Cartagena Hilton

... guy in Medellin so before we knew it, and two soon for my liking, we were on the road again, heading south. We took a night bus from Santa Marta which was fifteen minutes in the road from Taganga. Brian and I were all prepared, hoodies, socks and the trusty blue blanket. The two boys got on the bus in their tshirts! Needless to say they froze. I don't think they slept a wink the whole way south. We did warn them.......honest!

... but it could hardly be worse. Pigs were a constant hazard occasionally in the road so the bus had to swerve. There are more pigs than dogs here. Children were already on their way to school. School is from 7am to11am,and then from 2pm to 4pm. The bus stopped briefly at a place I can only describe as an open air butchers. Large carcasses hung from hooks almost like hanging from a washing line, open to the elements. It was very popular with people poking and ...

Ahh. Wake up , wander the the corner, order up a fresh juice and a pastry filled with meat, or cheese, or chicken and cheese, or sweets....Anything you like. Best way to start the day. Visited the Totumo de Lodo today, the mud volcano.
We paid 25.000 without lunch each to be picked up and taken, and a beach picnic after, then return to our hotel. We'd gone grocery shopping the afternoon before and picked up a ...

... in the air and huge outboard motors driving them on at high speed across the harbour.
Again Fritz did all the donkey work for immigration for people while we hid out of the increasingly hot sun.
Off loading was not as spectacular as loading, we just pulled up along side a jetty, dropped the guard rail wires and just wheeled the bikes off.
Mine struggled a bit to start and Seanīs was really suffering from the effects of the salt water dousing ...

After a nightmare trip that was extended from 6 hours (two flights and one stopover) to 18 hours (three stopovers on two different airlines) due to bad weather we finally arrived in Cartagena - and it was definitely worth the wait! We had planned to do all the right things and arrive in Cartagena around midday but due to the delays we arrived at midnight - not recommended by any of the guide books!

Cartagena ...

... initial disappointment of our little band of backpackers was palpable. BUT, we neednīt have been so pessimistic. The crowd was rallied by a man with a microphone and, row by row, we were encouraged to stand up and shake our asses - first the men, then the women. Hilarity ensued. The old Columbian men didnīt hesitate for a second when it was their turn to go-go dance, standing on the benches and wagging their bums in the faces of the people ...

... was my inability to finish the hearty linguini con Langostini and side of delicious tomato salad. The next morning, we made the short trip to CRT in order to catch our Avianca birdy back to Bogota. As expected, the sky quickly turned to clouds as our beautiful seaside friend disappeared behind us. Landing in Bogota, we were packed into a station wagon that took us to our reserved hotel, the uber cool Art Hotel 104. Unfortunately, the manager informed me as I walked in ...

... 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 ...

... in the bus. I stayed a few days in Cartagena and hooked up with some New Zealand guys and a Colombian girl who happened to have lived in England and France, she was awesome. We went to the beach, discovered the old city, we had to dinner in my "flat" as I was cooking French food ( with South America ingredients) and last but not least, we went to the mud volcano of Totumo. It is a short ride north of Cartagena and it is an intriguing 15 m mound ...

... Bocagrande, at the heel of the L shape there are many, from here we booked the volcano trip and a Rumba Chiva for New Year's Eve. The Rumba Chiva is an open sided booze bus that cruises round town with a local band. It is a tight squeeze but after a bottle or two of the local rum you are soon everyone's best buddies - and like everyone else we were determined to get our 25,000 pesos worth. We invested in some Maracas and got with the rhythm. At the end of the trip at ...