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I travelled again alone from Medellin to Cartagena, choosing to go by night bus rather than fly, despite the closeness in price, as there was noone else going that day, so the taxi to the airport, which was an hour away, would be expensive, and I was getting used to night buses anyway and didn't mind them too much. MISTAKE! The journey was really bad! The first few hours from Medellin were all uphill, downhill, round and round, hairpin turns, and really bad bumpy roads, needless to say I didn't sleep well, and couldn't quite remember why I'd chosen this 10 hour journey over an hour and a half flight!
Still, I eventually arrived in Cartagena, to a hostel where also were staying Cat and Simon, and my friends Micky and Rupert from Montanita, along with their new friend Travis. Cartagena was most definitely the hottest most humid place I've been so far, it was insane! The first night we headed to Café del Mar (not to actually have an extortionately priced drink there, but to watch the sunset from the wall next to it) but missed the sunset by about 10 minutes! However we did manage to catch an awesome lightning storm over the new town, which you could see from the walls of the old town. A massive grey cloud contrasted behind the tall white skyscrapers of the new town, with lightning forks striking down between the buildings, it was really cool!
The old town of Cartagena is beautiful, I mean REALLY beautiful. Without a doubt the most beautiful in South America, well done Cartagena! Small tree lined plazas and streets with window boxes full of flowers, beautiful old buildings of different colours and cobbled streets, lit with old black iron streetlamps. You could spend hours walking around it, and literally every street is postcard worthy! The new town is pretty swanky, new shiny shops and restaurants and really white skyscrapers, and very clean as well!
We ventured across the road to Media Luna hostel's famous Wednesday night party, which was very fun but messy, and I bumped into a few friends from as long ago as Mancora and even La Paz! Which proves I must not be travelling ridiculously more slowly than EVERYONE else! Cartagena has a pretty good nightlife too it seems, although I was horrified one night when we went to a club where I was told I was too scruffy to go in! What kind of place have we ventured into where hotpants, flip-flops and a vest top are not appropriate going out attire?! Some sort of WESTERN place? What is this madness?!
Getting back into the spirit of travelling me, Rupert and Travis even did a day trip out to the mud volcano! Having seen photos of this we had all sort of formed images in our heads of what it would be like, and I think I can safely say it wasn't what any of us had envisaged! It is about 20 foot high, and made of dried mud, and has a crater full of hot wet mud. I guess the mud comes up from somewhere in the middle of the earth, but it is bizarre inside. You just float in it, and you can't move yourself up or down or around. If you push yourself as far down as you can you can feel the mud getting more solid further down, but this doesn't answer me the question of where the mud comes from… answers on a postcard!Its quite funny to see everyone completely covered in mud, even their hair and faces, but its quite strange to be pushed into the corner by some men who then massage and rub mud into you from head to toe. What's more weird is when you get out and head down to wash off in the lagoon, where some women grab you and, fairly vigorously, start scrubbing the s*** out of you, including your bikini/trunks, which they were fully removing from some people! (I managed to keep hold of mine!) Not at all what we were expecting, but a fairly novel experience all round!
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