La Costa: Part V

Cartagena
April 10, 2009

We had to get up early to get downtown to meet our tour group for our excursion to El Volcan de Lodo El Totumo. The Cali trainees arranged it for us through their hostel and it turned out to be an excellent deal. After a somewhat late departure (SHOCKING) we headed to the volcano, which is halfway between Cartagena and Barranquilla, about an hour away.


The volcano would probably be more accurately described as a baby volcano. It also deosn't spew ashes and lava, it spews mud. After stripping down to a sports bra and shorts (I didn't want to get my swim suit dirty) I climbed the stairs to the top to have a bath. The opening is probably only about 15 or 20 square feet (I'm a horrible judge of distance but it was baby) and it was quite chaotic with the amount of people trying to have a dip.


We took turns going so we could all have pictures in the volcano. Climbing in it was probably one of the strangest feelings I've ever experienced. The mud is the consistency of sweetened condensed milk, which made it extremely difficult to move. Upon entering, I was immediately seized, laid on my back and pushed by my feet into a free corner of the mud. The man then proceeded to slather my entire body with mud and give me a massage.

After we floated around a bit (floated may not be the right word since it was nearly impossible to move) enjoying how weird it felt, I attempted to make it to the ladder to get out. This was quite a process and after, touching/being touched by multiple strangers in all sorts of places, I managed to get out. At the ladder, another local was there to help de-mud you as much as possible before exiting.

Then you have to walk down another set of stairs (with extreme caution as both they and I were quite slippery) to the nearby lake to rinse off. There, several more locals were available to aide in the continuation of the de-mudding process. I tried to resist but eventually gave in to the molestation because without the help of their buckets and aggressive hands I never would have gotten it all off me. After I felt semi-clean, I headed back to the bus to change into dry clothes.

Our tour then took us to a small fishing village where we got our lunch that was included in the price we paid, at a nice little tent restaurant on the ocean. The patacon and coconut rice were excellent. It took awhile for the food to come but it was relaxing sitting by the ocean. Then our tour piled back on our little bus to head back to Cartagena. We got dropped off by the hostel where we had gotten on and only then did we realize we neglected to ask Carmelita how to get back to her house from Centro.

We didn't have an address (no one in Cartagena uses them anyways) or even a neighborhood to go by, and Carmelita was not answering her phone. After inquiring about the name of a mall that was about 15 minutes from the bus terminal (could that have BEEN any more vague?!), a woman in an internet cafe told us a name, which I recognized. She pointed us in an approximate direction to take one of two buses. We then had to ask a policeman, who told us we needed to go to Avenida de Pedro Herida and we should catch the red bus, right over there (he points.) We asked the driver who confirmed he passes the mall.

Point=Us.

We made it back to Carmelita's (after another infuriatingly long bus ride) exhausted and filthy. After a shower I passed out for a solid two hours which felt glorious. After waiting for Carmelitat's mom to get back with the car for foreverrrrrr, we got dropped off near Centro so I could get a jugo (finding something meatless to eat on Good Friday in a Catholic Country was ridiculously difficult.) We then met up with some Cartagena 2ers to go to a good-bye party for their trainee from Estonia.

The party was up on the wall surrounding Centro where we could hear music from a nearby bar but didn't have to pay to get in. I met several good friends of Erin, who spent last summer in Cartagena, as well as some guy from Rochester (MNers are everywhere) who was living with his girlfriend who is on a Fullbright in Cartagena. It was really fun to meet everyone and just hang out. Pei was still tired from our volcano adventure so we didn't stay out late.