Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena, Colombia is a beautiful city on the Caribbean coast. It has an impressive old town tucked inside old stone walls and it was a place David was really interested in visiting. While we enjoyed the character of the old town, there were also warm sandy beaches with waves to play in.

Our first day in Cartagena, we went to El Totumo, a mud volcano! What could be more fun than soaking yourself in slippery mud? 

The downside of going to an exciting touristy mud volcano is that it is super busy and sometimes you bump into other muddy tourists, but the upside is that you are soaking in slippery, slimy, gooey mud! Surprisingly, the kids had their reservations at first, but us parents had no reservations! Bring on the mud! In fact, Charlie didn’t even want to put his beautiful long hair in at first, but by the end he was a full-on mud monster! 

Mud monster!!

It was a very bizarre sensation being in the mud volcano. You cannot touch the bottom of the mud pit, but you cannot sink. The composition of the mud made us float. We tried hard to sink ourselves, but it was all in vain, which is a bit comforting in a way. The locals offer three additional services; photographer, massager, and rinser. They do not allow people to bring their cameras into the mud, for a very good reason; it will get very muddy and you can lose it very easily, so you need to hand over your camera when you get to the top, and someone will take pictures of your and your family with your camera. There were also two men in the volcano that pulled everyone into the mud and rubbed them down. While we love massages, we decided against this one. It was just fun playing in the mud with the family. After the fun in the mud, we walked to a lagoon and rinsed the mud off of ourselves. There waiting for us though, were ladies that will rinse people down for a price. They were quite assertive and we had to be quite firm that we did not want to rinsed by them and we had to keep a close watch on Adeline because one lady just led her away from us and starting rinsing her off!

On David’s birthday, we went to Playa Blanca, known for it’s beautiful blue water and white sand. It sounded like paradise, so off we went. 

Playa Blanca was beautiful, we just wish there was more beach to play on!

We were ready to relax on the beach, but we were not ready for what was awaiting us at the beach! As our bus turned off the main highway and onto the dirt road leading to the beach, swarms of young men started running toward the bus and peering inside the windows to look at the occupants, then they were running beside the bus until it stopped in the parking lot. It was a bit intimidating to have such intense energy directed at us all of a sudden. When we got off the bus, one of the young men approached us to try to sell his services. Ideas of what he wanted and what he was planning on doing was swirling through my mind. He walked with us halfway down the beach. We were pretty surprised by the beach as there really wasn’t much beach to relax upon! Many restaurants and hostels had built structures for shade, that you could rent, almost all the way to the water's edge. The man who was walking with us kept suggesting that we rent a chair in the shade at several businesses along the way. Perhaps he was going to get a commission if he was the one to direct us to that location. Poor guy didn’t know how minimalist we travel. Eventually he realized that we weren’t going to rent anything and gave up on us.

One of the many vendors on the beaches.

Our ‘beach guide’ wasn’t the only assertive entrepreneur at the beach. There were people selling everything from sunglasses to oysters. One man practically put an oyster in David’s hand to try and get him to buy one, and finally we had to tell people that we were allergic. We hate to lie, but they wouldn’t push as hard if we said that it would kill us. Almost every second person that came by offered massages. I had to practically pry the hands of one lady off of my legs while repeating  “no gracias” over and over. This is definitely a great place for someone that feels a bit lonely!

While this all sounds a bit annoying, it turned out to be a great day. The water was amazing! The kids still found a place to make a castle in the sand, and we met some more Canadians with kids! We were very happy to meet the Bairds. Their kids were a bit younger, but that’s what’s great about kids; it doesn’t matter! It took about half a second for them to meet, bond and start playing together as if they had known each other for years! Before we left the beach we made plans to meet up in Cartagena again later to have dinner.

The kids had a great time with the Baird’s. 

We ended up spending a few days with the Bairds. It was so nice for the kids to have someone to play with again. In fact, we were able to walk through the old town and enjoy the charm and architecture almost a whole morning without any complaints. The kids were so distracted by having friends, it was great! One night, we walked to a place in the old town where we had heard that there is lots of dancing in the square, and sure enough, there was a large grouping of people, street food, and some street performers. There was a church in the square, and once mass was let out, the fun began! It turned out to be Zumba and many people had come ready to dance! The kids had a fun time dancing too. 

Fun times doing Zumba in a square in the old town of Cartagena. 

Luckily it was a bit cooler in the evenings! They definitely worked up a sweat!

Soon, our time was finished in Cartagena, and South America, and we left for the San Blas Islands on a sailboat!

UIKEYINPUTUPARROW