Welcome to paradise

Travelling life has had its ups and downs in the last week- but obviously the ups totally outweigh the downs. I arrived in Cartagena a week ago and was immediately hit with 35 degree heat which for a girl with such ginger genes as myself is almost too much to handle. The city itself, however, is absolutely gorgeous. Due to its location on the Caribbean coast it has a completely different vibe to Bogota which was a welcome change.

I went on a boat ride out to a neighbouring island to visit a lovely beach called Playa Blanca. I took a trip to a mud volcano where you are smothered & massaged with mud and then you go down to a lake and the local women aggressively wash you off. I went on a boat party run by my hostel with some lovely girls I met. However I also discovered that mosquitoes love me and that I'm apparently allergic to their bites, leaving my legs looking like I had a disease and causing various people to stare at me in the street with looks of shock and horror. Needless to say by the middle of the week I was feeling a bit down- but then came my trip to Casa en El Agua A.K.A the most beautiful place I've ever been. It's essentially a house in the middle of the Caribbean Sea where most visitors, including myself, choose to sleep in hammocks overlooking the waves. You can go snorkelling or visit nearby islands but all I did was read in various swinging chairs, drink rum and every so often jump into the most turquoise sea I've ever seen. After drinking the aforementioned rum we also got the hostel owners to give us impromtu salsa lessons. Okay so the shower (i.e. throw a bucket of water over yourself) and toilets (i.e. throw a bucket of water down the toilet after to flush it) are only what you can expect from a house in the middle of the sea. In every other sense, it was probably the closest to paradise that I'll ever get! The horrifically bumpy boat ride back to the seaside town of Tolu yesterday was very appropriate in sending me crashing back to the reality of uncomfortable hostel beds and sweaty bus rides- though still I'd take that over going back to my day job anytime!

I'm now back in Cartagena for one more night before heading down the country to Medellin tomorrow where I'm hoping for just a little less relentless humidity. 

I'll leave you with this photo of my ice cream from Crepes & Waffles, a chain which makes the best caramel ice cream and only employs single mothers, so really me eating ice cream is me exercising my ethical beliefs. Or something to that effect... 

Chocolate caliente con queso, por favor

Yes you read that right- yesterday I had my first experience of hot chocolate with cheese in. It's a traditional way of having hot chocolate in Colombia and I was very interested in trying it out, but if I'm honest I was a little disappointed. I'm quite a cheese enthusiast but this cheese was very mild and rubbery so it didn't really add anything to the chocolate taste unfortunately. Still, I'm fully in support of anything that gives me an excuse to add more cheese into my diet. At the same time I tried my first tamale which is rice, chicken, vegetables and spices cooked inside a banana leaf. It's not the most visually appealing thing ever so please excuse the lack of photo, but it was really tasty. I did take a photo of the place itself just to show how small and easy to miss these lovely little places can be.

Aside from food, I've ticked quite a lot off my Bogota to-do list since I last checked in; 

- I got a bus out to a town called Zipaquira to visit an underground salt cathedral (overrated & personally wouldn't recommend it)

- On Saturday I went out to a place called Andrés Carnes de Res which is half restaurant half club and is so big it takes up two whole blocks. It was a lot of fun but made me horribly aware of just how bad English people are at dancing- it seems that everyone in Colombia can salsa like a professional. A Peruvian guy staying at my hostel tried to teach me but when he tried to get me to do a sort of shoulder shimmying move my British-ness got the better of me.

- I visited a part of town called Usaquen on Sunday to wander round a flea market. I had to get on one of the buses they call 'collectivos' where the driver goes around shouting out where he's going and you just have to get on and see where you end up. Luckily I managed to keep track of the streets and didn't end up in the middle of nowhere- I just love it when I manage to do something like that successfully. 

- Yesterday I went up Monserrate, the main mountain in Bogota. You can walk up if you have a death wish but I went with the easy option (obviously) and got the cable car up. The view was incredible as you can see for yourself: 

I've made plans for where to go next too- on Friday I'm heading up to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast then next Wednesday I'm getting a boat out to a place called Casa en el Agua to sleep in a hammock next to the sea for 3 nights. I won't torture you with photos of how amazing it looks but if you fancy being jealous of me today feel free to look it up! 

I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to consolidate my very limited Spanish, hasta luego!