Cartagena - Columbia

Colonial balconies spilling with colourful bouganvillas and sunny arctitecture, Cartagena is what they describe as the jewel of the Carribean. As rightly so, as it is a beautiful city which has retained true authenticity and style, not sold out by tourism. Well not yet, or at least not in some areas such as the old town where we are staying. I like that its still quite rough around the edges, which can contrast with the restored feel of the centre and especially so with the modern, fancy area with its huge designer beachfront apartments and restaurants which are increasingly springing up here. Having only seen this from the bus, we are more than happy mixing it up with the mostly black locals and making new street friends such as Jebs favourite, Mario Brother, who loves a chat on the corner at any time of the day.

Its really stinking hot and humid here as you may expect, and reminds me of a cross of places like Fiji and Vietnam, with the smells of fruit and sweat, and the oppressive heat and open local life. Speaking of fruit, we are in produce heaven here, and we buy fruit and drinks from vendors all day, every day. Fresh lime drinks, sweet strawberries and mangoes, huge avocadoes and things we dont even know. Also small sweet coffee known as tinto to give us that morning kick.

The city was very important to the Spanish as its a port town and cruically located, and therefore was prone to invasion back in the 15th century and onwards. The Spanish built a huge fort on the city edge, and walled the city with cannons which are all still in place. It has character and history and some say a sense of historical romance.

Today we had one of the most unique experiences i have ever had. We went to an active volcano and bathed in the mud inside. Its quite small, only about 35m high to climb inside, and then down a ladder into the thickest mud you can imagine. You can hardly move yourself and have to get pulled and pushed through the den by locals who massage you whilst you reap the rewards of the 51 minerals contained in the mud. There is no ground, and a bizzare feeling of weightless. Every inch of our body was covered and my skin now feels exfoliated and soft like no product could ever do. Climbing out is a challenge not to slip and you then get washed by ladies in the river (everything for tips of course). Next up, a swim and lunch on the beach, freshly caught fish, fried plaintains, coconut rice. The ocean water here is warm and only refreshing to a degree. We have taken to cooling down by drinking lots of rum which is the common carribean drink.

There is a dog fight outside right now which is rare as dogs in Sth america are everywhere but mostly quite placid and ignore you. Kinda scary sounding. Tommorrow we are travelling another 4 hours along the coast and this really will be the furthest north we will go for a week of lazing about on the beach.