Cartagena is a popular tourist spot for both locals and foreigners, and there's a few things to check out. The main thing being the old town which is surrounded by thick walls to protect it against enemies back in the day. It's a beautiful section of the city to wander around checking out the colonial architecture and all the churches, monasteries, plazas and palaces. It's a self-contained section of history, but of course it's so popular with tourists that it's a bit pricey for us backpackers.
Another tourist spot is Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, which is a fortress on top of a hill. According to the Lonely Planet it's the greatest and strongest fortress ever built by the Spaniards in any of their colonies, and it was never taken despite numerous attempts. Impressive. It was one of the more expensive places to visit though - $17 entry which made me think twice about parting with that much money. That was over half of my daily budget after all! It was an awesome view of the city though, and there are some cool old tunnels that wind all around under the fortress.
One of the coolest and weirdest experiences was visiting the mud volcano just out of Cartagena. It must be the world's smallest volcano though as it looks more like a tiny hill. You climb up steps leading to the top where you wait your turn to get into the small crater of viscous volcanic mud. Once you're in you can get a massage by one of the locals, otherwise they literally just push you across the top of the mud to the other side. It's the weirdest feeling as the mud is so unbelievably thick that you have to fight to submerge yourself. I ended up just kind of sitting there with my legs stuck out in front. Everyone had to push each other around to move anywhere so it was a crazy experience. Afterwards you walk down to a lagoon where you wash off, or more likely, you get grabbed by a local woman who then proceeds to make you sit down in the water while she whips your bikini/boardies off and washes them and you clean. An appropriately weird end to the whole experience.
Kat and Cam arrived in Cartagena not long after me, so we ended up organising to get the boat out to Playa Blanca together to spend a few days chilling out on the beach. Of course the morning we left it was absolutely pissing down, so I showed up at the port looking like a drowned rat, carrying my small backpack in a plastic rubbish bag. A very sophisticated waterproofing method. We took the slow ferry there which turned out to be very slow - about 4 hours with a stop at another island so people could visit an aquarium. No thanks. But we eventually arrived and were greeted by a long strip of white sand and blue water. Gorgeous. We found a place to sleep for the night in hammocks and got down to the important business of swimming, drinking and getting a massage. That first night was pretty miserable though, as it was raining and windy so we all got wet and cold. Needless to say, the next morning we moved further down the beach to another place which was a lot better as the hammock area had a big tarp all around it to protect us from the rain. The owner also cooked some amazing food, so we were happy campers. And thankfully we were away from the crowds who arrived each day, so we had a quiet stretch of beach to swim and soak up the sun. Not a bad way to spend a few days.
After several days the suffocating humidity of Cartagena became too much, so it was time to keep heading north.
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