Cartagena, Colombia! When you say it, you need to have a strong spanish accent, remember that the "g" is pronounced like a "hey", and is sounds like this, Carta-hey-nah. It is a very cool city.
Our first night in the city, we met up with Jim(Lainas Dad) and BZ, at Edificio Palmetto, in the Bocagrande neighborhood of Cartagena. This building is tall! I think it is actually the tallest building in Cartagena. We quickely went out for dinner, and then home for lots of catching up, and then falling asleep. Our first day we took a cab into the old city, the walled city, and began to learn how much history this city has. We learned that in the 1530s it was built, and then Sir Francis Drake, the English privateer, come in aimed a cannon at the not fully built cathedral, asked for a lot of money as a ransom, and when they didn't pay, he shot the cathedral, and destroyed half of it! They then paid him the ransom. Anyways, this city was attacked many times by the pirates of the Caribbean (not the movie) and eventually they built a huge wall surrounding the city, 170 feet thick in some parts.
We spent a day going to the Islas del Rosario, and saw the aquarium, which was awesome, they even had an exhibit where the guy had trained the sharks(nurse sharks) to respond to their names and come get food! I was totally surprised, the sharks knew which one they were, and they came and went as he called! After the aquarium, we headed to a beach called Playa Blanca, and on the journey our engine broke down no less then 5 times! the captain had to keep fixing and restarting it. Playa Blanca is a beautiful beach, and has such soft sand. They only thing is that there are so many people who want to sell you stuff, a massage, a snorkel set, necklaces, anything, and they get quite annoying after a while. Heading back to Cartagena, I was reminded of the days we were boating around Boston, only because the city is big with skyscrapers, and it goes right up to the water.
The next day we headed to the mud volcano! We jumped on the bus fro our hotel, and after a 1 hour drive, we drove down this small path, and right in front of us, there was a small 45 foot volcano, made entirely out of mud! We climbed up the staircase on its side, and at the top, you can actually get into the mud, and there are some colombian guys that give you a massage for 2000 pesos(70 cents). Once in the mud, they tell you it is over 2000 feet deep! you would hardly believe it because it is nearly impossible to sink past your chest, if you are standing up, and if you are on your back, you float mostly out of the mud. The mud has the consistency of french onion dip (yes, you know the one) and is very smooth and shiny. When you get out, and walk down to the lagoon there are women waiting to clean you off, or if you have partner, you can do it yourself. After cleaning off the mud, my skin felt super soft, and stayed that way for about 3 days, including after swimming in saltwater. When we were done with the mud volcano, we did another tour, this one in the mangrove swamp. On three canoes, pushed by colombian guys with big poles, we silently floated through the channels of the swamp, and sometimes we came out into very large lakes, that were less then three feet deep, even in the middle. We saw many birds, white and grey egrets, frigate birds, turnstones, and more. there were also fish, but the water was not clear whatsoever, so we could only see their ripples. We stopped at an island to learn about the 11 native cultures of the area, but our guide did not speak very good english, and it was very hot, and I got bored quick. Back in the boat, we floated over two more large lakes, and then came up to our van for the ride back home.
The restaurants we have been going to here in Cartagena have been very nice as well. Shrimp cocktail, good pizza, filet of fish, and other delicious food has been filling our bellies. We went to a cafe on the top of the wall, and had an excellent meal. The jugos(juices) here are delicious, and I think I had the best Maracuya(Lilikoi, or passionfruit) jugo the other day at a restaurant, it was fantastic.
The next day we opted to do a tour of the cathedrals and churches of Cartagena, since the city has such old ones, and they are beautiful. It was very interesting, and we learned alot about the history of the city, and pirates. The cathedral was made out of quarried coral bricks!? Can you believe that. The tours were done by these electronic audio things that were really nice, because you could go at your own pace, and the english was spectacular.
After our tour day, we decided to do a SCUBA/Snorkel trip out in the Islas del Rosario. Jim and BZ opted to snorkel, while Laina and I decided to get some more dives in before we start our new careers in the industry. Our first dive, SURPRISE! Wreck dive! What!? We get to dive a wreck, and you didn't even use it as a selling point? I think so! Anyways, we headed out to a cool spot with nice coral and tons of sponges, and dove to 55 feet, and in the distance i saw a big triangle silhouette coming up out of the sand! As we got closer, it was obviously the hull to the 50 foot merchant vessel. It was made out of steel, so it help up pretty well, and was covered in life. I saw many star encrusting sponges, a bristle worm, a whole bunch of baby corals, and loads of fish. It was very exciting, since we have been studying our caribbean fish by the book and now we finally get to see some. Once over the wreck, I got to go in the main hatch and into the boat. It was very difficult to not hit the sides of the boat. I was not wearing any wetsuit whatsoever, so i did hit my arms against the sides, and I was slightly worried about firecoral and stuff like that, but I was fine. Inside the boat, i found a patch of air that was stuck inside, and there was enough of it that I was able to stick my head into it and see around, pretty cool! Laina and i continued to search out the fish and inverts so that we can add them to our mental collection. When we rose to the surface at the end of the dive, we had a nice surprise Ono circleing us, he was like 2 1/2 feet long, and definitely interested in us. I got a real good look at him, a prize fish back in Hawaii, for its delicious texture and flavor. For our second dive, we went to a nice coral area, and followed the low ridges, and saw tons of life. I saw 6 sailors eyeballs, a type of algae, a giant french grunt, Many different sponges and corals, squirellfish, a yellowfin grouper, a moray, and other cool stuff. While we were diving, Jim and BZ got to go on a snorkeling trip, and see lots of life as well. After the dives, we gathered for lunch, Mmm, delicious fish, and soup, and then headed home after an exhausting day.
We were able to meet up with Harry and Hugo, the Brits from peru, and had two days of fun with them, playing cards and checking out all the wild animals in the park next to their hostal. Hugos teeth are all gone now, due to his lack of education in england, over proper tooth care.
The rum here in Colombia is great, we all have been making many rum and cokes, in the afternoon at the beach. There is one rum here thats been aged 6 years, and goes down as smooth as a single malt scotch(well maybe thats an exaggeration, but its good!).
Our friend Jen, from the US, who we met in Pisco, came to town, and we have been hanging out with her and her friend, Sabastian from france. They headed to the Islands today, and we are planing on meeting them tomorrow on Playa Blanca. Jim and BZ leave tomorrow, so they are headed back to Ecuador, and we will be sad to see them leave. We have all had such a great time together, and we did so many things, and saw so much new stuff, what a blast! I really want to thank them for coming and spending so much time with us!
So this is almost the end, with only one more city to see (Bogota), we have finally reached the last week of the trip.
Heres the link for my Cartagena photos,you can see them without facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119214&id=19507860&l=7452f57d75
