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The South American Odyssey
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The South American Odyssey

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    2

    Street dancing Plaza Bolívar

    3. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    As we crossed Plaza Bolívar, we saw the street dance performers gathering up. Soon, their dancing started. We were again mesmerized by their energetic performance and beautiful dance moves. This is something that is not to be missed if one is in Cartagena.Les mer

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    2Tamarind coconut sweets2

    Back to Getsemani

    3. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌬 25 °C

    It was around 7:30 pm now. We decided to go back to Getsemani to our hostel. The way back to Getsemani was sprinkled with stops at the food kiosks and street graffiti. We tried some tamarind coconut sweets. They had a nice tangy flavor.Les mer

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    Street vendors everywhere
    Street vendors everywhereIglesia de la TrinidadFood stalls

    Getsemani at night

    3. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Getsemani had a festive relaxed atmosphere in the night. The restaurants had put up chairs outside on the roads. There were street vendors selling bracelets and trinkets. Outside the Iglesia de la Trinidad, there were people sitting around enjoying the evening atmosphere and listening to the street performers singing and dancing. There were queues at the food kiosks. A lot of popular food kiosks opened only for the night. There were locals sitting on plastic chairs and tables, on the roads outside their houses playing poker and mahjong. It was a fantastic place to roam around. Our hostel was just 20 mts from the Iglesia de la Trinidad so we didn't have to hurry back. We sat there pretty late into the night enjoying every moment.Les mer

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    Scrambled eggs and bread
    Scrambled eggs and breadPolishing off the breakfast outside the church2White (Borojo) and brownish (Churuba) juices

    What do we do today?

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We woke up late and barely managed to come out of the hostel by 10:30 am. We wanted to have a quick breakfast so we could go to the dock to see if we could find a boat to Isla Rosario. The battle-hardy souls were fine with the breakfast at the streetcorner kiosk selling scrambled eggs and some meat snacks. 😉 Maria was not too impressed with the hygiene of the kiosk guy so we stopped on the way at a better food place for her breakfast. Here they had a lot of variety in juices so we tried juices of 2 new local fruits Borojo and Churuba. Churuba turned out to be the local version of Tumbo which we had tried in Bolivia. Its called Banana Passionfruit in English.
    After our breakfast, we went to the harbor. Here, we discovered that there were no independent fishermen or multitude of tour operators that we could pitch against each other for a better deal. There were about 8 kiosks just outside the entrance to boat harbor and these were the only places where we could book tours to the distant islands or beaches. All of them offered all the tours to all the islands near Cartagena at similar prices. There could be a slight variation in the price if we booked more than one tour or if we opted for a slow boat or a speedboat. On top of that, everyone leaving the harbour was expected to pay a huge port fee of 16500 COP per head. So, no escaping the expenses if we wanted to do the tours.
    The trouble was that all of them left the harbour before 9 in the morning and it was 11:30 by the time we had reached there. So, we booked the tour to Isla Rosario, with one of the operator for the next day at a price of 35000 + 16500 (port tax) COP per head.
    The next issue we had to solve was what to do for the rest of the day. I suggested we go to the mud volcano some 60 kms away. From my earlier research on this area, I remembered that it was not a whole day activity and if we were quick enough, we might be able to make it during the rest of the day.
    We asked the lady at the counter where we had booked our next day's trip. She was able to arrange a tour within about an hour from her place for 45000 COP per person which was the normal cost of this tour. We booked it straightaway and waited for the van to come and pick us up there. It was nearing lunchtime now so while I sat outside the kiosk waiting for the van, Maria and Hristo went to a mall nearby and bought some food stuff.    Les mer

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    El Totumo mud volcano
    El Totumo mud volcanoView from the crater2Inside the craterIn the mud pool

    Totumo mud volcano

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    The van arrived to pick us up a bit late and we along with about 10 other people started towards Totumo halfway between Cartagena and Barranquilla. We reached El Totumo around 3:30 pm.

    El Totumo Mud Volcano is an active mud volcano located near sea level in northern Colombia. It is a local tourist destination, popular for its alleged healing mud bath. It is the smallest volcano in the country. The mound has a height of about 15 m and is accessible via a staircase that leads to the crater. There is a small place at the crater where 10-15 can stand around before going down about 4-5 meters via another wooden ladder into the thick mud of the pool. There's a separate ladder to come out from the pool.

    A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases. A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases. The mud produced by mud volcanoes is mostly formed as hot water, which has been heated deep below the earth's surface, begins to mix and blend with subterranean mineral deposits, thus creating the mud slurry exudate. This material is then forced upwards through a geological fault or fissure due to local subterranean pressure imbalances.    Les mer

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    On the crater
    On the craterReady to go inGetting into the muckCovered in mud

    Into the mud pool

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    This place is a well organized money making machine for the locals. The tour vans have a tie up with one of the local shack huts. All the tourists are invited to go in. These places have joint lockers which people can share to store their valuables while they frolic in the mud. At least, this service is free. Each of these shacks then provide a person who can carry the phones and cameras to take pictures, of course for a charge of 4000 COP. This charge is per person irrespective of number of equipment. So, if the 3 of us wanted pictures from the same phone, he would charge 12000 COP else he would make sure only one person is captured in the pictures. We decided to use only one phone and I negotiated a price of 8000 COP for the 3 of us. When we reached the top, Maria found the mud and the place quite disgusting and decided to drop out, so we took our phone back from the "photographer" and gave it to her. He, of course was not happy about it and kept badgering her with words. But, there was not much he could do since even Maria had fully paid the entry. Now with the camera with Maria, we got some very good pictures. I was first in and as soon as I was in the mud the "helpful" locals started putting mud all over me. Hristo who was following me down the ladder, kept reminding me "there's no free lunch, particularly in Latin America". So I kept telling them "No necesito" and tried to move away. But, I found that getting onto the stomach didn't help at all since the body would float above the mud and it was not possible to swim. Luckily, by this time Hristo reached the bottom of the ladder and the locals pounced on him instead.Les mer

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    Mud monsters

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    As soon as Hristo came in, we moved away to one corner. To move, we had to lie on our back and use our arms to move. Here, we tried doing different stuff with the gooey muck. We realized that if we stood straight, our legs would go straight down without touching anything. We tried to push further down and were able to get down to our necks but would blob out as soon as we stopped pushing down. It was yucky but fun 😁😁Les mer

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    Lake near the volcano
    Lake near the volcanoHeading for a clean upSwimming in the lake3

    Getting the mud off

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    The next thing to do is to go to the lake nearby to get the mud off. Here again, the enterprising locals were standing all over the lake shore with a small half cut plastic can and using that as a mug to pour water on anyone entering the water to clean off the mud. This was so ridiculous 😨😨 imagine using the water from the lake to pour small mugs of water on people entering the lake... Unbelievable!! 🤣🤣
    We just pushed past them and headed for deeper water. On seeing this they started shouting "peligro.. peligro.." (dangerous.. dangerous..) to us. We completely ignored their warnings and had a nice swim to wash off all the muck off us. After frolicking around for 10-15 min, we came out clean... Almost 😁    Les mer

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    View of the mud volcano from below
    View of the mud volcano from belowThe beach near CartagenaBack in Getsemani2

    Back to Cartagena

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After the dip in the lake we went back to the shack where they had our stuff in the lockers. Here, we were supposed to have a shower to wash off the last of the muck from us but the shower was just a trickle and not of much use. I heard one of the lady running the shack tell a Japanese tourist with us that he needed to pay 4000 COP for the storage and shower services. I informed Hristo about it. This was ridiculous again, since we had paid quite a good sum to the tour operator and we resolved not to pay anything extra. So, when the lady with the tour van came, we told her we won't be paying anything extra since we had been told everything was included. She was fine with that and didn't want anything extra from us. After we changed and came out, she came with a try of watermelons. We were so used to people trying to fleece us that our first reaction was "Is this included or extra" 🤣🤣🤣 She assured us that it was included, so we had some refreshing bites of it.
    After that, our van brought us back to Cartagena and dropped us off a km or so away from our hostel. This was a part of Getsemani that we had not explored before, so we walked around looking around at the buildings. There were people sitting outside on chairs and others dancing with loudspeakers blaring music.    Les mer

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    Around Getsemani

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Even this part of Getsemani was beautiful with lovely colorful houses with bougainvillea and other ivy covering the facades of some of them. Peiple sitting out on the roads enjoying the weather and watching people walk by.Les mer

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    Maize, cheese and egg snacksMusic and dance outside the churchAt the Pirate Bar

    Night at Getsemani

    4. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Back at the hostel, we showered and cleaned up. It was around 8:30 pm by the time we were done. We decided to go to the food kiosks near the old town to have something for the night. After having a few quick snacks of maize and some juice, we came back to Getsemani. Here, outside the Iglesia de la Trinidad, there was a big crowd of people following the dance moves of a group of people playing music and dancing on the platform outside the church. It was a lovely festive atmosphere. We too joined in and enjoyed the music and dancing. They even played 2 Bollywood tunes and taught some Indian dance moves. After that, we went and sat in one of the bars for a while before retiring for the night.Les mer

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    2Castillo San Filipe de BarajasMonument of the Virgin

    Chaos at the harbor

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We reached the harbor slightly before 9 am. The boat was supposed to leave around 9 am. We were allowed to go inside the harbor after inspection of our tickets. Inside, its a small place where people sit and wait for their boats to go. It was quite hot and there was no shade except a small tent in one corner. Everybody tried to get into that shaded corner. It was packed there. Despite the tent, the heat of the sun passed through its thin white sheet easily and everyone was sweating. That aside, there was total chaos regarding the boats. The tickets didn't have any boat name or timings. People were walking around the small platform trying to find their boats and timings. There were boat operators shouting out names of their passengers. Most travelers being foreigners, the name calling too was not effective; people being called didn't realize it was their name being called. Some of the older people almost fainted due to the heat. It was a perfect example of mismanagement and it was hard to believe they do this every day. On top of all that, this wasn't even peak season. We too tried to squeeze in below the shade and waited for our names to be called. From 9, it went on to 9:30. Still no one called. We went over to the kiosk where we had booked our tickets. Their backside luckily opened into the port and we were able to get to them. We were told our boat would depart in 5 min. We were not happy about it since we had agreed on an early departure and a speed boat to take us there so we get enough time at the island since we were interested in snorkeling there. From 9:30 am, it went on to 9:50 am when our names got called and we sat in a boat. By now, almost 80% of the people that had been waiting had already left. We sat in the boat thankful we were leaving. The boat didn't look like a speed boat but we were happy just leaving the harbor. As it turned, the boat was a speed boat and had a fantastic pickup and top speed. Soon we passed the Monument of the Virgin and entered the open sea.Les mer

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    Fort San Fernando de Bocachica

    Fort San Fernando de Bocachica

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    As soon as we reached the open sea, the pilot opened up the throttle and let both the engines loose. The boat literally flew across the water. We would be in the air every few seconds for quite a few seconds. Pretty soon, we had overtaken the speedboats that had left the harbor 10 min before us. But, our joy was shortlived as our boat turned and went straight for Bocachica, a small town on Tierra Bomba island in the Cartagena bay. Here, the boat stopped a while to let off some locals that had come on the boat with us. After dropping them, the boat had barely started picking up speed, when there was a commotion and the boat turned around to the island again. It seemed that one of the person on board had wanted a drop on the end of the island near the Fort San Fernando de Bocachica, a few kms from our 1st stop on the island. A lot of people in the boat started getting irritated by now. But, the boat turned around quickly and we were in open sea speeding away pretty soon. Here we saw some dolphins swimming in the water bit we were too fast for them to swim along. Just a few minutes in and suddenly the speed of boat dropped dramatically. There were some sputtering sounds from the engine. It turned out that one of the engines had stopped working so we had to go the rest of the way at half the power. Despite all the delays, we reached Playa Blanca by 10:35 am, a pretty good speed considering the distance.Les mer

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    Playa Blanca

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Playa Blanca (White Beach) was our first official stop for the day. The boat was supposed to stop here to drop off people who had paid for a full day's outing at Playa Blanca and then continue with the rest of us to Isla Rosario. This beach is a long shallow beach with beautiful white sand on a long Colombian peninsula jutting out in the Caribbean sea. There were beautiful beach huts and amazing shallow waters. On top it, it had been quite hot since the morning. We were so tempted to just jump in and swim a while, but the boat driver told us that we would get some time on the beach later in the afternoon on the way back from Isla Rosario. After dropping off some of our fellow passengers, the boat started again, but instead of picking up speed, it just cruised along the beach stopping at at least 3 more places to pick up passengers heading for Isla Rosario. By now, almost everyone in the boat was very pissed as all these stops meant less time for us on the islands for snorkeling and then on the beach later on and on top of it, the boat was going at half the speed. 😠😠Les mer

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    Isla Grande

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    The next stop was at Isla Grande. Here again, they stopped to pick more people going to Isla Rosario. Some of our fellow passengers now blew their top at the boat driver. We too wanted to join the argument but our limited knowledge of Spanish prevented us from doing it. After everyone calmed down, we asked the captain if we had enough time for snorkeling, to which he replied yes and we were fine with the situation for then.Les mer

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    Oceanario Isla del Rosario

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    The Islas del Rosario (Rosario Islands), also referred to as Corales Islas del Rosario (Coral Islands of Rosario), is an archipelagolocated off the coast of Colombia, approximately 100 kilometres from Cartagena.
    We stopped at one of the archipelago island called Oceanario. There's an aquarium on the island which is popular amongst the visitors. In fact, everyone except the 3 of us opted to go to the aquarium while we decided to go snorkeling. The captain of the boat asked for 35000 COP per person for snorkeling but we knew that the correct price was 30000 COP, so we told him so. He quickly agreed and soon we were off to the snorkeling area a few meters from the island.    Les mer

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    Snorkeling at Isla Rosario

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We snorkeled for about an hour near Oceanario. It was a mindblowing experience once again. There were beautiful colorful fish of all different sizes and shapes. It was a totally different world below the water. Unfortunately, no pictures this time since I didn't have my underwear camera.Les mer

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    Back to Playa Blanca

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    When we came back, we realized that almost everyone from our boat had already left. They all had lunch included in their package and had been waiting patiently till almost 1:30 pm. The lunch was on the island Bocachica that was about an hour's ride from the Isla Rosario. They had been delayed due to the frequent stops our boat had taken since morning. So, they had all forced the boat captain to get them back so they could have lunch. By the time, we came back from our snorkeling, it was almost 2 pm. We were accommodated on a different speed boat, along woth some of our co-passengers from the morning boat. From Isla Rosario, our boat took us to Playa Blanca. Here, even before the captain could stop him, Hristo jumped out into the refreshing water. I followed quickly and told the boat captain that we will swim over to wherever he anchors the boat. We swam amd walked and reached where the boat was dropping off the rest of the passengers. The boat now took on some more passengers and told is that they would go and drop off these people at Bocachica and come back and pick us up later. That gave us about 40 min at Playa Blanca. We swam around in the sea, relaxed on the beach and just had a good time. After a while our boat came back and took us towards Bocachica. It was a fantastic boat ride with our boat literally flying all the way. A full adrenaline rush.. even better than roller-coasters.Les mer

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    Fort San Luis de Bocachica

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Our boat took us to Bocachica. Here, the rest of the passengers were taken to the lunch place, while we went to look around the castle.
    The Castle of San Luis de Bocachica, was a military fortress that defended Cartagena in the 17th and 18th centuries. Built by the Spanish during the colonial period.
    We explored the various rooms and corners of the fortress. The entry was free.    Les mer

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    22With the port police

    With the port police

    5. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    By the time we finished our walk around the fortress, the rest in the group had finished their lunch and were returning to the beach where the boats were. After a while, we started our journey back. A lot of people in the boat were not happy with the way the boat operator, particularly the driver had delayed the boat the whole day and jad been very callous, in fact rude and indifferent when they had complained. One lady in particular was very vocal about it. Back at the harbor, she went to complain to the operator and we decided to go along and support her. The operator was sympathetic and asked us to go and complain to the harbor police who could then take some action against the boat captain. Here, we accompanied the rest and gave our voice to the complain. After that, we had our dinner in the old town, before returning back to our hostel.Les mer

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    Churuba
    Churuba2

    A lazy morning

    6. februar 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    It was 6th Feb and our booking in Barranquilla for the carnival was from 7th Feb. So, we had one more day to spend in Cartagena and nothing planned for the day. We had checked out the various options and had found nothing interesting we could do around here. Most of the places we wanted to go to along the coast, were South and a few hours away. That would mean going away from Barranquilla which lied North of Cartagena.
    We got up late and had our breakfast at the same local restaurant we had gone to, a day ago. Walking through some new streets in Getsemani where we'd never been before, we saw an Indian flag and decided to check it out. It was a restaurant being run by an Indian. The owner was on a vacation and it was being run by the employees in his absence. We stopped over for a masala chai. A lady traveling alone from US was having lunch and we got chatting. She was eating a Thali that looked quite good but it was too expensive so we dropped the idea of having lunch there.    Les mer

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