Like Pigs In Mud!

Over the past few weeks we've really just been living life here in Cartagena. Teaching some English here and there. Getting angry over the work visa situation (I won't bore you with the details). Going out with friends - yes we have lots of thse now! But, we had a nice visit from the lovely Ria and Matt last week so we did some nice trips...like the mud volcano!

Before I even go into this story, if you've been reading this blog regularly, you'll know it wasn't a straight forward day trip. The mud volcano is about an hour-ish out of Cartagena. Most of the hostels run day trips which include transport and lunch for about 35.000COP (around £8). But, of course, we thought we didn't need to do the trip becuase it would be cheaper to do it ourselves - how hard could it be!?

We left the apartment, bikini clad, lunch in the bag and full of optimism at about 9.30am. We got a taxi to the place (market which is usually flooded with sewage) where the local bus goes from. Our instructions were: get the bus to a petrol station, walk down the highway to the volcano sign, turn right and there you go. We eventually find the bus and after past experiences of lying bus drivers we ask him at least twenty times if it's the right bus and make it very clear that we're going to the volcano. Of course, about an hour later we're told to get off the bus, it drives away and surprise, surprise we are nowhere near where we're supposed to be.

Someone tells us to get another bus, so we wait and wait but they all say that we're on the wrong road. Finally we spot a taxi driver who is off duty but takes pity on our stupidity and drives us to the correct road and drops us off at the Transport Police. They have a brief conversation, something along the lines of "stupid blah blah blah gringos blah blah blah". But they were kind and the police actually talked a passing private minibus driver into taking us to where we wanted to go.

The rest of the journey there went smoothly and the volcano was fun...but weird. The mud actually goes 50m underground but because it's so dense, you can't sink. When you get in it's really difficult to move so there's a guy that drags you further in by the feet. So we floated around for a while and it was fun. Then we climed out and washed all the mud off in the stream, had a beer and thought, "Well done us. That wasn't that hard and we saved money". Talk about speaking too soon.

Relaxed and happy, we started to walk back to the road. We get to the road and one, two, three busses go past without stopping. So, although Colombian drivers never stick to the speed limit, overtake on blind corners, use their horn instead of the brakes and often take short cuts by driving the over the central reservation. Apparently, they draw the line at stopping to pick up passengers on the highway. Typical.

So we walk and walk and finally find the 'bus stop'. After a while a bus comes, we state clearly and in Spanish that we want to go to CARTAGENA. But, of course, half an hour later, just as I'm getting into a good nap, the driver tells us to get off because actually he's going somewhere else. So we get off with some Colombians who find it hillarious that we actually thought the bus was going to take us where we asked to go. Ha bloody ha.

Again, we wait, wait, wait. A bus finally comes, we're assured that it is going to Cartagena. We get on. Ten minutes later it stops, everyone including the driver gets off. What else could we do but wait again, with our long western legs crushed up to our chests in their tiny Colombian seats. Half an hour later we set off again. By now it's about 5 so we hit rush hour. Great.

THREE HOURS LATER we are still on the bus, stuck in traffic. It's dark, we don't know where we are, they're blaring salsa music and there are some undesirable characters on the bus who are refusing to pay their fare. When we finally get off we're so tired, hungry and annoyed that we went straight for pizza. All in all we spent about six hours travelling to spend one hour in the mud. Yes, it was cheaper but then we actually spent more on food and drink to comfort us afterwards. So, in future, ALWAYS DO THE ORGANISED TOUR. It was fun though!