Cartagena

Got up at 10 Friday morning and FaceTimed home. Mom told me I could stay in South America longer if I wanted to, if I'd more traveling to do it'd be ok if I missed Christmas. About 12 I jumped on a bus which took me straight to the bus station, handy, but my bag also counted as a passenger apparently so I paid 1400 for me and 1400 for my bag, gotta love Colombia! At the bus station no one spoke any English so again my limited Spanish was tested, I booked myself onto the 2 o clock bus. The bus was stopping in Barenquilla before going to Catagena, total journey was gonna be 4 hours. In typical Colombian fashion the bus was 6 and a half hours long and then a taxi ride that lasted the bones of an hour as the driver had no idea where he was going. Checked into El Viajero no problems and headed out to find somewhere to eat. Found a lovely pizza restaurant but it was a bit pricey 38,000 for a medium pizza - ah it must be huge. It wasn't but it was lovely. Just after I ordered a guy Alex who I'd briefly met in Taganga walked in, so he sat with me and we decided we'd both head to Medellin Monday, and do the mud volcano together. Got back to the Hostel around 10 and it was pretty quiet so decided I'd go to bed and watch something on Netflix. Got up at 9 for my free breakfast on Saturday and headed out for a walk around Cartagena with Alex, we walked along the walls and around some cool squares. Went to a really nice restaurant 'La Bistro' for lunch, where we got fish soup and then a huge fish for main, it was great. Got back to the hostel just in time to watch Australia break the English hearts, quite enjoyable really. We decided we were gonna go to café del mar to watch the sunset, as always on route we stopped off in a bar that claimed to make the best mojitos in town, would have been rude not to. We got to the café and got great seats by the wall, with gorgeous views of the city and sea.

Obviously we'd met people in the mojito bar and promised we'd join them for another drink. They had come down from America just for the weekend, Thursday till Monday morning where they were headed straight back to work. Saturday night was decent, barely slept and was up at 8.30 to go do the mud volcano. We were on a bus for an hour to get to the volcano. Changed into our togs climbed up a couple of steps and got into the volcano, got about a 5 minute massage and then just chilled in the mud for about 45 minutes. To wash off you walked 40 metres to a lagoon where local woman are waiting to wash you, they weren't shy sticking there fingers in my ears and ripping my togs off. Of course nothing is free, and once we'd showered everybody was over looking for money. After we were taken to a nice beach, where we got lunch and then just hung out on the beach for 2 hours. Absolutely craving a kebab, myself, Alex and Denise headed out to find a good old doner. The one place we'd found online was shut down, plan B! Street food, Alex had heard about some guys that apparently make huge burgers for 6000, a lot cheaper than the pizza. The burgers were unreal, we stood there for 10 minutes watching these guys make plates of food and burgers, like 10/15 at a time,they'd serve them up and then go onto the next set.   

We headed to the walls with a couple of beers, just sitting there quietly minding our own business and the police rocked up. They searched us, but not Denise and then headed off. About an hour later, just walking home we were stopped again, this time one officer took a bit of a disliking to me. He searched through my wallet for a good 5 minutes, sniffing it, checking every pocket, had me take the money out, pretty much turned it inside out, finally satisfied we were allowed to go home. Got up this morning Monday, checked out of Hostel, grabbed another burger for lunch from a restaurant tho 3 times the price of last nights burger. Headed to the castle then. Some great views from the top of the castle and some real cool tunnels inside. Jumped into a taxi and headed to the airport. Next stop Medellin where hopefully I'll get my kebab.