The Mud Baths

  Cleo, my friend Hazel, her dad and I

(try to figure out who is who)

My friend Hazel and her family came to visit us after my grandparents.  On the first day we showed them the fort and took them around town, but the second day was a real hit, we went to a volcanic mud bath!  We hired a driver to take us there and back, and we arrived at the village that was appointed official caretakers of the baths, just in time.  We bought tickets and climbed the rickety stairs up the volcano, the volcano might be called a volcano but it will never explode, it’s just hot enough to melt the mud inside of it into a liquid but no more.  

We waited in line at the top of the mountain/hill until we finally caught sight of the mud, it was far down in the volcano and looked exactly like gray soup, explaining how the people coming down the other side of the hill all looked like they were clay statues that had gone in the microwave and were melting down to the core.  My mom told us to get partners and I grabbed up Hazels hand and squeezed it, she  smiled back at me and adjusted her bathing suit.  farther along in the line Cleo and Ruby were holding hands and talking about what it would feel like, “It probably will make our skin really soft,” I said to Hazel, “It’s mud after all.”

The line slowly curved around the edge of the pool and anticipation piled high in my throat, finally it was our sisters turn and Cleo and Ruby climbed down the ladder, they slid in together and we asked the temperature and they said it was not warm but not cold, soon it was our turn ad we slipped into the mud.  They were right it was in between, but it felt so good!

From the outside it had looked like there was some kind of floor on the bottom but it tuned out it was bottomless! At first I thought I was going to sink but it turned out that the mud was so thick I couldn't sink!

It was so fun! After the bath we washed off in the lakes and changed in the van, then had lunch at a road side stand and headed home.

The Fortress

My grandparents, my aunt and my great uncle, came to visit for an early Christmas celebration and one day we decided to show them one of the great attractions of Cartegena, The Fort.  The Fortress looks like a man-made mountain, made entirely from stone and it slopes up continually until it reaches a flat-topped peak with artillery storing and sentry houses at the corners to watch for enemies.  Now you might be wondering why this massive,impatrenable fortres just to watch over one small town.  Well Cartegena was a major stopping place for the gold and precious jewels that circled through the continent, especially emeralds, one of the rarest stones in the world.  In all of the big churches and temples gold is more common than marble that would be but a fraction of the cost of a small amount of gold in other places, as a result one of the only places you will find a full marble floor is in the Popa, the biggest and oldest monostary in town.

                                          

The Fort had no inside except for a labyrinth of tunnels that acted as a last line of defense in the context of a battle.  Each tunnel had cubby holes on each side so that if enemies did venture down there it would be an easy matter to pick them off.  We explored the tunels to an extent but I have the feeling we didn't even get to see half of it.