Cartagena

From Panama we flew into Columbia to the breathtakingly beautiful town of Cartagena. The city itself is a bustling little Port town of 300,000ish people, but the real highlight is the Old walled city where we set up camp.

Established in the 16th century by the Spanish, the fame of this prosperous city evidently turned it into a bit of a plunder site for pirates and thieves back in the day; so the kings of Spain decided ordered the construction of castles, forts, and walls to surrounded the city. There are now some eleven kilometres of walls surrounding the old city and much of it is still there.

Not far outside the walls the city has kilometres of beaches which unfortunately have the high rise hotels to go with it. Its peak season now, so during a stroll down there we quickly discovered where most of well off Colombians seem to go on holiday !!! From then on we kept as far away from there as possible and kept to the Old city. In saying that though, it certainly was interesting to be in a touristy place, yet there were VERY few westerners. A big plus for our Spanish practice.

For 3 days we remained entranced exploring, wandering and getting lost in the maze of cobbled streets lined by spectacularly restored houses. The whole area was adorned with great plazas full of bustling restaurants and bars, street performers and dancers, creating a sensational ambiance about the place.

There was also some of the best street meat vendors we´ve come across (we didn´t get sick) and I am definitely addicted to Arapas (a kind of soft potato paddy lightly fried and then stuffed with fresh cheese and butter...delicious).

It´s is hard to say what city in the World could rival this old town as far as beauty and vibe. Certainly the likes of Antigua, Guatemala and Granada, Nicaragua unbelievably don´t even come close in our opinion.

It was sad to move on, but time is getting away from us. Before we left though we did a day trip to the nearby Volcano Totumo. I say ´Volcano´but it is really just a 50m high mud volcano with a small square hole on top that is naturally full of slimy, oozing mud. However, that is exactly what we were there for !!! Along with around 20 other people at a time we jumped into the pit. It´s hard to explain how strange it felt as we slowly lowered ourselves into the thick pool of mud. You couldn´t really stand but you didn´t really sink. You kind of just floated there and one of the resident assistants had to push you around into a spare place.

We quickly got right into the experience and ended up plastering it all over our bodies. We both received a great massage in the bath from one of the locals (plying for tips) which was shortly followed by the 'wash down' in the nearby lake. Basically one of the local women lead us (and everyone else)down to a nearby river, sat us down, then proceed to undo our swimmers and douse as with water as we sat there butt-naked (although concealed by the murky water). I myself only knew she was finished when she proceeded to throw my bathers on my head and send me on my way !! All a bit strange but helpful at the same time and just part of the whole mud bath experience.

Here´s a slideshow of our time in Cartagena...


If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - Cartagena