Many guidebooks suggest Cartagena is a magical place; however, I'm not sure that we would agree with such a strong adjective. Within what is called the "Walled City" it is a beautiful place. Everything is cobblestone, colorful, and the colonial architecture is well preserved by the tourism dollars that pour into the place. We enjoyed walking around, watching people, and taking photos throughout our first day, but we also really enjoyed the views during the night hours. All the yellows, whites, and bright colors looked stunning with the lighting. Outside of the Walled City though, it seems like just a typical city in South America with all the normal hustle and bustle.
From Cartagena, Volcan de los Totumos (a mud volcano) is a short day trip away. We went on the tour with a few people from our hostel who were nice to meet and experience the mud volcano with. The mud volcano wasn't exactly Mt. St. Helens of mud, but more of a hot tub sized mud pit 15m high. Stepping into it felt like being stuck in the middle of a marshmallow, you couldn't sink if you tried because you just kind of floated in it. In order to immerse your whole body in the mud pit, people had to push you down into the mud otherwise you'd stay on top of it. Overall, an interesting experience!
While in Cartagena, we stayed at Casa Viena which was close to many other hostels and outside the Walled City, thus we got to see some of the local life up close and personal, a nice touch. A private room at this hostel was about $13-$14 each per night. Our room was small, and pretty warm (no air conditioning), but the room fan helped. Cartagena was very hot- imagine Houston in July with no air conditioning, that's kinda how it felt ;-).
Although we enjoyed the beauty of the Walled City, after 3 days in Cartagena we were ready to move on to the next place- Taganga!
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