Agua Hotel Cartagena

... t changed. As a result, you can wander the cobblestone streets for hours with great architecture, tons of tourists walking around, and street venders and shops everywhere. For views of the ocean and the city itself, you can walk along top the walls surrounding the city. John and I spent most of today just walking around, and when we got tired, you can buy freshly pressed fruit juices for about 50 cents and sit back and people watch for a while.

... since. In 1895, migration from the Middle East helped revive Cartagena economically. Newcomers were a catalyst for the development of commerce and industry. Today, Cartagena’s economy is largely centred around platinum and timber from the headwaters of the Atrato and San Juan rivers, coffee from the Sierra Nevada and oil products piped from Barrancabermeja, 335 miles up the Magdalena river.

OK, enough history ...

Getting from Carpugana to Cartagena took an entire day and a little bit of effort... a three hour boat ride, a five hour bus ride, and a four hour minivan ride. So by 11pm we made it to town, had a priest help us to get a taxi (and try and sign my up to the church, so i pulled out the old "no entiendo" line, pretending i couldn't understand him...), and found ourselves a room with air-con: my one request for Cartagena after all the stories i had ...

... br>
That night we hit the Caragena town with our friend Julian and a crazy Colombian dude who called himself ¨Biden Powel.¨ We wandered around going from plaza to plaza until we found a good dance club called Tu Candela. And that is where we brought in my birthday at midnight! It was a great time; lots of dancing and a good mix of travelers and locals (and some call girls).

It had been a whole 3 days without a perfect beach ...

... minutes. The sight of pasty-white gringos developing third-degree burns on the beach is too good an opportunity for them to miss insisting that you really must buy a piece of string with some shells on to tie around your neck.

The following day we travelled to nearby Tatuma volcano where you can wallow in the warm volcanic mud that is apparently very good for your skin due to the high mineral content (ignore the fact you're essentially sitting on volumes of ...

... age well here. The men are nice looking as well, but I think they are inferior in looks to their female compatriots.

I went to the hostel I had hoped to stay at, Casa Viena. It was full, so they sent me around the corner to Hostal Real. Hostal Real turned out to be a real treat (said with some sarcasm). I asked immediately about a private room as I am tiring of the whole dorm room scene. $10/night with fan and private bathroom. YES! Sign me up! And then I got ...

Fue fabuloso. Nos recibieron con agua de coco decorados en el aeropuerto. todos estabamos fascinados con llegar juntos. la primera noche la pasamos en Cartagena para que la lancha nos llevara temprano el siguiente dia. nos quedamos en una casa blanca, moderna divina con una super piscina, tomamos ...

... Colombian fans are totally crazy. There was even a guy next to us who had painted his beard like the national flag. Scary. Every time a player on the Bolivian team was either announced, or touched the ball, the crowd would yell out in unison..."Hijo de Puta!". I don't think that this would ever fly in the US....nor would the immense amount of trash hurled at the players. But then the guards seemed more interested in watching the game than monitoring the crowd. As the game ...

... kitsch fibreglass monuments such as the Big Pineapple (Nambour), The Big Prawn (Ballina) and yes, The Big Banana (Coffs Harbour). Ecuador quietly goes about producing a massive 28% of the worlds banana exports, in stark contrast to the tacky monumented bravado of their Australian colleagues who pitch in with a piffling 0.35% of the world demand for the funky fruit. Which just goes to prove it doesn't so much matter what you actually do, but if you shout very loud and give yourself a medal ...

... nur in ihrem Latino-Gedudel aus... War also einerseits musikalisch super, andererseits witzig die Kolumbianer zu solcher Musik tanzen zu sehen... Da sind dann ploetzlich die Touris die Tanzmeister...;) Ja, nach dem Konzert gingen wir -also ein paar Leute aus dem Hostal aller Welt und ich- noch in die mieseste Bar, die es in Cartagena wohl gibt. Aber alle Clubs hier verlangen Eintritt (so 3.-) und das Bier wuerde viel zu viel kosten (naemlich 2.50). Ich weiss, in der Schweiz waeren das ...