Advertisement
Published: August 5th 2009
Hay espanol abajo!
I left Panama on Monday 6th of July on a short 1 ¼ hour flight over to Cartagena, Colombia which is on the Caribbean coast. I arrived in Cartagena at about 11pm and despite not having booked any accommodation I found a small hotel with a dorm room with 5 beds and immediately got chatting to the guy on the bunk above me. He was Colombian and we spoke in Spanish for a while and I found out that he lived on a nearby island, painting (he was an artist), catching fish and living a life without modern comforts, including electricity. He had space for backpackers and invited me over to stay and said that I could make arrangements through the hotel.
Cartagena (Cartagena de Indias, to give it its full name) was founded by the Spanish in 1533 and became the main port on the Caribbean coast and treasure plundered from the continent was stored and transported from here, making a target for pirates, including a certain Francis Drake in 1586. Today Cartagena has a well preserved colonial centre with a maze of cobbled streets, leafy plazas and churches, making it a pleasant place to
wander around, explore and generally get lost. The part where the backpacker hostels tend to be is less well conserved, but less touristy, with a rough and ready feel, and is also the red light district, and from the number of offers of drugs I received also the drug dealing part of town.
On Tuesday I had a pleasant few hours exploring the colonial centre, chatting to a few locals, who were generally trying to sell me something or get me into a jewellery shop and I also bought some oysters from a man with a large bucket of them - falling for the ‘just try one for free’ line and then being handed about 20 of them one by one with a squeeze of lime - and then being charged, but it was a different experience and one that I enjoyed. Later that day I organised through the hotel to go over to Carlos’s place on Isla Grande, the largest island on Islas de Rosario.
On Wednesday I took a taxi over to where the boat to Isla Grande departed and was packed in like a proverbial sardine with the locals, and was the only tourist on
the boat. The journey took about an hour on a relatively flat sea but the boat seemed to be designed to repeatedly launch itself off the water before bouncing back onto it with a solid bump. I had been reliably informed by the hotel that when I arrived at the island I should ask for ‘El Viejo’ (literally the Old Man*) because everybody on the island knew who he was. After making a couple of stops on the island it became clear that the boat was making multiple stops so I asked the driver to drop me off where ‘El Viejo’ lived. However he looked at me blankly before about half the boat proceeded to have a discussion about who he might be. Eventually between all of us we managed to work out where he lived and a local man walked me from the jetty for the 5 minute walk to the other side of the island where Carlos lived.
I had a pleasant couple of days with Carlos his son and his friend, generally relaxing, reading and snorkelling. The first night I started of sleeping under a gazebo, enjoying the cooling sea breeze but rain meant that I
had to sleep inside of the cabin for most of the night but the next night I was able to spend all of the night sleeping in the gazebo, treated to a great view of the stars and lightening in the distance, whilst being protected from any biting insects by the netted sides of the gazebo.
I returned to Cartagena Friday 10th July, chilling out and exploring some more until my friends arrived on Sunday on a yacht from Panama.
On Tuesday a group of us went to Volcan de Lodo el Tomo, a ‘mud’ volcano about 50km north east of Cartagena. We decided to try to save some money and to be adventurous by going under our own steam and the first challenge as to find where the bus went from and on the third attempt in the taxi we managed to find it. We waited about an hour for the bus to leave and on the way got stuck for about 45 minutes at a toll booth, where I think the staff were refusing to work at lunchtime or something. That meant that we were later than we expected and we when we got off the
bus and I asked somebody what time the last bus back was he said “3.00pm”. I looked at my watch and it was 3.05pm! We negotiated with the moto-taxi drivers at the bus stop , which we had to use to take us the last 4km to the volcano , to pick us up when we had finished wallowing in the mud and take us to a different place where we could get the last bus back to Cartagena at 5pm
The volcano itself isn’t really a volcano at all. It is about 15 metres high and has been made by mud which is liquefied and forced upwards by the pressure of decaying organic matter in the ground. Getting into the mud at the top was like getting into a treacle, the mud was thick and warm, and it was difficult to move, being suspended up to shoulder level and needing a friendly push down to be able to get any lower. There were some guys up there who, for a tip afterwards, massaged the mud all over and were also very useful in using their mud free hands (they wiped the mud off their hands on their (mud-free)
hair) to removed the mud from my eyes and ears, because I was death and blind for a few minutes! After about an hour in the crater of the volcano, which became increasingly crowded as more people arrived, we walked down to the warm lagoon about 50 metres away to wash the mud off. It’s fair to say that sitting in the middle of a mid volcano is one of the strangest things I have done on my trip so far!
On Wednesday we headed to Taganga, a small coastal town about 4 hours away from Cartagena. It was a pleasant enough place but I generally don’t like a place that is touristy enough to mean that foreign travellers are selling hand-made jewellery and there were certainly a few of them around! We spent a couple of nights there before moving onto Parque Tayrona which is only accessible by boat or by taking a bus and walking for an hour or so to one of the handful accommodation options within the park. To save some time (and energy) Alyssa, Laura and I opted to go by boat and after walking down the beach and only encountering boat people who
Isla Grande
Buying a fish from a local fishermansaid that it wasn’t possible to go by boat we eventually found the one boat that was going. As soon was we got out of the sheltered cove, it was immediate apparent why other boats weren’t going and why the ‘captain’s’ helper had donned a snorkelling mask. For the next hour and half we were subjected to a wild sea, which threw the boat around in all directions and within minutes we were absolutely soaked. I coped well for the first hour but for the last half an hour felt as sick as a dog and was grateful that we reached the park when we did, any longer then I am sure I would have been sick. It was the only time on a boat that I have ever been grateful (and felt the need) to be wearing a life jacket.
The accommodation options at Cabo San Juan de la Guía where the boat dropped us off were to rent a tent or a hammock and we did the latter, taking hammocks in an open-sided hut on a piece of headland between two coves. This location benefited from a cooling breeze from the sea but meant that for the
Isla Grande
Buying a fish from a local fisherman first time in weeks I was actually cold at night time, although for my first time sleeping in a hammock, I slept reasonably well. We spent a couple of nights there, relaxing and going for a couple of walks.
From Parque Tayrona we returned to Taganga for a night before taking a bus to Cartagena and a night bus to Medellin from where Alyssa flew back to the States and I spent one further night there, meeting up with some Couch Surfers for dinner, before heading down to Quito in Ecuador on Thursday 23rd of July, where I am now.
* In some Latin American counties the people have the habit of giving somebody a nickname based on their looks. So if you are a little overweight you might be called ‘gordo’ which is basically fatty, or maybe the diminutive of it ‘gordito’ - little fatty, or if you are thin -flaca/flacita, or if you vaguely look like you are from Asia - ‘chino’ . It’s all in good humour and nobody seems to mind but it does take a little getting used to when you hear it.*
________________
Salí de Panamá el lunes, 6 de
Isla Grande
Carlos' place Julio en avión por una hora y cuarto a Cartagena, Colombia, una ciudad que esta en la costa Caribe. Llegué a Colombia a las 11 en la noche y no había reservado una hostal pero encontré un hotel pequeño y inmediatamente comencé hablar en español con un hombre quien se quedo en la cama sobre la mía El era de Colombia y vivía en un isla circa de Cartagena, pintando (el era artista), pescando y en general viviendo una vida sencilla sin comodidades modernas, incluso electricidad. El tuvo espacio para extranjeros quedarse a tu casa y me invitó quedarme allí y me dijo que pude hacer preparativos por el hotel.
Cartagena estuvo fundido en 1533 por los españoles y llegó a hacer el principal puerto en la costa caribe y tesoro tomaba por los españoles del continente estaba guardado y transportado de allí por esta razón muchas veces estaba atacado por piratas. Hoy Cartagena tiene un centro histórico preservado muy bien con muchas calles angostos, plazas y iglesias y es un lugar agradable caminar y perderse.
El martes tuve unas horas agradables explorando el centro. Hablaba con algunas personas, que estaban muy amables pero generalmente estaban intentando venderme
Isla Grande
Carlos' place algo. Mas tarde en el día organicé por el hotel irme a la casa de Carlos el próximo día.
El miércoles tome un taxi al lugar de donde los barcos a Isla Grande salieron y era el único extranjero en el barco y todos íbamos apretujados en el barco. El viaje tomo una hora y siempre el barco saltaba las olas y el viaje era un pocito malo. El hotel me había dicho que toda la gente en la isla conoce Carlos como ‘El Viejo’ pero después de dos paradas para descargar personas le pregunté al conductor del barco donde esta la casa de Carlos y el me respondió que no tuvo una idea! La mitad de las personas empezaron tener una conversación sobre quien era Carlos y eventualmente una persona les dijo que pensaba donde estas Carlos vivía y un hombre caminó conmigo por 5 minutos al otro lado de la isla y allí me encontré con Carlos, su hijo, una amigo de su hijo y un hombre de suiza. Pase dos dias, hablando español con Carlos y generalmente relajando y leyendo.
Regresé a Cartagena el viernes 10 de Julio y el domingo mis amigos llegaron en
Isla Grande
Carlos' place barco de Panamá. El martes fuimos a un volcán de lodo, Volcán de Lodo el Tomo. Decidimos viajar allí por transporte publico y no tomar un tour y después de 3 paradas en el taxi intentar encontrar de donde el bus salio, nos lo encontramos. Esperamos el bus por casi una hora y paramos 45 minutos durante el viaje, pienso por una huelga de trabajadores de peaje. Entonces cuando salimos del bus le pregunte a que hora es el ultimo bus de aquí a Cartagena y la respuesta fue a las 3. Yo vi a mi reloj y el tiempo eran 3.05! Negociamos con los moto-taxis que tuvieron llevarnos los últimos 4 kilómetros llevarnos después a otra calle para tomar un bus a las 5.
En realidad el volcán no es de lodo. Es 15 metros de altura y adentro hay liquido, caliente lodo forme de materia orgánica en la tierra. Pasamos una hora en el lodo, y era una experiencia muy extraño. Estábamos suspendido en el lobo hasta nuestras hombros y para entrar el lobo completamente era necesario por otra persona remojar la otra persona! Era difícil mover por el lobo sin ayudar también por que era muy
Isla Grande
Carlos' place espeso! Después caminamos 50 metros a una laguna para lavarnos y remover el lodo.
El miércoles fuimos a un pueblo pequeño en la costa 4 horas por bus de Cartagena. Taganga era un lugar agradable pero generalmente no me gusta quedarme en un lugar donde extranjeros fabrican joyas y las venden a otras turistas. Nos quedemos dos noches en Taganga y después fuimos a Parque Tayrona. En la mañana de salir no fue posible encontrar un barco llevarnos al Parque y muchas personas nos dijeron que había demasiado viento. Eventualmente encontramos un barco y tan pronto como salimos de la bahía nos damos cuenta la razón que hubo un barco solamente que estaba viajando y porque el ayudante del conductor del barco se puso una careta de snorkel . Las olas eran terribles, muy grandes y el barco mecó de lado de lado, saltando por las. Por una hora me sentí bien pero por la ultima media hora me sentí terrible y pensaba que iba a vomitar.
Hubo dos opciones de acomodación en donde el barco paró - hamacas o tiendas de campaña y elijamos las hamacas en un cabaña sin paredes y con 15 hamacas en un
promontorio entre dos bahías. Había una brisa muy agradable allí pero en la noche sentí frío por la brisa pero fue mi primera vez dormir en una hamaca y dormí bien. Pasamos dos noches en el Parque caminando y relajando.
Del Parque regresamos a Taganga por una noche y el lunes tomamos un bus a Medellín y de allí Alyssa salio a Estados Unidos al fin de su vacación. Me quede dos noches en Medellín y la segunda noche cene con personas de Couch Surfing . El jueves 23 de julio me fui a Quito, Ecuador donde estoy ahora.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0511s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Severine
non-member comment
Sounds amazing
Hey there - looks fantastic. Definitely would like to consider Columbia in my upcoming trip. how many weeks/month would you recommend to spend in Columbia? Heard that it is as safe as anywhere else in South America.... would there be any concerns for solo female travellers (planning this trip on my own?!)