Cartagena is Colombia's most visited city with three million visitors a year. It has great history, some great Colombian architecture, and it sits on the Caribbean Sea. But it's also known for its party scene. Did we participate? Yes we did. I’ll explain just how we did that.

On our last full day in Cartagena, it went like this. It was 9:30 in the morning. It was 87 degrees and probably 87 percent humidity. Our guide, Ernesto, could see that his group was fading a bit. So, he invited us into a grocery store and said he would buy us all a drink. I looked at the cold box right next to me and saw it was full of beer. I told Ernesto I'd like a beer, so he bought me one. Now I've never had a drink before noon in my life, but hey, I was in Cartagena and hot as blazes. Here, I'm standing on a corner, across from a church, at 9:30am, drinking a beer...and loving it! Can you feel the heat and humidity?

Next, we boarded a Chiva Bus. They are a party bus, painted very colorfully with live music and you can dance and sing your way along their route. We had a long drive while listening to live music and singing and dancing along the way.

You can see Vicky has joined the band, playing a ribbed, wooden flute. For my part, it was only 10:30 and I was on my second beer...but only to keep hydrated!

The Chiva bus stopped and dropped us off at the beach where we took a Cumbia lesson in playing the drums and dancing. The dances evidently come from the 1600's and can include candles to light up the night. I gather they have been partying in Cartagena for a long time.

The drumming and dancing were more fun than I expected. It was a group drumming lesson and the instructor was very good. I liked it a lot. The dancing was okay too, but the heat and humidity really made the dancing challenging.

By the end of our dancing, we were ready to wade into the Caribbean and cool our heels off. This was our last day in Cartagena and we were feeling the heat.

We also thought we should add a little color to the Caribbean, as we tend to do.