Cartagena, Colombia

After an overnight bus ride featuring not one but two Jean Claude VanDame movies, I arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena is a beautiful old city right on the Caribbean. It is divided between the new, trendy and expensive area called Boca Grande, the old colonial walled city and then the rest of Cartagena where the majority of the people live.

My first impression upon arriving at the bus terminal in Cartagena that I would not be able to survive the heat. While in Medellin, an Irish guy I met had warned me that showering is almost useless in Cartagena because as soon as you step out of the shower and dry off you need another shower because you are drenched in sweat again.

In December I am used to below freezing temperatures and snow, not 90+ degree heat with humidity. Luckily I was able to overcome this challenge and survived a tremendously relaxing and very enjoyable week in Cartagena, made even more enjoyable by the fact that several people who stayed with me at the same hostel in Medellin also made the trek up to Cartagena.


One of my favorite days was spent on a trip to the Volcán de Lodo (mud volcano) about an hour and half outside of Cartagena. The volcán is a natural formation about 10-12 meters high that you climb up and enter its mud filled cone. Not sure how it is formed or why it formed here, but it was one of the most bizarre experiences I´ve ever had. You climb down into the mud and are basically just suspended. You can´t feel the bottom, you just float in the muck. It is very hard to move, but movement really isn´t necessary because there are guys in the mud that give dirt cheap massages (1-2 US dollars depending on the length). After floating in the mud for a bit, we were all led down to a nearby lagoon where local women gave us all baths to clean all the mud. This was followed by a moment of temporary awkwardness as we were all told to remove our bathing suits so that they could get the mud out. Sure, why not?

Besides several lengthy strolls through the old walled city, I also spent some time on the beach in Cartagena. We had all been told several times that there were no beaches in Cartagena and that trying to find a place to get some sun and go swimming would be a waste of time. Those of us that went to the beach found that while it was not the prettiest beach in the Caribbean, it certainly did the trick. Very pleasant water and the same sun that you get anywhere else. Not a bad way to spend a day.

Next up is a 23 hour bus ride to Bogota and then a flight to Leticia, Colombia in the middle of the jungle.


More pictures of Cartagena can be found on my Picassa photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren