We finally got into Cartagena around noon after the 14-hour ride - in an ice box, may I add. Cartagena is an amazing city where the book and movie “Love in the time of Cholera” takes place. We had a crazy taxi driver who talked a million miles an hour and didn’t pronounce all of his consonants - he was very difficult for me to understand, but sure had some hilarious stories! We laughed most of the 20-minute taxi ride with him.
We stayed right in the heart of the colonial district in Cartagena, which was absolutely magnificent. The city has such a romantic atmosphere and contains some buildings that are hundreds of years old. We took a stroll through the old colonial streets where the Scarlett and I took advantage of the shopping vendors and bought some clothes and paintings. Scott took advantage of the Botero paintings being sold by a lady at a little coffee shop and bought the Mona Lisa, which is a depiction of her as if she were about 50 pounds heavier - perfect for Scott's mantle :) We had an amazing dinner that night, which was WAY too cheap for how yummy it was! We ended the night at a nice little cafe for dessert, which was beyond words!
The next morning we went on a tour to a small volcano, Volcano de Lodo el Totumo, which is filled with warm, gray mud and is located about 40 minutes outside of the city. We spent a decent amount of time drifting into a hippo-like state in the mud and got some nice mud massages. Being in the muddy area was the weirdest sensation! It felt like walking in pudding, but we couldn’t feel the bottom or even sink, and if you could get your legs down at all, it was thinner, slimier and a bit rockier - aka kinda gross! I chose to just skim along the top, which is about all we could do anyway. The volcano was so full of people that it was hard to get around, but definitely worth the experience!
After our mud bath, they send you to wash off in the lake next to the volcano. One word - NASTY! I'm sorry but having the three of us all with our master's degree in public health, all any of us could think about were all the water-borne diseases that were making their way into our bodies (which later, I did find a nasty red worm in my bathing suit and about lost it!). I'm sure we were quite comical for any of those around us though. As the old women from the community had us remove our bathing suits and washed us down, all Scarlett and I could do was look at each other and continue to say, "Keep your legs shut, keep your legs shut! All the nasty ones make their way up the urethra!" haha See what I am saying? Entertaining, I'm sure!
We then got back in the bus to leave, but unfortunately we didn't make our way anywhere too quickly. Our bus driver backed into a car. We ended up spending about an hour waiting as they fixed the situation. After which, we went to the beach and swam while they fixed a fish lunch for us.
A little more info about the volcano and why it is the way it is: Rising 15 metres from the ground like an oversized anthill, El Totumo is a classic example of a messy mud volcano that has been created by natural gases emitted by decaying organic matter underground. As the mud is pushed upwards by the gas, it deposits and hardens above ground. As more mud oozes out and spills over the edge, it grows in size and gradually forms what you can see today - a miniature volcano with a rich, creamy mud crater at the top.
After cleaning up, which took quite some time (and I'm pretty sure Scott still had mud coming out of his ears the rest of the trip), we went to a church up on a hill overlooking the city. This church took the place of where the Indians used to worship a goat. It was a beautiful view of Cartagena's new and old city. I also got to hold the CUTEST little sloth ever! Now, I know what you all may be thinking - GROSS!! Had I known what I know now about sloths, I would not have held him. Period. However, he was so cute and cuddly and I do have to say that Scarlett and I, despite the fact that moths lay their eggs in sloths fur and they are one of the dirtiest animals on the planet, we still want a sloth farm! Scarlett has a picture with the same sloth from last time she visited Cartagena a few years ago and I always found him adorable whenever I looked at the picture on her desktop. We will keep our sloths on our farm nice and clean though :) And yes, I'd take one of these suckers ANY day over a dog!!
We didn't get to see much else since it was a Sunday evening and everything was closed. However, after strolling around the city for a bit - watched the sunset at the beach and checked out the old slave-holding area, which have been converted into little shops - we ate at the fanciest Italian restaurant, which had fantastic food and great atmosphere instead. We ate by candlelight...awe how romantic! haha It was excellent and only $10. After dinner, we went for dessert in the town square on cobblestone streets surrounded by lanterns. Two guys played guitars and serenaded a couple by us and then a group of local kids were street performers did some typical Colombian and Afro Colombian dancing. The people who live in the north are descendants of slaves and had some great moves. We had a great time telling embarrassing stories and laughing. What a great day we had!
June 15 - Taganga and Jews: Grabbed a taxi to the bus station tohead out of Cartagena. Our driver's name was Franklin and he was really interested in what Utah was like and asked us to send him pictures. We also discussed the origins of reggaeton. We then grabbed some empanadas and fruit juice and hopped on our bus - Santa Marta found! When we got to Santa Marta, we took a taxi to Taganga to our hostel, Divanga. There was a nice swimming pool, hammocks, and an awesome restaurant there. Scott and I went to the beach while Scarlett hung out in the hostel because she wasn’t feeling well.
This was such an interesting town, where many of the bars have signs in Spanish and Hebrew. Apparently, lots of Israelis come to this town after serving their mandatory military service. So Scott fit right in. It wasn’t the prettiest beach and it was more desert than tropical, but overall had a really cool feel with a laid-back lifestyle. As you walk through the dirt streets, there are houses with elaborate speaker systems set up in front of their small homes, playing salsa and meringue songs at disco-tech volume (of course competing to see who can get it the loudest), while sitting around talking with friends and family. I am surprised that most people aren’t deaf there. I loved the Afro-Colombian culture in Northern Colombia - they are incredibly kind.
June 16th - Snorkeling and Beaching it in Taganga: Poor Scarlett woke up sick with a sore throat, but after some medicine and a nap by the pool in the hammock, she was feeling well enough to be a trooper and we took a boat ride to a beach that you could only get to by boat (even with how much she hates the Ocean and beaches). We had a good time at our private little beach; such a good time that Scott ended up a little red lobster for our flight home (poor guy!) cause he forgot to put on more sunscreen. Scott and I were able to take an under-water adventure for a cheap $10. Snorkeling is always amazing to me to be able to see all the cool things under water (kinda creepy too though).
We then went back to the hostel and swam in the pool to get all of the salt water out of all of our crevices and noses. We got fresh blackberry juice and listened to the Rastafarian skinny black bar tender with dreadlocks (which I had a slight crush on - something about being a foreigner and the dreads I think!) sing to Motown, rap and Alanis Morissette while he made our drinks and while we waited for our food. Definitely the epitome of cool with his dreads and carefree attitude. He may have smoked a little too much pot though (however, this is Colombia we speak of! hehe) because it takes either a real confident person or slightly high person of any gender to sing like that with Alanis. We all laughed pretty hard as he wailed away with her high-pitched tones.
Ahhh...I love Colombia!!
We stayed right in the heart of the colonial district in Cartagena, which was absolutely magnificent. The city has such a romantic atmosphere and contains some buildings that are hundreds of years old. We took a stroll through the old colonial streets where the Scarlett and I took advantage of the shopping vendors and bought some clothes and paintings. Scott took advantage of the Botero paintings being sold by a lady at a little coffee shop and bought the Mona Lisa, which is a depiction of her as if she were about 50 pounds heavier - perfect for Scott's mantle :) We had an amazing dinner that night, which was WAY too cheap for how yummy it was! We ended the night at a nice little cafe for dessert, which was beyond words!
The next morning we went on a tour to a small volcano, Volcano de Lodo el Totumo, which is filled with warm, gray mud and is located about 40 minutes outside of the city. We spent a decent amount of time drifting into a hippo-like state in the mud and got some nice mud massages. Being in the muddy area was the weirdest sensation! It felt like walking in pudding, but we couldn’t feel the bottom or even sink, and if you could get your legs down at all, it was thinner, slimier and a bit rockier - aka kinda gross! I chose to just skim along the top, which is about all we could do anyway. The volcano was so full of people that it was hard to get around, but definitely worth the experience!
After our mud bath, they send you to wash off in the lake next to the volcano. One word - NASTY! I'm sorry but having the three of us all with our master's degree in public health, all any of us could think about were all the water-borne diseases that were making their way into our bodies (which later, I did find a nasty red worm in my bathing suit and about lost it!). I'm sure we were quite comical for any of those around us though. As the old women from the community had us remove our bathing suits and washed us down, all Scarlett and I could do was look at each other and continue to say, "Keep your legs shut, keep your legs shut! All the nasty ones make their way up the urethra!" haha See what I am saying? Entertaining, I'm sure!
We then got back in the bus to leave, but unfortunately we didn't make our way anywhere too quickly. Our bus driver backed into a car. We ended up spending about an hour waiting as they fixed the situation. After which, we went to the beach and swam while they fixed a fish lunch for us.
A little more info about the volcano and why it is the way it is: Rising 15 metres from the ground like an oversized anthill, El Totumo is a classic example of a messy mud volcano that has been created by natural gases emitted by decaying organic matter underground. As the mud is pushed upwards by the gas, it deposits and hardens above ground. As more mud oozes out and spills over the edge, it grows in size and gradually forms what you can see today - a miniature volcano with a rich, creamy mud crater at the top.
After cleaning up, which took quite some time (and I'm pretty sure Scott still had mud coming out of his ears the rest of the trip), we went to a church up on a hill overlooking the city. This church took the place of where the Indians used to worship a goat. It was a beautiful view of Cartagena's new and old city. I also got to hold the CUTEST little sloth ever! Now, I know what you all may be thinking - GROSS!! Had I known what I know now about sloths, I would not have held him. Period. However, he was so cute and cuddly and I do have to say that Scarlett and I, despite the fact that moths lay their eggs in sloths fur and they are one of the dirtiest animals on the planet, we still want a sloth farm! Scarlett has a picture with the same sloth from last time she visited Cartagena a few years ago and I always found him adorable whenever I looked at the picture on her desktop. We will keep our sloths on our farm nice and clean though :) And yes, I'd take one of these suckers ANY day over a dog!!
We didn't get to see much else since it was a Sunday evening and everything was closed. However, after strolling around the city for a bit - watched the sunset at the beach and checked out the old slave-holding area, which have been converted into little shops - we ate at the fanciest Italian restaurant, which had fantastic food and great atmosphere instead. We ate by candlelight...awe how romantic! haha It was excellent and only $10. After dinner, we went for dessert in the town square on cobblestone streets surrounded by lanterns. Two guys played guitars and serenaded a couple by us and then a group of local kids were street performers did some typical Colombian and Afro Colombian dancing. The people who live in the north are descendants of slaves and had some great moves. We had a great time telling embarrassing stories and laughing. What a great day we had!
June 15 - Taganga and Jews: Grabbed a taxi to the bus station tohead out of Cartagena. Our driver's name was Franklin and he was really interested in what Utah was like and asked us to send him pictures. We also discussed the origins of reggaeton. We then grabbed some empanadas and fruit juice and hopped on our bus - Santa Marta found! When we got to Santa Marta, we took a taxi to Taganga to our hostel, Divanga. There was a nice swimming pool, hammocks, and an awesome restaurant there. Scott and I went to the beach while Scarlett hung out in the hostel because she wasn’t feeling well.
This was such an interesting town, where many of the bars have signs in Spanish and Hebrew. Apparently, lots of Israelis come to this town after serving their mandatory military service. So Scott fit right in. It wasn’t the prettiest beach and it was more desert than tropical, but overall had a really cool feel with a laid-back lifestyle. As you walk through the dirt streets, there are houses with elaborate speaker systems set up in front of their small homes, playing salsa and meringue songs at disco-tech volume (of course competing to see who can get it the loudest), while sitting around talking with friends and family. I am surprised that most people aren’t deaf there. I loved the Afro-Colombian culture in Northern Colombia - they are incredibly kind.
June 16th - Snorkeling and Beaching it in Taganga: Poor Scarlett woke up sick with a sore throat, but after some medicine and a nap by the pool in the hammock, she was feeling well enough to be a trooper and we took a boat ride to a beach that you could only get to by boat (even with how much she hates the Ocean and beaches). We had a good time at our private little beach; such a good time that Scott ended up a little red lobster for our flight home (poor guy!) cause he forgot to put on more sunscreen. Scott and I were able to take an under-water adventure for a cheap $10. Snorkeling is always amazing to me to be able to see all the cool things under water (kinda creepy too though).
We then went back to the hostel and swam in the pool to get all of the salt water out of all of our crevices and noses. We got fresh blackberry juice and listened to the Rastafarian skinny black bar tender with dreadlocks (which I had a slight crush on - something about being a foreigner and the dreads I think!) sing to Motown, rap and Alanis Morissette while he made our drinks and while we waited for our food. Definitely the epitome of cool with his dreads and carefree attitude. He may have smoked a little too much pot though (however, this is Colombia we speak of! hehe) because it takes either a real confident person or slightly high person of any gender to sing like that with Alanis. We all laughed pretty hard as he wailed away with her high-pitched tones.
Ahhh...I love Colombia!!
1 comment:
How fun! Still love reading about it. Glad you came out of the mud hole okay...
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