Day 82 - Cartagena, Colombia to Montevideo, Uruguay (8 June 2012)

Day 82 – Cartagena, Colombia to Montevideo, Uruguay (8 June 2012)

Ann awakes about 7am and we wait until 8am to go to the boarding gate for our 9.25am departure to Montevideo.  The flight is on time and we line up to board the plane.  As we get to the front of the line we are pulled aside.  The attendants could speak English here so this was handy.  We were then told that we were not on this flight, we had been transferred to another flight to Montevideo that was leaving from a different terminal.  What? Why were we not told about this and how come there was only one flight going to Montevideo on the departure boarding screen?  Apparently this happens every day according to the attendant.  We were transferred to another airline and should have been in a different terminal to catch the flight – we didn’t even know about flying with a different airline and we didn’t know there was even another terminal at the airport! We were told that we would be put on the next plane that was heading to Montevideo, pity that plane was in another 12 hours! The attendant offered us food and drink vouchers, but I wanted more! I asked if we could be put into the VIP lounge, effectively like the Koru Lounge for Air NZ.  He asked his supervisor and that was all fine, so we had the day to spend in the VIP lounge.  We would have liked to have spent the day looking around Sau Paulo as we did not intend on coming here originally, but we were already through customs and couldn’t enter the country.  Not ideal.  During the day in the VIP lounge we really make sure we get our fair share of everything! We feast out on the food, probably too much, we have plenty of drink (non alcoholic, the last thing I wanted was an alcoholic drink), I even have a long shower, the only problem here is that I have to change back into my clothes as our baggage is with the airline.  I also have a 3 hour snooze, my turn this time! We spend the majority of the day watching You Tube, and then realise we were using most of the speed on the wifi connection. 

We finally catch our flight at about 9pm, half an hour late.  This was after 3 gate changes for the flight, and then our gate required us to go downstairs, get our boarding passes scanned and checked and then hop on a bus and transported to the plane.  This airport is terribly set out, inefficient and is very unorganised.  Our flight is a smooth flight and takes about 2 and a half hours.  When we land quite a few people at the back started clapping, I didn’t understand why as it was one of the smoothest flights I had ever been on!  We have arrived in Montevideo, finally!!!  When we get into the airport we are very impressed, it is a modern state of the art airport, far superior than any other airport on the continent.  We get our passports stamped and go to collect our luggage.  It has not arrived.  Could this trip get any worse? Well I suppose it could but it could be a lot better than what we have experienced!  We make a claim at the lost luggage counter, get details of the claim and are told to ring up tomorrow morning to check the status of our luggage.  They believe the luggage will arrive at about midday tomorrow as it was still in Sau Paulo.  We then go out to catch a taxi, it is very fresh outside, Ann is not happy about the cold weather.  On the plane the pilot advised us it was 4 degrees in Montevideo.  Definitely a change, coming from 35 degrees in Cartagena to 4 degrees in Montevideo!!! We get into the taxi and drive to the city, which is about 25 kilometres away.  The city looks very modern, there are some fantastic houses out by the airport.  We get to the hostel and the driver charges us UR1,000 peso’s, which is about NZ$70 (exchange rate is about UR15 peso’s to NZ$1), we are outraged, this is by far the most expensive taxi ride.  We kick up a fuss and pay the driver who is also getting angry.  Our hostel manager then tells us there are two types of taxis in Montevideo, the other brand charges half the price. We jumped into the wrong taxi.  We then go to sleep to get some well needed rest.

Day 81 - Cartagena, Colombia to Montevideo, Uruguay (7 June 2012)

Day 81 – Cartagena, Colombia to Montevideo, Uruguay (7 June 2012)

We wake this morning and it is hot and sticky, the hostel we were staying at was not the greatest and did not have the best fan to help keep us cool.  I guess that’s what you get when you try and save a few dollars.  We decide that we have finished with Cartagena, by finished I mean that we had finished seeing all that we wanted to see, it is a beautiful city.  Also we didn’t want to fight the super heat again that always drained us.  Our flight leaves Cartagena at 3.20pm destined for Montevideo, Uruguay, so we decide to spend the morning at the hostel catching up on photos and our blogs, it was a nice relaxing morning.   About lunchtime we decide to check out of the hostel and get a taxi to the airport.  When checking out we ask the lady behind the counter if she could call us a taxi, she says she only has a cell phone and doesn’t want to call them off that.  That’s ok we thought, so I waited outside to wave down a cab.  About five minutes pass before a cab pulls over for me, but during that time the phone in the hostel rings.  The lady behind the counter hides under the counter to answer it, but Ann can see her talking on the phone and we did hear the phone ring lady! She was just being lazy and not wanting to call a taxi.  Very interesting.  Anyway we get to the airport, check in (only for the domestic flight to Bogota) and wait.  Our flight is pretty much on time and it is smooth flying to Bogota.  In Bogota we have to get our bags and check them in for our international flight to Montevideo, via Sau Paulo in Brazil.  Yes, it is a very long winded three flight haul for us.  We check in all fine but as we are going through customs and the x-ray machine I am stopped and told to open my bag.  I had my first aid kit in my carryon luggage and what do you know, I have my plastic 2 inch long scissors in there which they want to confiscate.  As they were going through my stuff they also found some duct tape that I had in my bag from when I was playing footy (which has come in handy on the trip) and the officials confiscated that too.  Ann thought this was quite funny that I was taking illegal objects onto a flight.  We have a bite to eat to get rid of the little Colombia Peso’s that we have left and then it is time to board our flight to Sau Paulo, which once again was on time!  The flight was six hours and had no entertainment whatsoever, a reasonably good dinner though and a couple of beers to go with it.  There was a 4 year old kid who didn’t stop screaming through the whole flight though which disrupted the sleep patterns, but other than that we arrived in Sau Paulo unscathed, at 3am! And here I am, 3.30am writing my blog for today with Ann asleep beside me taking up 3 seats and using my Kathmandu jacket for warmth.  I got a bit of sleep on the previous flight and Ann didn’t, so I took one for the team and stayed up while she got some shut eye, and by the looks of her I think she needed it.  I should also mention that we have moved forward two hours so we are now only 15 hours behind New Zealand time (or 9 hours in front of NZ, minus a day).  Our next and final flight is at 9am, still another five or so hours until boarding, and it is about 2 and a half hour flight to Montevideo, Uruguay.

Day 80 - Taganga to Cartagena, Colombia (6 June 2012)

Day 80 – Taganga to Cartagena, Colombia (6 June 2012)

We awake this morning early, and to the sound of rain on the roof again (the sound of the fan, like the day before it was a stunning day).  We pack our bags, check out of our hostel, jump in the taxi and take the short trip over the small hill to Santa Marta to catch the bus back to Cartagena.  The reason we are heading back to Cartagena is because we have a flight booked for tomorrow afternoon to Montevideo, Uruguay.  We also have not finished doing what we want to in Cartagena, and even if we had finished, we can easily spend our remaining time here relaxing at the beach.  We have breakfast at the bus terminal, catch our bus and enjoy the ride.  On arrival in Cartagena, we realise that the trip was about an hour faster than the trip to Santa Marta, definitely helped that the driver today wasn’t mucking around while the driver the other day was doing everything he could to stall the travel.  We catch a taxi into town and book into our hostel, called Hotel Familiar.  We hadn’t booked this hostel but just turned up and there was space.  It is just down the road from our previous hostel we stayed at in Cartagena, Hostel Casa Vienna, but we felt we didn’t get enough for our money for that hostel.  The price of this hostel is about a third of the price of the other hostel, and it is similar quality, not the greatest.  That’s ok though, it is only for one night and we have stayed in worse on this trip.  We put our bags in our room and head back to old town to continue to wander around.  It is a very large place and the history here is pretty cool.  When we arrive I find a street vendor who is selling beach bags which I have had my eye on for a wee while.  I like the design of his bags too so I ask how much, he says COP$15,000, I talk him down to COP$12,000 and we have a deal! I have bought a new bag, it’s a good souvenir as much as anything else.  We also had a look in a few other market shops through the town, and then before we realised, it was towards the end of the day.  We then go out for dinner at a small restaurant just down the road from our hostel, each get a menu del dia (set menu) and head back to the hostel.

Day 79 - Taganga, Colombia (5 June 2012)

Day 79 – Taganga, Colombia (5 June 2012)

We awake this morning to the sound of heavy rain, well we thought it was but then realised that it was the sound of the fan spinning around.  It was actually a beautiful day again, not a cloud in the sky and it was bloody hot! We walk into the main area of town and have some breakfast.  We both order pancakes with fruit.  We are really enjoying this breakfast, it has been a favourite of both Ann and mine since we ordered it in Banos, Ecuador. After breakfast we walk back to the hostel and get all our gear ready to head to Playa Grande, a beach which is on the neighbouring bay to Taganga, a 30 minute walk away.  30 minute walk in this heat? Yeah right, we are on holiday, we arn’t going to put ourselves through that, we will take the easy option and jump on a boat for a 5 minute ride around the bay.  Cost of the boat is COP$6,000 (about NZ$4.50) each for a return trip.  Great scenic trip too.  As we round the bay and get our first glimpse of Playa Grande, we can see that it is a far superior beach to Taganga, we are pretty happy we experienced the Taganga beach for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon so we can appreciate this beach more.  This beach is clean, the water is clearer and surprisingly warmer and the beach is surprisingly underutilised, maybe because there is no road access, or maybe because there is no electricity on the beach and in the palm thatched restaurants and people don’t want to leave ‘civilisation? I’m not too sure but I wern’t complaining.  !  There were still a few people on the beach and street vendors trying to sell their goods and services, including massages, but overall this beach was very relaxing.  The hills surrounding the bay were also very nice, they reminded me of the Marlborough Sounds quite a bit, although the dwellings on the hills were alot different.  When we got off the boat we pretty much got straight in the water, it was bliss! As we were sitting in the shallow water close to shore Ann was harassed for a few minutes from the masseuse as he was trying to get her to have a massage with him.  The only English he could speak was “where are you from”, “My massage oil will make you more black, like me” and “you different colour”.  He finally got the hint that Ann wasn’t interested, it was too relaxing in the water!

Overall we spent about 5 hours at this beach, I estimate I was in the water for about 4 of those 5 hours.  The water was calm, crystal clear and warm – perfect waterskiing conditions!  When the fifth hour ticked over (about 4pm) we were forced to leave the beach as our return boat trip was ready to leave, it was a fantastic day of sun, beach and relaxation.

On our return to Taganga, we head back to the hostel for a shower, we were covered in sand.  We then went back to the main street and decided to have an early dinner.  We both got a set menu (Ann got fish, I got chicken) and a cocktail each – we had too since we were on the Caribbean Coast! After dinner we walked back to the hostel via the local market to pick up a couple of beers, we hadn’t tried a type of beer called Club Colombia since we were here and were running out of time to do it, so we obliged and bought it, took it back to the hostel, drank them as we played a bit of ping pong, and then called it a night.

Day 78 - Cartagena to Taganga, Colombia (4 June 2012)

Day 78 – Cartagena to Taganga, Colombia (4 June 2012)

We awake early this morning to catch a bus to Santa Marta.  When we arrive at the Bus terminal we find out a bus is leaving in five minutes, perfect timing!  We buy our tickets (COP$25,000 each) and jump on the bus.  This bus ride seemed to take forever, the bus driver was doing everything he could to make the travel longer, don’t know his logic, but we got to Santa Marta anyway.  Santa Marta however was not our final destination, we then got into a taxi and took the 30 minute drive from the bus terminal to a small fishing village called Taganga which is set around a horseshoe shaped bay.  When we get out of the taxi at our hostel (Mora Mar hostel, about a five minute stroll from the waterfront) we notice the heat is a bit different to Cartagena.  It is more intense but there is less humidity, much better!  We check into our hostel and take a walk down to the beach for a swim.  The beach is good, but not as good as I expected, a bit of litter lying around and we had to keep a close eye on our gear as we had been warned there were a few beach robberies while people were in the water.  After a couple of hours we were getting hungry, so we go back to the hostel, get changed and go out for dinner.  We both get a set menu and have a couple of beers.  We then head back to the hostel.  Unfortunately most of today was taken up by travelling, we didn’t expect it would take as long as it did on the bus to Santa Marta, that’s ok though, we will have a good day tomorrow in hopefully perfect weather again!

Day 77 - Cartagena, Colombia (3 June 2012)

Day 77 – Cartagena, Colombia (3 June 2012)

The previous night we had booked ourselves in for a tour to the largest mud volcano in Colombia.  The tour costs us COP$30,000 each.  This includes pick up from the hostel, transport to and from the mud volcano which is about an hour out of town and entry into the mud volcano.  You don’t need to book the tour group, you can get out there and do everything yourself, but it seems too much of a hassle and would only cost COP$5,000 less to do it this way.  Also it would be a full day travelling to and from the volcano and with the tour, we would be back in the city at about 1.30pm so it was a no brainer really.  We get picked up from the hostel at 8.30am, exactly the time that was organised! Very un-South American like.  However, we were the first to be picked up, we then spend the next hour driving around Cartagena picking up other tourists.  In saying this, it was a good opportunity to see the city, including the new area of town, which I had wanted to have a look at.  After driving through, I realised there was nothing to see, it was best viewed from a distance.  We left Cartagena at 9.30am bound for the mud volcano, which is called Volcan de Lodo El Totumo.  It is located on the bank of a very shallow lagoon, which would come in very handy later.  The volcano is the largest mud volcano in Colombia, but it is only a 15 metre high mound that looks like a miniature volcano, but instead of lava it spews mud forced out by the pressure of gases emitted by decaying organic matter underground.  The mud contains minerals acclaimed for their therapeutic properties.

We arrived at the volcano about 10.30am, got told to undress (to our togs), gave our cameras to a guy to take photos which cost COP$3,000 per camera (definitely worth it) and walked to the top of the volcano.  We climbed to the top by specially built stairs, and then waited about five minutes until we could enter the mud, which was luke warm and very comfortable.  When we got in the mud we were made to lie down, and we were covered head to toe by guys who were giving everyone a massage.  I thought this was part of the package but it wasn’t, it cost another COP$3,000 per person and the massage was for about five minutes, definitely worth it, although Ann didn’t really enjoy it as she didn’t feel comfortable lying in the mud as you didn’t have too much control, it was very hard to keep your balance, there was no bottom to stand on!  After our massages we spent another 45 minutes just relaxing in the mud, it was great! At first there were not too many people in the volcano, but as time went on more people arrived, probably another tourist bus, and suddenly we were all packed into the volcano like sardines.  After a bit of chaos with a couple of overweight gentlemen losing their balance and kicking mud in people’s eyes, we decided to get out, we had had a great time in the mud and we didn’t want to taint our experience by having mud in our eyes.  45 minutes was a good amount of time.  We then got the rub down by a fella waiting for people to exit the mud, and then made our way down to the lagoon to clean ourselves.  This was a mission in itself because mud was everywhere, and I mean everywhere! After we cleansed ourselves, we made our way back into town, on the way dropping people off who opted for the lunch option which was an additional cost. 

We both had a shower when we got back to the hostel, got ourselves feeling clean and went for a walk to Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas.  Several forts were built at key points outside the walls of old town to protect the city from pirates, but this huge stone fortress is by far the greatest.  Construction began in 1639 but was not completed for another 150 years.  We explore this fortress from top to bottom, including the tunnels which go underground, we didn’t know when they were going to end!  These tunnels are very complex and were designed very cleverly as they were built to facilitate the supply and evacuation of the fort.  The design also amplified sound to make the approach of enemies more apparent.

We then made our way back to the inner walled city.  This was very quiet as it was a Sunday afternoon and also we later found out that the Colombian national football team was playing Peru that afternoon aswell in a World Cup qualification match (won 1-0 by Colombia, the locals were all glued to the screen, and people were sitting in the streets outside pubs watching the game).  While in old town we had a look at Las Bovedas, 23 dungeons built in the defensive walls at the end of the 18^th century destined for military purposes.  Today the dungeons are used as tourist shops so we had a look at all of these.  Then it was supermarket time to pick up dinner and head back to the hostel to cook up a storm!

Day 76 - Cartagena, Colombia (2 June 2012)

Day 76 – Cartagena, Colombia (2 June 2012)

The night before we had booked ourselves into a tour to Islas del Rosario.  The tour cost COP$47,000 each which included the tour, lunch, the port tax and entrance into the national park.  Well it was more along the lines of boat transport to the islands with a lunch provided and then you could do your own thing which was fantastic! We went to the old port which is called Muelle de los Pegasos, this port services fishing, cargo and tourists boats and it is located just outside the old town’s southern walls.  It was about a 10 to 15 minute walk from our hostel.  We were told to be there by 8am for departure so we arrived about 7.50am.  Typical South American style, we departed at about 8.30am.  As we were waiting we were just sitting in the sun at the front of the boat.  Just before departure there was an announcement that we couldn’t understand, however a young Colombian couple got up and gestured to us to come inside for a safety briefing.  Apparently we were not allowed on the front of the boat until we had begun our trip.  These two Colombians became our friends for the day, they helped us out when they could, and they took some photos for us and even let us share their shelter tent for us to store our gear at one of the islands I will talk about later.  It was a friendship with no communication as we don’t know Spanish and they didn’t know English!

As we pulled out of the dock, a swarm of people started rushing towards the front of the boat, it must be time to head outside! Ann and I were towards the rear of the pack, we were gutted because we thought we were going to lose our prime seats.  We were wrong, the Colombian couple were one of the first on the front of the boat and they had put their gear on the seats next to them and were saving the seats for us.  Very lovely people, as are the majority of Colombians we have met so far.  I would say the Colombian people are the nicest and friendliest bunch so far in South America.  I think they are just happy that tourists are able to see their country now and also the Colombians themselves are able to see their country without having fear of their personal safety. 

As we make our way through the harbour we get fantastic views of the new town, a modern city south of the old town.  There are plenty of high rises here and the view reminds us both of the Gold Coast, modern high rise buildings on the beachfront.  The boat ride took about two hours, fantastic ride through the calm ocean with the sun on our backs, a gentle breeze in the air and a few splashes of sea spray every now and then to cool us down.  Our first stop was an island which is part of Islas del Rosario, a series of 27 small coral islands.  This whole area has been protected as Parque Nacional Corales del Rosario, hence the National Park entrance fee.  This island was fantastic, well not so much the island, the water surrounding the island.  Beautiful crystal clear and calm water, fantastic for snorkling, however we only had an hour on this island.  The main point of coming here was because there is an aquarium on the island.  Ann and I decided not to go to this aquarium and spent the hour relaxing in the shade.  We then got back on the boat and had another hour until we got to the island where we spent the majority of the day, Playa Blanca beach.  This was situated on Isla de Baru and this island was amazing, the beaches were hot golden sand, not hot enough so you couldn’t walk on the sand but very nice.  The water was similar to the water at the previous island, crystal clear, although it wasn’t as calm as before as there was quite a lot of boating activity.  When we got off the boat we took our ticket to a wee window and were presented with our lunch, which was fish and some sides.  After lunch we went to the beach and into the water which was incredibly warm.  Overall we were at the beach for about 3 hours and I spent about 2 and a half of those hours in the water, the other half an hour was lunch and getting ready to get back onto the boat.  Our trip back to Cartagena was a bit rougher as the wind had picked up a wee bit out in the ocean but it was fine.  On the way back the ‘DJ’ which had been pumping out the Caribbean music (mostly Bob Marley) throughout the boat rides turned on some Michael Jackson and started dancing to his music.  He also put some Caribbean music on and encouraged the rest of the boat to sing along, which they obliged.  Of course this music was in Spanish so Ann and I couldn’t sing along.  We got back to Cartagena about 5pm.  We hadn’t done much during the day but we were pretty tired, I’m guessing when you are not used to this heat it must take it out of you.  We went to the supermarket and bought some dinner, took it back to the hostel, cooked it up and that was us for the day.