Colombia - the Caribbean Coast

We arrived in South America by plane and not by boat as we had hoped but were immediately impressed by the colonial city of Cartagena. The flight itself was an interesting experience as the plane was tiny (for a commercial plane), and only had nine rows of seats.

Cartagena is an easy place to spend a few days and we spent a fair ammount of time exploring it. The old walled town is particularly pleasant to wander around with its relaxed pace, 15th/16th century architecture, cobbled streets and plazas where you can get a game of chess with some of the locals. There are also a number of beaches close to the city on the Caribbean coast that are worth visiting.
On our second day in Cartagena we went to Volcan de Lodo el Totula which is basically a mud bath at the top of a small volcano (which looks more like a huge mound of earth than a volcano). It was the first time that either of us had been in a mud bath and we both found it a fairly surreal experience. It feels as if you are in a giant pot of honey as it is really hard to move. When you are standing your head always stays above the surface, with no risk of sinking, despite your feet not touching the bottom.

Cartagena is also famous for its night life and we had a good night out with some people from the hostel we were staying in. We found a strip of clubs near the old town, all of which were free entrance, so we spent the night stumbling between these.

After Cartagena we went to Taganga which is essentially a fishing village although it is now more developed than it used to be as it is quite popular with tourists. Taganga has one large bay set in a valley of green hills so is quite a spectacular place. Despite being on the Caribbean coast it has a strangely Mediterranean look and feel.
When we were in Taganga we did another ten hours of Spanish lessons that we split across four mornings. On one of the afternoons we walked across some of the surrounding hills to Playa Grande which is a slightly nicer beach than the one in Taganga. In the evenings we generally went for dinner with an Australian couple, Clint and Jaz, and sometimes sat on the beach drinking rum with them until the early hours.

We left Taganaga on a boat with Clint and Jas that took us to Parque Nacional Tayrona which is a large unspoilt tropical area with lots of jungle and white sand beaches. There are hardly any cabanas so almost everyone stays in either tents or hammocks. We arrived late afternoon, found a place to stay, and had dinner and some drinks on the beach.

The following day we walked along the coastline and went swimming in a few choice locations. We had our lunch at one of the camping areas then set off on a trek to Pueblito which is an indigenous village in the jungle that you reach by following a path uphill for about 90 minutes.

The way up was fine, as was looking at the site at the top, but the way down turned into a bit of an ordeal for the two of us. We had split up from Clint and Jas then got confused at a point on the trail where you had to go through a cave. We eventually figured out the way then almost immediately took a wrong turning and followed a path for about 15 minutes until it ceased to be a path and was just dense jungle. It was getting dark so we found our way back to the place with the cave as quickly as we could. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that it was raining quite heavily, there was a thunderstorm, our flip-flops were broken and we didn´t have a torch. With light rapidly fading we still couldn´t work out the way until Ellie eventually spotted where the path continued. By the time we met up with Clint and Jas it was pitch black so we were very relieved to be out in time. The prospect of a night in the jungle wasn´t appealing!

We then had a further 45 minutes to walk along the coast back to our campsite which wasn´t easy with two head torches between the four of us. Walking along the beaches in the dark was made difficult by the number of large crabs that seemed to be everywhere. After we were back we had some well deserved and much needed showers, beers and food.

We had a fairly early night then went to sleep in our hammocks. Despite putting on lots of repellent, wearing long sleeves etc we were eaten alive by mosquitos, sand flies, ticks and fleas. We woke up the next morning covered in bites and any thoughts of spending a third night there were abandoned.

We returned to Taganga, this time by road, and have been relaxing here since then.