Cartagena

---

Cartagena, what an amazing city. In truth we weren't very excited about going to there, we had been having such an incredible time traipsing along the coast and we thought that although a vital stop in the Colombia journey, Cartagena would be just a big loud city with mediocre beaches. We were wrong.

Cartagena is a big city, and the beaches, at least in the immediate city can't compare to Tayrona or Cabo de la Vela, but it is very unlike anywhere we have been.

We set ourselves up in the Getsemani district, which is where most backpackers go, in a lovely hostel Casa Viena in a dorm with air conditioning! What a luxury, and a very very hot city. Alot of people were complaining about the heat, but we absolutely loved it.

On our first day there we decided to venture into the infamous old town, a ten minute walk from our district. On the way we saw a commotion in a park nearby and went to investigate and found, above all things...a sloth! Hanging in a tree in the middle of the city! It was really amazing, I had never seen one before, and it moved with a pace a fluidity that reminded us of moving through water.

The Old City is surrounded by great walls that were built to protect the city from invasion and plundering via the ocean. We followed the advice of our guide book and discarded it, just spending the day wandering through the amazingly preserved streets. This day was a public holiday (Colombia seems to have one of these every week!) which was a blessing in disguise. It meant that alot of restaurants etc. were closed but it meant that the streets were very quiet and we didn't have anyone hassling us or trying to sell things to us.

The buildings are incredible, all in amazing colours, with ornate decorations and balconies or terraces, with bouganvillias frothing over the top of them. It is a spectacular sight. In the middle of the old town we sat in a cafe next to a beautiful green park and drank jugo con leche (giant smoothie-like fruit juices). To eat in the old city is very very expensive, it's alot swankier and there are alot of rich tourists in the area. So we headed back to our area and got a great cheap meal. Although slightly less pretty and preserved, the Getsemani district has alot more attitude, we loved it.

The next day we struck out on an adventure that we weren't quite sure about. We were heading to the infamous Mud Volcano just out of town. We decided to go on a tour, which included transport and lunch, but mostly we just wanted to go with some people and meet them! We weren't sure what to expect, whether it would just be sitting for a couple of minutes in a mud puddle, or something much better. It was something much better. After the 45 minute bus ride out there we arrived at this big mound about 15 metres high. You strip down to your bathers and ascend the slippery stairs to arrive at the top! The top is square and filled with people, but you slide in and oh the shock! It felt like swimming in warm cream, the mud goes all the way down the 15 metres of the mound and into the ground, occasionally big underground bubbles popped up! It's really buoyant, you sit like you would in a chair but with only mud to support you, but it makes it very difficult and quite hilarious to try and move around! There were men giving great massages in the mud and other who would take your camera and take photos of you covered entirely in mud. We found out that we were very lucky to have come on this day, because yesterday the public holiday, and the weekend is packed and you only get to stay in the mud for a couple of minutes. We were in for about an hour! Afterwards you wash off in a little lagoon and take the bus to a nearby beach for lunch! We had a quick dip in the water, which was as warm as bath water, and then a huge fish feast. Definately something worth trying.

That night we decided to go out and get a taste of the night life. However we were soon to learn that Colombians go out LATE, and when we headed out at about 930-10 everything hadn't opened yet! All dressed up with no-where to go, we followed the sound of music into a tiny little bar just near our hostel.

Inside we were delighted to find a 6 piece salsa band, rocking the tiny walls of this bar with their amazing tunes! We sat down and enjoyed the music, drinking mojitos and making friends with a lovely New Zealand couple. In the bar were a couple of older local men, dancing away to the salsa music, they can sure move those hips! Jessie, the NZ girl is a great dancer, so was soon up dancing with them! She kept insisting that we join her so, despite our pathetic skills we were up going, with the old men helping us learn!
When that place closed we went to the rooftop terrace in the hostel of our new friends and had a few cuba libres. Delicious!

The next day we went to a nearby beach for a relaxed day of swimming. The sand wasn't brilliant but the water was warm and delicious and we had another fish feast for lunch!
That night we headed back to the rooftop hotel to meet our new friends, and spent the night chatting, drinking beers and listening to this amazing live jazz band, they played all the classics and were incredible!

We were to catch a night bus to Medellin the next day, and were sad to be leaving the beloved coast. Cartagena has such a soul to it, we spent a number of ours wandering through the streets on other days, buying avocado's and mangos from street vendors, exploring flower markets and buying lots of beautiful wares. We weren't quite sure at all about leaving.

Our departure did not go quite as smoothly as we had hoped. During the day we had bought our tickets, which were the most expensive we had bought $100,000 ($AUS60), but there was no way to get around it, so we just bought them. We had repeatedly caught the shuttle bus to and from the bus terminal and each time it took us about 45 minutes. So we left the hostel about 7pm to catch our 830pm bus, leaving ourselves plenty of time. We got onto a bus which the driver assured us was to the terminal, but it headed in the wrong direction! It stopped after about 20 minutes and made us get off, to get on another bus which they assured us was now going to terminal. This bus however wove through multiple back streets we were unfamiliar with and at 8:05 the bus pulled back into down town Cartagena where we started! Panic rising, our hugely expensive tickets in hand, we leapt off the bus and got in a taxi, urging him to go rapido rapido! The whole ride we were both almost in tears, thinking about all the money we were going to lose. We pulled into the terminal at about 835-840 convinced we had missed it. But when we ran desperately inside, we saw the driver gesticulating wildly to us, they had waited! We ran onto the bus and it left immediately. Another five minutes and we would have missed it. So a word to future Cartagena travellers, take a taxi to the bus station. But we got there, and settled down in our freezing night bus with all our warmest clothes, for the long trip to Medellin.

---