Cartegena

What a great city!  Although, the city is super hot and humid, like 'puts you in a bad mood' hot and humid....Cartegena's only drawback for me.....  Like Panama City, there is an 'old' town and a very modern downtown.  We hung out mostly in the old town.  Although it's full of tourists, locals also live there, so it's a nice mix of people, and hopefully still a good snapshot of Colombian life.

The walled city (old town) was really cool.  Lots of people out in the streets, at night people hang in the local plazas, drink, eat, watch kids play soccer, listen to impromptu street musicians, mix and mingle, etc.

One plaza in particular was a hot spot....each night we stopped by and inevitably bumped into people we were on the boat with, or met during the day on our adventures.  It's kind of fun seeing people you know, in a giant city where you don't really know anyone ;)

On the boat, Elise and I met 2 girls traveling together from Seattle.  We all decided to travel together for a bit too.  So we all took Cartegena in together!

While in Categena, we ate lots of street foods (now, my favorite kind of foods...and super cheap!), visited an old castle full of tunnels- built hundreds of years ago to protect the city, went to a small museum to learn about early Colombians and their GOLD craftsmanship, went to a local market, watched street performers, etc.  

One day, we also went to a local volcano.  Not your usual volcano, this one is full of mud!  When you visit, you walk up a rickety staircase, then into the volcano down a slippery muddy ladder.  Once in, you lay, suspended, in the mud (a really weird, but cool mud that feels almost like jello....so strange... but apparently great for your skin), then you get a small mud massage, and after that, you get to hang out in the mud for a while.  Apparently the mud goes down for about 200 meters, but you can't sink it in.  In fact, it's hard to even move around-  you almost have to rely on others to push and pull you around.

After you get out of the mud, you go down to a little lake nearby, where ladies are waiting to clean you off.  It's strange that they help clean you off, but its part of the experience, I guess.  Afterwards, fresh and clean, and super soft skin.  That was our last Cartegena activity.....onto Medillin