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Published: October 31st 2009
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So after enjoying all that Venezuela had to offer, much to our parents´concern, we headed across the border into Colombia. Despite the bad reputation Colombia has had for quite some time now, they´ve poured money into fighting crime and promoting themselves as a tourist destination, and here we have found more backpackers, and particularly more Australians than in any other place on our trip (with the notable exception of london).
We crossed the border between Colombia and Venezuela in a little old van with about 10 Colombians and Venezuelans, and our bags taking up more than their fair share of room. Apparently many of our fellow travellers were travelling without passports, or at least without wanting to get their passports stamped, so they passed some money out the window everytime we were stopped by police. And the police are obviously quite wise to this because we were stopped about 15 times by police raodblocks on our way to the border, many of which just held out their hands, didn´t even pretend to look at our faces or bags or anything really. As we crossed into Colombia they interviewed me, and noone else, quite extensively about whether i had any flu
like symptoms, and forgot to stamp my passport. Luckily i checked and noticed this before we left the border crossing, and a Colombian guy from our bus helped me resolve the situation, because a lack of entry stamp mean BIG problems, particularly in Colombia. As our bus made its way to our next destination we were stopped by police and military about six times, sometimes checking passports, sometimes looking in baggage compartment, but always checking entry stamp....hmmm.
We finally made it to Cartagena, arriving at about nine o´clock. We´d been told to avoid travelling at night on the buses, and tried to, but you never know quite how long the buses will take here. Anyway, turned out fine, and we had no night bus troubles at all....touch wood! Cartagena is a beautiful old city, with a wealth of gorgeous colonial buildings covered in balconies and flowering vines, and as a result for the first couple of days we did nothing but wander about taking in the feel and look of the city, and avoided giving money to musicians serendaing us and ladies selling us roses as we sipped our beers in lovely grand squares. It all felt incredibly European,
but with a Carribean climate - divine! However, all was not well in the town of Cartagena. As we checked into our hotel we were informed by the lady that there was a small problem - there was currently no running water in our room. Or in the whole of Cartagena. And it had been this way for two days already....but was sure to be rectified by morning. For the next two days we lived without running water, and Cartagena became quite an aromatic place...althoug to be entirely honest the city seemed to cope incredibly well, it was us that got more and more stinky.. so after a couple of days we decided to go and bathe in a volcano.
The volcano was one of our funniest tourist attractions to date. Before you set off you get told all sorts of great things - the mud is excellent for your skin, it´s a once in a lifetime chance to swim inside an active mud volcano, and so on and so forth. So expecting something pretty grand, we pull into the carpark (after having to push the van we were travelling in to get it started, then run and jump
in, Little Miss Sunshine style). What greeted our eyes was a volcano about 20 metres high...not quite as grand as expected. We were then told to get into our swimmers, walk up the stairs in the side, and hand our cameras to the guys at the top to photograph us in the mud...hmmm, a wee bit dodgy perhaps? However, being assured that it was fine we did as we were told and dressed in very little, climbed the side of the volcano...in about 30 seconds.
The top of the volcano was a small pool of grey mud, about 5 metres by 5 metres, jammed full of tourists! So you get in and the guys that work there have to pull you around because you have next to no control over your own movements...it´s really weird. And we were told that the mud deposit is about 2000 metres deep, and you just kind of float helplessly on top. Very strange, but good fun! After you´re done soaking in the mud you head down to a nearby estuary and wash yourself off - actually most people get washed by some lovely Colombian ladies, who go so far as to remove your
swimmers to make sure they get properly cleaned! We declined the offer and cleansed ourselves.
After heading back to Cartagena we decided to backtrack a little to do a hike that we´d originally decided to miss, but had heard from many people, including our good friend Mike, that it really was something we should make an effort to do, so back we went, and it was definitely a good decision. The hike was through the Colombian jungle to an ancient indigenous site known as Ciudad Perdida, or the Lost City. Of course, it wasn´t really lost as the local indigenous people knew it was there all along, it was of course the Europeans that ¨discovered¨it in the 1970s. Our group consisted of us, another Australian girl and three mad Spaniards, as well as our guide and porter/chef. The walk was pretty full on, and on the afternoon of the first day, after walking consistently up a really steep hill that seemed to go forever I was a bit worried about what we´d gotten ourselves into, particularly when it started pouring down rain and the tracks all turned to mud. Luckily this turned out to be one of the hardest
parts of the entire walk, and I coped pretty well the rest of the time. Each night we stopped either in a local farmers house, or an small indigenous settlement and slept in hammocks slung under tin rooves. It was amazing. The indigenous people here still live much as they always did, and still dress in white with beautiful beads as decoration. Unfortunately we don´t have any photos, as it seemed kind of intrusive at the time, but it was great. Every so often along the way we stopped to swim in magnificent waterholes, some with waterfalls and fish swimming around, and we could fill our bottles from icy cold mountain springs. After three days walking we eventually made it to Ciudad Perdida, one of the major cities of ancient Colombia. The only things remaining are the stone steps and footpaths and the terraces which were constructed to make land flat enough to build houses on. Oh, and there´s still the remains of the cockfighting ring, a staple in any respectable pre-Colombian settlement, and still found in many towns to this day. We wandered around marvelling at the site, and at the stories our guide told of graverobbers that came
and took a lot of the most precious items before they could be properly protected. After that there was a big problem with guerillas in the area, and in fact about 6 years ago a group of tourists were kidnapped while hiking there....great. We were also told that some groups hiking up there used to be taken to cocaine labs along the path..hmm. But that´s all in the past, and the only reminder of such dangers is the strict registration process and the permanent military camp at the top of the site. The scenery on the walk was spectacular, but one of the best parts was that there was to be an indigenous ceremony up at Ciudad Perdida starting the day after we left to walk back down. As a result, on the walk back we passed hundreds of indigenous dudes all heading to the site, which gave you the real feel that this trail isn´t just a nice walk for tourists, but is a very real and used path, which these guys and their ancestors have been using for centuries. It was amazing. And those guys move so quickly, and barefoot through this forest, it really puts us with
our high-tech hiking boots to shame!
After sweating it out on the long walk, we decided it was time to head away from the coast, and into the Colombian highlands.....stay posted!
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