Cartagena - Carnival time

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So I had previously written this blog only for the computer I was on to crash and leave me with nothing I had written so I had given up but I will attempt it again now.
We ended up ataying for a total of 4 night in Cartagena, orginally we had only planned to spend a couple of nights but we heard that the Carnival for their independance with a finale of Miss Columbia was on so we could not resist a couple of nights at a South American carnival.
We ended up spending quite a lot of time with the American couple from Oregan we met on the first night. Their names were Eric and Jodell and they were spending 6 weeks visiting Panema and Columbia. After our first night with them in the local plaza we met them in the Old town the next day so decided to see the sights with them. Unfortunately the tourist boom has hit Cartagena hard and during the early part of the day the old town is full of tourist groups and each member of the group has a sticker just to remind them of which group they apart of. Otherwise the town is absolutely beautiful. The streets are cobbled and very narrow and the architecture is beautiful. The old town itself is surrounded by a wall of protection which was built a few hundred years ago but due to repeated attack it had to be restored numerous times but it is quite impressive to look at. That evening we met up again with Eric and Jodell and went to the local plaza for a few beers followed by a late bar called Havanna which sold drinks at an extortionate price so unfortunately we could get too drunk there! We had planned a day trip for the next day so would be getting up early so headed back to the hostel around 12.30ish!
On day three myself and Anne made a day trip to a Mud Volcano around 50km outside of the city. The trip to the Volcano was a challange in itself, first we had to get bus from the twon to the bus depot which was only 6km away but for some unknown reason this took us over an hour an a half!!! Then we arrived at the bus station only to find out that our next bus didn´t leave from there and we had to walk to another area to try and find our bus. After 20mins of searching I randomly walked up to a bus driver and before I had said anything he said the name of the town that we were heading towards so we jumped in with him. His bus managed to only max about 50km per hour or less so the second part of the journey took abother hour and a half and the we had to walk three kilometers down a highway with no shade in sweltering heat!! but the journey was definately worth it, because we arrived so late to the Volcano it was practicly empty. Basically you climb down some steps into the volcano and you can swim in the mud, well attempt to swim in the mud. Turns out it is very difficult to submerge yourself entirely in the mus as I spent 30 mins entertaining myself attempting this. We then got to wash off in a Piranha infested lagoon next to the Volcano.
That evening the Carnival started so myself, Anne, Eric and Jodell heading into the Old Town to check it out. We were greeted by a free open air concert which was full of kid around 17years old absolutely hammered, all spraying each other with foam. Once they see gringos the attention is aimed at them so of course we got foamed but it was all in good nature. We spent an hour there before heading to another bar with a slightly older crowd and better Salsa music. Unfortunately the kids seemed to spread out and at one stage I had an unconcious teenager under my chair, reminded me of Old Wesley back in the days!!
The next day we took it handy and just chilled out before heading out again for the festivities. This time the area for the teenagers had changed so we found a nice open air bar to spend the night in for a dollor a beer, not bad eh?
On our last day just before we checked out I managed to watch the United - Chelsea match which unfortunately was not really worth it, sure Drogba was offside, I was watching it in Spanish with not much replays, but as far as I could tell he was offside???!!!
Anyway we headed for our nightbus to Cartagena and had to chill in the bus staion for a couple of hours!

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Photos

The Mud Volcano
It only 15meters high