Cartagena and Surrounds

Cartagena

After the beaches in Tayrona we took a shuttle to Cartagena on the 21st of September. Cartagena is an old city (founded in 1533) and is very beautiful and charming (at least, the historic town is). It was an important colonial port town in the good old pirate days of the Caribbean. Because of its importance and prosperity, it was constantly attacked by pirates (Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, to name a few of the English sirs) , marauding bands of savages, etc. As a result of these many dramas, they surrounded the old town with fortress like walls, containing many buttresses and canons. The newer part of the city is very modern with tall skyscrapers and good infrastructure. Quite a striking contrast when standing on the old walls and looking to the new and old part.

We booked into a mediocre hostel in a dodgy area of the city where most of the backpackers stay for the first night. Bernhard had a spot of stomach troubles and stayed most of the night awake, on the loo. He was much better the next day, luckily. Ori, our Israeli friend from the hike arrived on that day, and we explored the old town a bit. It´s really pretty, with many really quaint and impressive buildings, balconies and bougainvillea. We got ripped of terribly at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cartagena, by stupidly eating there and ordering burgers and beers for extortionate amounts. We decided to visit the famous mud volcano close to Cartagena the next day.

El Totumo

El Totumo is a mud volcano about 50 km outside of Cartagena. The trip should have taken no more than 4 hours, including lunch, but we took 7 hours in total. It was quite an adventure though. It seems like the Lonely Planet guidebook was wrong, and we spent an hour bussing around Cartagena to find the right bus to take. Then we took an ancient bus, decorated with all sorts of Catholic paraphernalia, driving at about 20 km per hour through the countryside on a dirt road. It was very beautiful, though and probably well worth it in the end. Arriving at the turn-off to the volcano, we took motorcycle taxis to the volcano itself, which was lots of fun, as well.

The mud volcano is small, about 15m high. It looks exactly like a volcano, just a bonsai one. Its quite strange arriving at this much touted volcano to find this little mound next to a lake. The volcano is an attraction because of the therapeutic properties of the mud on your skin. We paid entrance and climbed up the side steps of the volcano. Getting in is quite a strange experience, it feels like floating in heavy chocolate mousse. It is almost impossible to completely submerge oneself, as the mud is very heavy. To move around, you "swim" by struggling across the surface of the mud.

There are a whole bunch of people there that make their living by accompanying you in the volcano and giving you "massages". LM thinks it is the worst massage she has ever received in her life. You get covered in mud and some other bloke takes photos, as an additional service. This was very interesting. After the mud swim, we climbed down and went to wash in the lake next to the volcano. There are more friendly helpers there that remove all your clothes while you are in the water to wash it. This is all quite intrusive, but protesting is futile. Maybe if we were larger and more bombastic than them it would have worked. Everyone expects a tip afterwards, of course. We tried hiking back to avoid being ripped off by the motorcycle guys, as they claimed there were no more buses back to Cartagena. 20 minutes later, a bus arrived and we started the long and arduous journey back. All in all, it was lots of fun and certainly unique.

Playa Blanca

We left for Playa Blanca (White Beach) the next day with Ori and Stu, an American bloke who is also Jewish. Playa Blanca probably has a nicer beach than Tayrona, although the whole effect is not as beautiful. It feels like being on an island, even though it is only a peninsula. Lots of little shops and restaurants dot the beach as far as the eye can see. We decided to stay at Wittenberg, a place run by an ex-Frenchman named Gilbert. His place is 150m inland from the beach, so no sand flies! Gilbert is a born-again Creationist, with many placates on what evolution really is up in the rooms (a bit odd as far as room decorations go) and many books on the subject. We just ignored it all.

We met 3 more Irish people, two girls and a guy at Gilbert´s place. We had fillet Mignon for dinner the first evening at Wittenberg, which was cooked to perfection. There is no electricity and no running water. To shower, you buy 10l of fresh water and use small buckets. We spent three days in Playa Blanca, just lounging around, swimming, reading, laughing and playing cards. Highly recommended for beach lovers, taking a break from the strenuous holiday.

Cartagena Again

We returned to Cartagena for some serious exploring and more. We finally got to eat at Crepes & Waffles, a Colombian cafe specializing in: crepes and waffles. They also have delicious savoury meals, ice creams and death by chocolate like desserts. We felt quite sick after this indulgence. We also went to the Museum of the town walls (gripping, ain´t it) and it was, as expected, as exciting as the topic. We also went to the huge fortress next to the old town and explored the place and it´s many passages and tunnels.

Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) was at the end of September. Since we had been travelling with a bunch of Jewish people, we were invited to celebrate this with them. We cooked a huge dinner, consisting of roast chicken (the chicken was bought at a fast food joint), salad, roasted veggies, hummus bought by Ori (delicious), falafel, pita bread, red wine and chocolate cake for dessert.

The Jewish new year ritual was quite interesting....apple slices drizzled with honey (to have a sweet new year), candles with songs sung over them. Everyone warmed their hands over the candles for a reason that escapes us now (waaay too much red wine). We were kicked out of the hostel at 23:00 and we moved the celebration to an open-air pub-restaurant (very expensive) and played a card game called Assasin. No one had cards with them so we improvised and played without any cards (don´t ask any questions!). The evening was hilarious and LM says she had not laughed so much for the longest time. Unfortunately everyone in the group had to go their separate ways the next day.

We had to go to the DAS - Internal affairs in Colombia to extend the paltry 30 day visas that were given to us at the border. This cost $60 for both of us.

The next day we left for the Adventurers dream town, San Gil. These many adventures will be for the next blog.

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