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You will all be overjoyed to hear that the early night payed off and we are up and raring to go by 8 this morning. While I try to tame my hair into some sort of respectable style, Mark is busy studying the map of Cartagena and planning our route for our day of sightseeing!
Hair tamed...ish, map studied, backpack on and camera loaded we are ready to hit the streets.
First stop the old town which is a 'postcard worthy scene of 17th century architecture' and is surrounded by a wall which the Spanish built after an attack from Francis Drake! We get stopped by randoms several times on the way offering city tours however Mark is doing it for free (due to the aforementioned map studying...) so we politely decline.
The old town did not disappoint, it was really cute with cobbled streets, mediterranean style buildings, old churches and pretty little squares...although united colours of benetton and hard rock cafe were unexpected!
Mark was a fairly impressive guide considering and in Convento de San Pedro Claver we saw a dead guy in a glass coffin (San Pedro Claver) which was a little weird but Mark still took a picture and then we both freaked out that it might be disrespectful, so Mark starting bowing to it and I was crossing myself and saying the lords prayer until we left the church!!!! Outside the church was a plaza full of metal sculptures depicting every day life! We ventured to Plaza de Bolivar where we thought we would have a quiet sit in the park and a bit to eat. When it became apparent we were surrounded by the bomb squad. Then there was a Bang... Instantly up we went to investigate.... It was nthe bang of a drum!!!
A parade was going on where young officers were marching, singing and playing music, we think it was some kind of police academy graduation ceremony.
We then went to the old dungeons (Las Bóvedas) that were built into the fortified wall north east of the town. Getting the camera ready for some cool dungeon shots of us. We stumbled across Tourist shops instead. Confused we went to our lonely planet... I should have read further... All the dungeons had been converted into shops. I will have to wait another day to see Stevie behind bars.
Although all was not lost one of these shops had the Columbian flag Mark was looking for to sew on his backpack.
I've never seen him so happy!....you would understand the joy more if you had to listen to him mention badge in every shop for the last 6 weeks!!!!! It made up for him not finding a Venezuelan Flag.
We then took a stroll to Muelle de los Pegasos, an old port and checked out some 'pirate' ships...obvious kodak moment. Then it was on to the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, a fort not far from the hostel which was pretty cool and old. We walked around went in some tunnels, got lost in a the dark section of the tunnels and Mark choose this time to play silly b*****s and hide from me...resulting in me becoming a withering ball of scaredy cat on the brink of a meltdown all in the space of 2 minutes....playtime over we returned to the hostel and realised it was only 11.30 so we decided to go to Volcán de Lodo El Totumo on the 1.30 trip. After an hour or so bus ride, chatting to Mark's new 'friend' about New Zealand!!, we arrived at the inactive mud volcano and there began one of our stranger experiences....
We climbed to the top via a rickety staircase (which has obviously been there since the ice age) and lined up at the top to get in the mud bath which already had about 100 people in and looked like a giant mud orgy!!! Mark went in first.
'It was the strangest experience, the dude that helped everyone in instructed me to lay back and covered me in mud whilst making my hair into a Mohawk. (at least it wasn't devil horns like the last guy) Another random took photos with my IPhone, I was slid to another man for a mud massage which was more like a rub down needless to say I throughly enjoyed it!'
When my turn came I opted for no 'massage' and flayed around before someone helped me upright...It felt weird but nice at the same time, the volcano is 15m deep but you can't sink.
After his massage Mark joined me. We were all over the show. Our legs wanted to be higher than our heads and balls of gas would pop around us. After trying to push each other under so the other had balance and a thorough soaking and random petting we got out and a third random wiped the excess mud off us! Next stop was the ciénaga (lagoon) to get washed...literally. On the walk down Mark got a big dollop of mud and whipped it across my back.
Down at the lagoon there were a group of ladies waiting for us and a soon as we got in the lagoon they pounced and told us to sit while simultaneously throwing bowls of water over us and rubbing vigourously I kept saying no but it was no good the scrubbing continued...
It got weirder when the ladies said a sentence in Spanish which finished in one english word 'Naked' before our brains could comprehend the situation our bottoms were already half way down.
...this was so they could wash our swimming gear (Mark now thinks it's Christmas) ...this was surely some form of abuse!
All clean we head back to the bus to get changed to find a group of columbians demanding money...$3000 for massage $3000 for abusive clean and $3000 for taking photos with our own camera....these damn hidden charges!
On the bus Mark makes plans for us to cook with another group and join in there salsa night....this is short lived as we end up going out for pizza ( and pasta...greedy mark) and after a few beers head to bed as Mark has injured his neck somehow and the heat is making us sleepy!
- comments
jackie tracey Hiya Guys Sounds like you both enjoyed the mud bath etc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Couldn't tell if mark still has he beard underneath the mud?? Its all sounding really good and your both enjoying exploring the country. Take care guys Love the Traceysxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx