A few days in now and after the initial surreal experience on Saturday, it´s been (for the most part) much more relaxing since. Sunday I met three American guys and a Chilean girl at the hostel, and after a couple of hours of playing cards with a few beers we got restless and decided to see what Sunday night in Cartagena had to offer. Very little, as it turns out, and not altogether surprising I suppose. All the bars were closed by midnight except for one club - which I was assured was ´bangin´ on a Thursday through Saturday, however not so much on a Sunday. The 5 of us were the only people in there except for one middle aged couple who looked like they were on a very awkward and not remotely enjoyable date. At midnight. On a Sunday.
We didn´t take a huge, empty club as a sign to go home though and I´m sure the bar staff hated us for forcing them to stay open until 2am just so we could keep drinking. Such dedication.
The following morning the Americans were heading home, so myself, Isabel (the Chilean girl) and a few others booked on a tour to the ´mud volcano´. This sounded similar to thermal pools, but it was atop a volcano and instead of sulphurous pools it was one pool filled with liquid volcanic mud. You get a massage, they take pictures of you and you all have a jolly good time. Supposedly.
We stopped off at a resort outside of town to pick up another big tour group so we numbered about 40 in total at a guess. When the bus pulled up at the volcano, we were instructed to leave everything in the bus and just disembark in our swimming costumes.
Things got very awkward very quickly! I don´t think anyone had really counted on pretty much stripping down to what is essentially underwear, on the bus. In front of 40 strangers. So we all trudged out, trustingly handed over our cameras to a local kid and started walking up the side of the volcano. Isabel and I were about the third and fourth ones up and my first impression was ´how on earth are we all going to fit in this mud pool´as the diameter was probably less than 4 metres! And there were already 4 local men waiting in the pool - the ´masseuses´as it turns out....
I lowered myself into the mud which was pretty warm and almost a syrupy consistency, with one of the men ´helping me´. He got me into a horizontal position, so I was effectively lying in the mud and then sent me into the waiting arms of one of the masseuses who then proceeded to give me what I can only describe as a rub down. Seriously these guys probably have the best jobs in Cartagena!
Once he deemed me adequately coated in mud I was then left to my own devices and he moved onto the next victim. It was actually incredibly hard to stay vertical - it´s as if you´re suspended in treacle as you can´t touch the bottom. But as soon as your legs start tilting at an angle, it´s all over and you end up scrabbling frantically trying to get vertical again. I don´t even know how many people I inadvertently touched inappropriately while trying to regain my balance - but I was aware of at least 3 (my apologies).
Once the pool was uncomfortably full, Isabel and I exited and wandered down the side of the volcano to the lagoon to get clean. Here the local women took over where the men left off and proceeded to give me a fairly intimate washing! I crouched in the water, while this woman tipped bowls over my head and body, while rubbing the mud off my body - no orifice left unseen to! My bikini was given a fairly vigorous shaking out as she flapped the material away from my body to try and rinse the mud out. If anyone wanted to, they could have pretty much seen everything!
Oh and I later found out that I actually got away lightly, as one of the girls went the following day and actually had her bikini top removed in order to wash it more thoroughly! No room for modesty here.....it was definitely an experience!
(I will attempt to add photos as I think it´s necessary in order to really get the full picture! But most internet cafes don´t have java and I can´t upload without it, so it will have to wait)
