Cartagena de Colombia, 6-9 de Enero

We keep coming across new towns and cities which we like to bump up to number one in our Me Gusto! (I liked it!) ratings and after several brilliant days here in Cartagena, we now have a new number one! Labelled as the most romantic city in South America it was easy to see why with the extremely well kept historic part of the city contained within a an old fortification wall - ye olde Caribbean stoory of kyeepn de payrites awaay. 



 This is Plaza de la Aduana where African slaves were originally purchased and sold.

 

In parallel with the colorful architecture the locals were equally vibrant both in dress and personality. We had a few hints of such culture in Panama - completely different to the Andean people in countries south from here, brought in part from the huge number of African slaves brought here in the pioneering days. 

We bought a couple of fruit salads from these awesome ladies on day one, and from then on each time we passed them we'd get the best of grins and HOLA's!



Back to doing what we do best, our time in Cartagena was spent wandering around checking things out....general loitering and taking photos.


Pedestrians dominate the narrow cobbled streets.

 

Oh how we loved the Mango Man (Men), this served as part of breaky each day (50c for a cup full), as well as a pretty frequent snack. These carts were on every corner.  



 






This colonnade is where we found the best nuts in town. The coconut biscuits were a hit also.





Volcan del Totumo

Quite random, but a great attraction close to Cartagena nevertheless, we visited Volcan del Totumo - a15m high volcano (yep volcano) with a very small crater filled with slowly bubbling, lukewarm mud and people. Essentially, loads of tourists are crammed into the small boxed-in crater where you experience a strange sensation of weightlessness. This is due to the mud having a similiar density to your body. The crater is actually very deep (2000-odd meters deep in fact), so you dont touch the bottom, but rather just bob around and attempt to move. The sound effects were pretty hilarious, and just floating around was surprisingly relaxing!  

Me (left) and Clare (right).




 


Enjoying a $1.50 muddy massage












Clare looking out for Johnny and the Black Pearrrrl.

When in Rome, or atleast close to Cuba, I couldn't resist. Me gusta!

Clare is always finding little friends.

Awesome drum and dance street performers dancing with machetes.








One of my favourite parts of travelling is that every drink and meal during the day is a hot date, somewhere different! This one was a date in the company of a rather large canon.


Unfortunatley our time on the Caribbean coast of Colombia was cut short due the weather delays and boat carnage in Panama (we will definately be back here). So, from Cartagena we headed inland to Bogota via a 20 hour bus ride (we checked that there were no more landslides or potential for protests....). It felt like ages since we had been on any decent length overnight bus rides!
We made sure we were in Bogota with ample time before our flight departed for Brazil, so spent a cruisy 2 days investigating the Colombian capital.