luxury hotels and condominiums towering over the water.

• And thirdly, there’s the hardworking Cartagena with its busy shipping yards, packed cargo vessels and industrial grit.

• And lastly, here’s a few other photos that I took…

A statue of the Virgin Mary in the harbor.

Sailboats in the harbor.

Such a fantastic cityscape.

And, of course, one of us on our way the Islas Del Rosario for scuba diving.

And those are my pictures of Cartagena from the Caribbean. I loved some of these so much that a good chunk of that the $20 discount I got on my Shuttefly book went straight to splurging on a few full-page spreads of just those. It was totally worth it though because the water was great, the breeze was refreshing and the views, as you can see, were incredible – and I’m reminded of all these great things every time I reach for my Colombia book when the remote is just too far away.