Sunday, 15 January 2012

Mud Volcanoes in Cartagena



Cartagena is a beautifully colourful coastal city in the north of Colombia. The old walled city containing some of Colombia's most attractive architecture is a maze of vivid colours, colonial buildings and grand balconies overlooking the busy but perfectly beautiful streets. On the other side of the walls lies a very different city; a choatic city of seedy salsa bars, regaeton music blasting accross the streets and street stalls selling every type of tropical fruit imaginable. Once I had stepped through the archways of the walled city, I felt that I had left Colombia, and really entered the Carribbean.

The enchanting city of Cartagena has more to offer than just interesting architecture, it is also home to the mud volcano.  As we made our way to the volcano, an hour outisde the city centre, I was surprised to find it was set overlooking a very peaceful lake. We climbed our way to the top of the volcano, not quite prepared for the usual mud volcano experience. We climbed into the small crater, full of warm, sticky mud before recieving a mud massage as we helplessly floated around in the thick volcanic substance.



Once completely covered in mud, we relaxed, floating around the volcano in the sun whilst the mud bubbled below us.



After bathing in the mud, all ready and eager to wash it off, we made our way down to the lake where a number of Colombian women waited to assist us with the washing off of the mud. This was no easy task, and the woman were far from gentle. A rather bizzare experience that left us all feeling radiant and moisturised but far from relaxed and in need of a hot shower.


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