Cartagena

So after our rather scary white water rafting experience in San Gil, we took it easy the next two days we were there. The night of the rafting we went to play this Colombian game with everyone in the Hostel called Tahona or something. Crazy game! The idea is you have a very heavy rounded rock thing that you throw at a clay pit that has gunpowder in? The idea being you have to hit the gunpowder which makes a very loud explosion. Not sure that English Health and Safety would allow us to bring that game home.

We then bought some rum and all sat in the square - a serious tourist takeover. Over our time in Bogota and San Gil we made quite a large group. Two doctors, Jared and Phillipa - 4 Canadians: Ryan, Marcus, Eric and Evan, us six English girls, Bram and a few others - remembering names is a difficult one. But it was great, felt like a huge family me being the youngest and the eldest 34. It was sad to say goodbye to (most of) them at Santa Marta. But the English girls we´d met at Bogota are here with us in Cartagena. We say goodbye to them tomorrow.

Anyway so we just hung out in the hostel the next day and I made it to the local market and cooked us English girls a scrummy dinner and afterwards we all played the celebrity game - which Marcus took very seriously! The next day Al, Flo, Krissie and I made it out to a colonial town which was very pretty with some outstanding views of lush green mountains going all the way into the clouds.

That evening we had our 17 hour bus ride to Cartagena. Yes... 17 HOURS! Would rather not experience that again, they make the night buses over here artic cold and I was in my sleeping bag so as to not get frost bite.

The old city of Cartagena is beautiful, hard to describe but mum I would say its quite like Cadiz. I love it!
This is our third night here, but we havent done much. We had a good night out in the hostel last night and everyone is feeling a bit ropey today. Other than that a lot of wandering the pretty streets and drinking scrummy coffee. Tomorrow we are off to a mud volcanoe full of minerals, which sounds exciting and then tomorrow night onto Santa Marta, our stop-off before we embark on the epic adventure that is The Lost City Trek.

WOW am I scared. Its the rainy season here and when it rains it is mental - ive never seen\heard anything like it. And we are sure to experience it out in the jungle. Apparently the water we have to wade through can go as high as your chin! Il say no more... xxx