Casa Santa Ana Cartagena

... mud. Super thick, dense, bottomless mud. You can't reach the bottom, but you can't sink, either. Just trying to move around is difficult, and it turns out that the easiest plan is to lay on your back and have someone push you like a board across the surface. In fact, climbing in, this is the first thing you do -- lay back and get pushed to the far side, where you become one sardine in a row of people. Once about 10 people are all lined ...

... streets of the city were intentionally made narrow and crooked, designed for protection during assault. Despite the king’s efforts, Cartagena was the victim to five sieges during the 16th century; the most famous led by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. Drake made it into Cartagena harbour, but accepted a 10 million peso ransom for not burning the city. After Drake’s siege, Spain redoubled it efforts to ...

... Hopefully in aruba well be able to dicipher more of the food and places. Well I'm sitting out here at anchor on the deck of the boat surrounded by other boats. And the boat closest to us has 2 parrots that keep talking and the chicken at the market along shore are going crazy so im going to sign out and go to bed we leave for aruba tomorrow morning but we had such a great time in cartagena colombia and there will be pictures soon!!! LOVE YOU ALL TALK TO YOU IN 9 DAYS!!!!

... and to change it in the morning.

It was at this point that Jody had discovered that we had left our beloved size 2 football at the beach. It was an excellent travel football, great for practicing and small games, and we were unlikely to be able to get a replacement. Initially we dropped into the super market for some basic provisions, then we split, Christie and Niamh went back to the accommodation whilst Jody and I grabbed a taxi to return to the spot where we ...

... see my room. Not bad. A tad gloomy. A few stains on the walls (nothing the looks quite like human genetic material though). But the piece de resistance was the shower! Only cold showers here in Cartagena, which is okay because it is so damn hot...but the shower head is a PIPE! A little pipe coming out of the wall. The water flow is quite good, but IT'S A PIPE! haha There also was once an overhead fan in the room. That was ripped out but the guts of the fan are still ...

... waste the other contents of my backpack. There are some hairs sticking on it, and its surface is not as fine as it used to be. That's about all I can say about the soap-character, admittedly it's not much. The gravity, my other adversary on this sprinkled venture, has an even simpler character. At least, to us earthlings it reveals only one side of it: "go down" I think maybe the soap could have made it into a modern play, at least it would have a chance to slip through, but the gravity ...

... to Cartagena, cost about $50 total. Cartagena is an old colonial town that still has the original wall around the city that is about 500 years old. Stayed at a hotel but was like a hostel with air conditioning, private bath, t.v. kitchen, for $17 a night for three nights. Just looked around town and went and listened to Salsa music. The old town used to be a port to sell and trade slaves. The city is divided by the old city and ...

... looking a bit down on his luck. Turns out Eric was mugged last night at the bus stop getting into a taxi. 2 guys sandwiched him in the back seat and held his head down with a metal rod, relieving him of everything he had including his backpack with $5000 of photography equipment and the shoes he came in on. OUCH! We buy him breakfast and he is surprisingly mellow and philosophical about the whole ordeal. The local police have been a great help and even gave him 10 Soles out of their ...

... to Volcan de Lodo El Totumo, a mud volcano 70km away. By some freak of nature, instead of a bubbling crater full of lava, it has a crater full of lukewarm mud, and it burps once in a while. I guess it's really deep, but due to the fact it is far denser than we are, you cannot sink deeper than chest level! Even if someone tries to force you under, its nearly impossible and you pop straight back up.

The mud is therapeutic, it's close to Cartagena, it ...

... area. I immediately got the feeling that $15 USD of the monthly $22 USD sponsorship payment goes for keeping together the office - a very fancy building with a whole BUNCH of people working there, each and every one with brand new tools and equipment, EVERYONE with their personal computer, etc.

After meeting all the people, we then went to another building run by Children International, located in Loreidis' neighbourhood. There I got to see the dentist's ...