16th October 2009 - 19th October 2009

We arrived in Cartagena and the annoying German captain made us wait around for two hours in the sun before he got off his boat to get us our passports. When he finally did go down and get them we followed and found him having a beer at the bar with a friend. For that we wrote "Don't go" on his fliers we found in the hostel. He he.

Cory and Ryan from the boat trip stayed at Casa Viena with us in the room next door and in the morning we headed to the mud volcano with them. We didn't know what to expect other than it's really deep (2.5kms) and you float on top but we ended up having a great time. It's a really strange feeling in there, as if you're floating in jelly or cake batter.

You're meant to get in slowly but Sammy jumped in with a pin dive to see what would happen. He got in trouble for that. What happens (if you behave yourself and don't jump!) is you slowly climb in via the ladder and the guides lie you down and cover your entire body, including your face, with mud. They then give you massages and line you up in a row. It was really funny and so difficult to move around. We were in there for about fifteen minutes before a huge group of people arrived and we felt like getting out. As Sammy climbed out on the ladder his shorts dropped to his feet.

The heavy mud had lubricated his shorts and he's lost weight so 30 people got a look at his muddy buns and Willie. He was very quick to jump back in. His face said it all and we all cracked up laughing. We were then required to walk down to the lake where some nice local ladies bathed us. It was slightly embarrassing to sit naked in the lake whilst they washed your clothes but everyone does it so it wasn't too bad. After tipping all the massage men, camera men and bathing ladies we were off to lunch.

We had lunch at a local restaurant on the beach which was quite nice. We still got hounded by hawkers selling us stuff but we were in such a good mood following the mud bath we didn't mind too much and even bought a couple of things. After lunch we headed back to Cartegena.

We were so impressed by the city of Cartegena that it was just a pleasure to be there and walk around. We particularly enjoyed eating the ceviche off the street market with the boys. One night there we went on a party bus. It was full of holidaying South Americans and was really full on so we jumped off half way. We were so surprised when Cory and Ryan walked up to us not long after as we were hoping to meet up with them and couldn't believe they found us.

On our last day in Cartegena we went to the fort. It's a big fort which was used to protect Cartegena from pirates. We also bought a few souvenirs before heading back to our hostel in time for the bus to our next stop - Medellin.