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

Sailing from Panama to Colombia

My friend Elise and I took a 5 day sailing trip from Panama City to Cartegena, Colombia.  We were on a 60ft boat with 10 other passengers (all great, fun folks) and 4 crew.  The first 3 days, we anchored at different islands in San Blas.  

San Blas is a district of islands along the Panama coast.  The islands were amazing!  We did lots of swimming, snorkeling; we say starfish, stingrays, fish galore, etc.  the food on the trip was also FANTASTIC!  I was way impressed with the crew and what they busted out for meals, especially since they were working with a tiny little kitchen.  One day, a local guy from one of the islands brought his canoe out to our boat and loaded us up with a cooler full of lobster. Our last night in San Blas we ate like kings, on the boat deck in the middle of the Caribbean, surrounded by beautiful islands, and cool ocean breezes.

At one point our captain briefly brought two local Indian women onto the boat.  They came aboard with molas (really nice layered fabric designs), and beaded jewelry to sell.  The indigenous women of San Blas wear the molas and beaded jewelry everyday. The molas are part of the shirts, and they wear beads up much of their legs and arms.  

The last 36 hours on the boat were miserable......open sea stinks.  We even hit a storm during the night to make it even better.  The first 24 hours of the open sea sailing part of our trip, NO ONE moved from their beds.....the only comfortable way to sail was laying flat on your back, so you moved with the boat.  The cabin was hot, humid, and uncomfortable, and by this time, it had been days since we all showeed.  Those 36 were some of the worst of my life.  It was brutal!  Getting up just to pee seemed like an insurmountable task.  But low and behold, we made it to Colombia!   Afterwards though, glad I did it. The 3 days in San Blas were worth every minute of the crappy 36 hours.   Plus, I learned a little about myself too.....the sailing life is not for me!

I am a little behind on posting.....it's hard to keep up when I am moving around so much, but I will try to get small blurbs and pics up when I can.  More to come.....