on the road again

this time to Cartagena -

when I saw Romancing the Stone all those years ago the bus to Cartagena was seared into my mind and became a short hand way of referring to the "joys" of third world travel - if you recall the female lead gets off a plane and asks where to get the bus to Cartagena and the bad guys direct her to the chicken bus that goes up into the mountains and breaks down- leading to all kinds of high jinks....

well I never actually thought I would be on a bus to Cartagena- LOL - so as we started out on this sunny morning I chuckled to myself- thinking there would be little to remind me of the adventures of Joan Wilder (the female lead character's name in the movie.)  getting any foreshadowing yet? LOL bet you won't see this one coming...

we stop along the way even before we get to a technical stop and snacks - here we get to taste smoked bananas - possibly and acquired taste- not awful just strange-

 
the next stop for snacks included some cooking in the wood fired oven - here we have sausages and a round kind of roll.  they also make arepas here...

 we make a brief light lunch stop where we have seriously greasy fried empanadas and arepas- but it has clean bathrooms - LOL...

from here I am going to post photos - we can discuss later why this recalls the scene in the movie where Joan Wilder slides down a hill that gives way in a mudslide during a torrential downpour---

oh did I mention our fabulous weather has turned threatening and as we get on the bus it starts to absolutely POUR? 

has the ominous music started in the back of your head? LOL- it should start growing louder....

we are headed for what one of the group members called Dante's Hell... LOL

above photo courtesy of Bill Easson - who braved his way up just to take the photo of the lunatics in the cauldron - LOL

LOL- let's be generous and say ten "adventurous" members of the group braved the "unique Totumo Volcano. Contrary to its name, this “volcano” is actually a 50-foot-tall mud hill named for its resemblance to totumos, hollowed-out gourds used as decorative containers and instruments. The bubbling pool of mud at the volcano’s crater is renowned for its healing properties; experience them firsthand -climb the wooden steps to the top and enjoy a therapeutic mud bath. The volcano’s silvery, mineral-rich mud is so buoyant that you can float on it, and we’ll take our time to relax, before climbing down for a rinse in a neighboring cienaga (lagoon)."

ha ha ha ha - that description is from the brochure - LOL you can certainly see how much fun they were having- Joan Wilder at least got to end up sliding into the arms of the young and then extremely handsome Michael Douglas....

and this makes the rest of the day look dull- another toilet stop where vendors hawked their wares and some seaside shanty towns

before we arrived to the wonderful Bantu boutique hotel in Cartagena-

those intrepid group members who braved the mud volcano couldn't get to the showers fast enough-- LOL - and good news - there was hot water!

tomorrow- exploring Cartagena - in several installments as it took us several days ---