Wallowing in the walled city

Wallowing in the walled city
Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena, Colombia

After a brief overnight stay in Bogota in a small suburb near the airport, we had the feeling that we were going to like Colombia. As we walked around the streets on a mild and rainy day, it felt like we were in Europe, so very different to other places we had been. We found a little bakery for breakfast and nearly fell over when it cost us £1 for 2 lattes and 2 fresh croissants with cheese inside. Seriously these are our kind of prices.

After a lazy morning we headed to the airport, managed to check into our flight with no tears and it seemed that our luck had changed when we found ourselves in the emergency exit seats with a ton of legroom. However tears were very nearly on the cards when the air steward insisted that Tim had to give up his window seat and switch to the aisle because he needed to speak Spanish to sit in that seat. I am not sure what the rhyme or reason is for this but Tim was not happy to lose his view and spent the next hour with his lip out giving the steward (who was asleep) death stares, seriously, no one should come between Tim and his window seat, it is not a pretty sight.

Anyway as we arrived in Cartagena we had a short journey to the area of Bocagrande, just outside of the old walled city and the area with the main apartments, shopping malls, restaurants and beach.

With its dark volcanic sand the beach was not much to write home about after the beautiful beaches in Brazil but it was ok, however we had treated ourselves to a hotel with a little pool and we made full use of it. We hadn’t really planned our stay in Colombia so had some serious travel planning to do. We had so many big plans, we were going to Santa Marta and the Tayrona National Park until we discovered that it was closed for the whole of November, we were going to the pacific Coast until we discovered that we had missed whale season, we were going to San Andreas Island until we decided that this Caribbean paradise may not be at its best in rainy season, we were going to the river of many colours until we realised that it was only many colours in September and then we were going to Salento in the coffee region until we read the horror stories about the roads and buses and delays. We made the executive decision that we would head to Medellin and then would come back to Cartagena for a bit of R&R around the pool before our journey home and would save the rest of our travels for our return.

As with all South American towns and cities, our first activity was the free walking tour. Sadly we were out of luck and our guide ranked amongst one of the worst we have had. He had no enthusiasm, no charisma and most of all no interesting tales about the beautiful Cartagena. We had spent 15 minutes before the tour walking around the streets and were amazed at just how beautiful it was, but the next two hours were just a painful endurance test of hoping that the guide would have something interesting to tell us. Sadly he didn’t.

The walled city of Cartagena was founded by the Spanish in 1533, this prosperous city was a regular plunder site for pirates and in order to protect the city walls and forts were built. It took 208 years to build the 11 kilometers of walls that surround the city. After years of wars and attacks battered the city it finally declared its independence on the 11 November 1811. The walled city is just stunning, with roads lined with colourful old colonial houses with little balconies perched overlooking the streets below.

I had received some advice that there was a tour that sounded right up our street, just about an hour from Cartagena is the El Totumo mud volcano. According to folk lore this volcano used to spew fire, ash and lava until a local priest sprinkled holy water in it to dispel the devil and it turned into mud. Said to have healing properties, people from all around Cartagena visit the volcano to enjoy the muds magical healing properties.

Not that I am a cynic but I am not entirely sure that there is anything natural or healing about the mud in this volcano, but that said, we had the best day out ever and wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

We took a bus trip to the volcano where we were told to change into our swimwear, gave our cameras to the camera man, we climbed the rickety staircase to the top of the volcano and watched as the madness unfolded below us. We were told that we needed to bring 9,000 pesos each in tips just under £2 as we had to pay the camera man, the massage men and then the river cleaning ladies. The routine went that one at a time we were told to climb down the slippy wooden ladder into the mud where we had to lay down and were pushed across the volcano into our parking space for the massage men to give us a thorough rub down front and back before we had as much time as we wanted to just float and wallow in the mud. It was a slightly odd sensation being able to stand up in the thick mud, but manoeuvring anywhere was an absolute mission as you pretty much had no control over your limbs. Once we were done we had to climb another slippy ladder where there was a man at the top to wipe off the majority of the mud that was attached to us, before we had to risk life and limb descending the rickety slippy mud coated staircase to the river. Things got really interesting in the river when I was allocated a little old lady who demanded that I sit down in the waist high water, she then proceeded to dump bucket after bucket of water over my head whilst she simultaneously whipped off my bikini top and vanished. Behind me I could hear Tim refusing to hand over his swim shorts, but gran got the better of him and before he knew it he was naked the river awaiting the return of his rinsed shorts. I sat patiently waiting for gran to return my bikini top whilst I tried not to be too naked and she returned, handed me my bikini top and then proceeded to douse me in twenty more buckets of water to make sure that I was entirely mud free and not able to put on my bikini top until she was well and truly done with me. It felt a little like a witch water dousing which I surprisingly survived but once we were changed our photographer, masseur and washer woman were all queued up awaiting their tips. I have to say they well and truly earnt them and I had no issue paying them. Back on the bus we were half way along the road out of the village when one of the other tourists on the bus came rushing to the front on his phone and next minute we were turning round and heading back. We never entirely found out what had happened but we got the general idea he had lost/left his phone in the changing room and when we returned it was gone. Needless to say he was not happy and he successfully managed to upset all the massage men, washer women and photograph men who he seemingly accused of taking it. Eventually we finally made it to our lunch location where we had a delicious lunch on the beach with a pack of pigs happily snaffling in the sand, only in Colombia!!

We had one more day trip planned in Cartagena and it was one that I was not really looking forward to, we were off to the Dentist! We discovered that Cartagena had a pretty large dental tourist trade and after reading a few reviews I found Filipe Frieri who had glowing reviews on a number of travel blogs and cruise forums so I got us booked in for a check-up, scale and polish. Knowing full well that I had one broken filling and one side of my brace detached, I knew I needed some work and fully expected to hear the words root canal and crown during our visit. Amazingly and much to my surprise the dentist fixed my filling with no anaesthetic, just a bit of drilling and reassured me that it should be good for another 5 years. My brace was reattached in a second and after the most amazing clean with bicarbonate of soda being blasted into my teeth and gums it was Tim’s turn. The dentist actually told him that he didn’t really need a clean if he didn’t want one but looking at my glowing white teeth he couldn’t resist. As we went to pay the dentist told us that th
e price was just a clean for us both so no charge for my filling or brace reattachment. I very nearly fell over. Absolutely beaming we made our way back to our hotel for a day around the pool. If I ever need any serious dental work I would not hesitate to book myself a holiday in Cartagena to get it done and I am pretty confident that the flight and two weeks in a hotel would still be less than the cost of a root canal at home.

Our time in Cartagena flew by, we found two amazing restaurants, one Mexican and one Arabic and ate like kings whilst we enjoyed the sun and our pool. It was only on our last day that we were reminded it was rainy season when a monsoon storm arrived and flooded every road in the town.

Cartagena it has been amazing and we can’t wait to come back, next up Medellin, just a few years ago the most dangerous city in the world!!