Colombia: Cartagena, Mud Volcano, The Lost City, Tayrona

Hello all,

Cartagena is colorful and surrounded by a walled fortress with towers and canons still aimed at potential pirates on the horizon

We took a day trip from it to the Mud Volcano El Totumo-20 meters high and, they say, a couple hundred meters deep

We found it squishy and a little bit gross but also fun to be that bouyant for a while

Next we headed to Ciudad Perdida.

The Lost City trek has kind of an interesting reputation and there are a couple reasons why a person might choose not to go on it.

One, several tourists were kidnapped on it in by FARC in 2003.

Two, it can be a grueling 6 day slog through rivers, mud and steep slippery trails (even the bus ride to the trailhead is enough to make some people think twice about continuing) - for example we met 2 solitary trekkers on their way back who told us they started out with a group of 7 ....

To us, this all just made it sound even more appealing.

And it lived up to everything we had hoped:

It was wet - 8 river crossings on the way in

and 8 out - even better because it had rained so much the river rose several feet forcing us to use a rickety flying fox across one nasty bit and ropes across another. it was heavenly

grueling - there are 1200 moss covered steps just in the final hour to the city

and it's filled with reptiles - this deadly fleur de lance was found next to our camp and initially we thought it was unfortunate it had been killed. with a bit more thought, however, reconsidered the possibility of crawling into an already occupied sleeping bag at the end of the day...

but mostly it was just wild and amazing

Our amazing guide Omar, who claims he was the guide for the 8 trekkers who were kidnapped

A small area of the city, but one of the most distinctive

Since the kidnappings, the Colombian military has been a constant presence on the trails. They clearly have a lot of down time these days and seem to enjoy giving rifle lessons to trekkers

Our most luxurious camp - complete with a roof, mosquito nets and plenty of space to hang up sopping wet clothes

The throne

After the Lost City we had some lazy time on the Carribbean at Parque Tayrona. There are no roads to it, so we hiked in with a bit of food, our bathing suits and little else.

Sleeping overnight in a hammock involves balancing between mosquito precautions, not too much covering in the heat, and how to get your rolled up socks to become the perfect pillow. We rented some on the beach and worked on the technique.

After Tayrona we headed back to Taganga to say goodbye to the surrogate family we had been traveling with for so long Kenya, auntie Helen, Megan and JP.

Then we headed back to Bogota on our last night bus to catch our flight out of South America.

Love d&j