Colombia

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I´ve finally made it to Colombia and I´m happy as larry. Cartegena is beautiful, truely beautiful. Everyone here has been stunned by the architecture in the old city, the crumbling elegance of the colonial buildings. I was particularly impressed with the way they built the city because even at the hottest time of day you are shaded by the close high buildings and there are a few squares that you can go and lounge around in and watch the world go by.

The group from the boat trip from Panama were all dropped at the Holiday hotel, as they were all busy checking in, I skipped over accross the road the Doral hotel, I had been given a card for this place and wanted to get into a room and showered as soon as possible. I ended up getting Jules a room too, as he wanted a room to himself also. This place was really full of character, the courtyard alone made it for me, with palm trees and the checkered tiled floor and crumbling walls. The rooms were massive and a very good price and it was totally quiet apart from the fans. The staff and guests were lovely too, I felt lucky.

Even though we were no longer on the boat we had gelled together and it took some time for the group to totally disperse. Martin, Jules and I were the last to finally part after nearly a week in Cartagena. Here we mainly shook the saltness from our bodies and minds, catching up on emails, diaries, ourselves. We kept the drinking up which was starting to get to me. Seems I´ve turned into a bit of a lightweight on me travels. Most of our time was spent winding through the old town or having meals at the local restaurant or following Jules and his ever hungry belly to more expensive places to eat.

When I was once again back on my tod, I wondered through the streets on my own and ended up making friends with an old boat engineer who had traveled the world with his company for over 30 years. He was from San Andres the Colombian islands that are in fact closer to Nicaragua then Colombia. They speak english there and because of this we communicated quite well. I told him I wanted to learn spanish so he patiently spoke clearly and slowly. In the end he took me on a personalised tour which meant that I got to see parts that I never would have which was great. The part that I especially loved was the 'family bar' that played nothing but old salsa dvds. It was called a family bar because women went in them, I'm guessing the other places he might go for a drink were darker, dingyier and solely for men. i kept coming back to this place because it had a wicked atmosphere and great dvds.

How could I forget to write about the mud volcano near Cartegena that I, Jules, and begrudgingly Martin visited. It was the only day trip that we took there and it was fabulous. From the get-go I was right up for it, the thought of a volcano crater full of creamy spar quality mud to swim around in was making me very excited. The local folk-law about it was that a priest had blessed the volcano with holy water and had turned the devil like fire and lava into mud.

It was a bit of a shock when we rolled up to this place to find a kind of large chimney style structure with steps leading up to the top. I was really expecting a volcano that looked liked the other volcanoes that I had begrudgingly come across in my trip up until that point. Anyway that wasn’t gonna get in the way of my mud bath and I was stripped and ready for the climb in a second. I actually ended up being one of the last - Korean girls on the bus - lots of giggles and taking the piss out of the boys. Massages in the mud and spinning like a ballerina.

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Comments

[Verlyn]

travels
Wow Donna I haven't looked at your journal for ages, I have been really busy, but looking at this now you have done alot and i love the pic's. i wish i was with you (I should leave the kids with Bert, and take time out) joke!!!Bert is not impressed with my thoughts. hope to speak to you soon email me!!