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Published: June 25th 2017
Geo: 10.4137, -75.5336
For years Columbia has been something of a no-go zone for travelers. Between armed-to-the-teeth drug cartels, FARC rebels, corrupt police, heavy-handed military, and right wing paramilitary groups there was the potential for the sort of unplanned adventure that made the relative safety of a stroll through Afghanistan, Nigeria, or Scarborough much more appealing (around the dinner table, the only thing Columbian bad guys could agree on was that robbing and/or kidnapping foreigners rivaled soccer as a national pastime).
That has changed recently and although there are still pockets of bad guys doing bad things, much of the country is open for exploration. The newest challenge for Columbia is to develop their tourism infrastructure but outside of Cartegna (which has been a popular cruise ship stop for a while now), they've still got a bit of work to do. Unlike the folks in New Zealand who are able to make a tree a must-see destination, Columbia hasn't sorted through all of its treasures yet. It's a beautiful country and has enormous potential to be a big stop on the travel circuit.
We started our visit in the crown jewel of Columbia. Cartegna might be the most magnificent example of a Spanish colonial
town in all of Latin America. Cartegna was also the latest in a long line of cities and towns we have visited in South America whose history exposes the parasitic tendencies of European colonial masters, and the Spanish in particular, while doing little to advance the local culture. It was founded by the Spanish for the sole purpose of plundering the nearby Sinu tombs of all of their gold, and it grew into a major trading port for precious metals stolen from other parts of South & Central America (with one of the more unusual looking forts we've seen protecting the town). If that wasn't questionable enough, it also became an official trade centre for African slaves- nothing like plunder and slavery to transform a small settlement into one of the most significant and wealthy outposts of the Spanish empire. That attracted numerous pirates, predators, and other colonial powers but Cartegna continued to grow until the war of independence (from Spain) when it was decimated. It has never quite recovered the status it had, and currently sits as the 5th largest city in Columbia with a population of 900k. But it does bring alive the days of Spanish 'glory' through
its architecture and culture.
And whats the first thing you do in a very traditional Spanish colonial town? Head to the volcano of course. Not just any volcano, but a hot mud volcano- replace the flowing lava of a conventional volcano and you get the idea. Just outside Cartegna, this miniature and growing mountain juts out of the land and is the result of years of non-stop bubbling mud.
It was a local medicinal secret for quite a while but it's now a really unique visit and something of a cash cow for the locals. From the minute we arrived people were pushing and shoving in order to hold, carry, and/or wash things for a small tip. DH, where the 'D' stands for "Don't Stop", got right into the swing of things, slid into the mud crater, and quickly had two Spanish dudes give her a full body mud massage. My turn came later after we had struggled to get out of the volcano, and did a mud waddle down to the nearby lake to clean up. Two local ladies descended on us and enthusiastically tried to pull my shorts off ("naked is good"😉- while I'm fully supportive of
most women's attempts to rip my cloths off, it didn't have that same sense of fun with a mud encrusted DH sitting in waist deep lake water and glaring at me like some sort of topless Columbian sea monster (they had attacked her first and successfully whipped her top off). Outside of a self-inflicted wedgie because of the grip I had on my shorts, I managed to maintain most of my dignity and after doling out a multitude of tips we escaped back to the city.
We did a number of tours in and around Cartegna but mostly we just chilled. Spanish colonial buildings, cobblestone streets, sunny days, and outdoor cafes meant that we wandered- sat and had a latte, wandered-sat and had a latte, wandered... and so on. Good fun.
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lo:)
non-member comment
well you had to try.. volcanic mud is good for you :)