Charming Cartagena

After trekking a few hours in the midday heat we arrived at our bright and cheery hostel equipped with a pool and sun loungers...perfect. We decided to check out the old town first as we'd heard how beautiful it was...it didn't disappoint. Cartagena is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site so not many things have been done to the city itself keeping it's charm and beauty. It's quite easy to get lost in the city but a pleasure to as well. You could stroll around the beautiful colonial streets for hours and not get bored. We spent the first evening in Cartagena Colombia-style with a bottle of rum, a bottle of coke and planted ourselves on the edge of the main plaza, Plaza Domingo, people watching and chatting to some locals, once or twice having to take shelter from the pounding Caribbean rain. We spent the next few days taking refuge from the midday heat in our hostel pool and spending the evenings taking in the delights of the city. We'd read and heard some interesting things about the Volcán de Totuma so Kim and I decided one morning to venture out there to see what it was all about. The Volcán de Totuma is a mud volcano located an hour outside of Cartagena - it's a natural phenomenon of "hot mud" from under the lagoon "spraying" out the top. We were looking forward to relaxing for a while in the warm mud, maybe getting a massage and a facial. We arrived in a bus with another 20 people and took a look at this volcano and just burst out laughing. It looked like an oversized ant hill. We reluctantly stripped down to our bikinis and head up the side of the volcano to the mud baths. At first sight we were terrified at what awaited us...the bath was about 4m by 4m and was completely full with just 15 people in it...as they were all lying down on their backs while they got "massages" from these random Colombians. At this point there was no turning back so I closed my eyes and dunked into the extremely weird feeling mud and tried to relax while screaming to the men trying to massage me "don't touch me, don't touch me", while Kim wet herself laughing from outside the mud pit! After our 5 minute mud fest we were guided into the nearby "lagoon" i.e. a swamp, to wash off. At this point the trauma reached it's peak when the women proceeded to whip our bikinis off to wash them out...once again, we were thrown into a fit of giggles when a poor misfortunate boy next to us couldn't speak Spanish and just held onto his pants for dear life! Altogether though it was a funny experience...and one to remember. Unable to think of the prospect of leaving my sister once again (twice in one year is too much!) we kept ourselves busy for the next few days...lounging in the pool in the heat of the day, taking in the fabulous beauty of the city and topping the evenings off with oodles of rum and beer. But of course the inevitable day arrived upon us and we said our teary goodbyes until 2011 and Mitch and I packed up our rucksacks once more to head south for further Colombia exploring!
(Pic 1: Kim & I traumatised in the mud pit; Pic 2: Cartagena)