Up early for our last day together in Cartagena. By 9am we were on a bus to the Volcano Mudbaths about an hour out of the main city of Cartagena.
It was great. The viscous mud kept you aflot and it was strangely warm and comforting. Entering via a ladder, the guides already in the mudbath would get you to lie back and shift you like sardines between one another. Massages by the guides were given in the mudbath. You could stand, sit, float, lie whatever you wanted, but you always stayed afloat.
We surrended our camera to a guide who was holding about 50 camera, and he'd call out and hold up a camera (over the mud without fear) and you had to just yell out it was yours.
Afterwards you hopped out and headed to the lagoon where a young Colombian woman would insist you strip down while she washed you head and neck (and even your ears) and then whatever you wore into the mudbath. My faithful bonds boxer breifs mind you.
During Chiver's wash down he went to get up before the girl grabbed him and a few of the locals laughed out loud.
Walking back to the bus we realised all these friendly guides and locals wanted a tip. All of them. Individually. Luckily, $2000 (about $1.20) was very acceptable.
We had lunc at a nearby fishing village before getting onto the bus and heading back to the hostel. Where after another quick internet session I made an overdue call back home to mum. The other 2 had now left to get their bus and I jumped into a short cab ride to the airport.
I've checked in and waiting with a scotch in the lounge. I'm enjoying the solitude even if I am a little anxious of the tiny propeller plane I'm about to get onto.
The nights (much like in Santa Marta) are hot and humid, but bearable. We were up early and left for a quick session at the local internet cafe before heading out to explore the old city and the Naval Museum which was very interesting. A cross of cultural and military history as you learnt how present day Cartagena came to be.
Because it was the middle of the day, and incredibly hot, most of the shops close between 12 and 2. So we had a couple of ice creams while we (eventually) came to the decision that I would leave on my own and fly to Medellin a night early and Sutho and Chivers would ride the 16 hour bus the following day. Because I was already heading back to Bogota early, I wanted to see as much as Medellin as I could.
We said goodbye to Petra (although we later would run into her two or three times in Medellin) and went back to the old city one more for dinner and some street seller haggling. Had a fantastic meal (first thick steak Ive had all trip, nice and red and bloody) and went back to shower before we hit the bars.
But in the end, we came home showered, and beer in hand, the three of us crashed out, dressed and ready for the night. A little embarassing :)
''Is this the bus to Cartagena?'' - the movie, Romancing the Stone has been in my head for most the of the trip and this was the pinnacle of all that.
We were up really early from Tayrona, about 6am, and walked the path back to the very first camp (where the car dropped us off) and were fearful that we'd need to walk the 2 hour road back to the main street. However we were in luck, and we caught a return trip in the back of a truck to the entrance after waiting only about 5 minutes.
We went back to the hostel and picked up our packs (we only took very, very small day packs to Tayrona) and inquired about the bus to the Cartagena, which was due to arrive in only 20 minutes outside the hostel.
Soon enough we were on the bus to Cartagena and along the way we stopped at a tourist company office to use the bathroom. On the next block we saw the golden arches, and ran to McDonald's to grab some familiar food (Quarter Pounders are the same everywhere:). Cartagena is only 4 hours from Santa Marta, so it was very berable.
We soon arrived at Cartagena. The city itself is split into two main cities - the old city and the new city. Our hostel was only about 5oom from the old city (which is the more tourist part of town and was always highly reccommended). Petra was still with us, so the 4 of us were able to book a full room to ourselves at the Hostel Holiday.
After we got settled, we headed out to explore the old city at sun set, had a (very expensive) drink at Cafe Del Mar - an atmospheric restraunt right on one of the points of Cartagena. I managed to knock my first straight Johnny Walker Black right off the table (onto my leg and Petra), so I bought another.
We headed into the center of the old city where its full of restraunts, street sellers, entertainers and a quadrangle full of tables and chairs for the various restraunts. We had dinner here and again it was a very, very different part of Colombia.
Afterwards we headed back for a few quiet rums with the other guests of the hostel before calling it a night.
