Back to Cartagena for One Night

Yesterday we left Mompox and went back to Cartagena in a four-seater pick-up truck. The driver wasn't Señor Henry like last time but a different person called Señor Roberto. This time we took the short way not the long way. We drove for a while then drove on to a car ferry which went down the river for about an hour and we couldn't get out of the car. At the end we had to do a U-turn on the ferry. Our car was facing the wrong way so we had to do a U-turn around the front of the boat and drive down the other side.

We were driving for a little while but then there was a big hold-up. A blue lorry had skidded off the road and had shed its load—one of those metal containers that they use for transport overseas, and it had landed right in the other lane. So they had to call a purple lorry and three tow trucks (one at the back and two on the sides) had to lift up the container with heavy chains and place it exactly lined up with the purple lorry. We didn't reach Cartagena until very late.

For dinner we had fish and chips. It felt weird having the fries with no dip for a change since I usually put tartar sauce on my fries which some people might think is disgusting. [Local perch breaded and sea bass aux fines herbes—not your average 'fish and chips'. Ed.]

Trying New Food

Looking at this makes me feel sad I ate one

Yesterday we went to see a jewellery shop. They had cutlass earrings, silver and gold filigree work. Then we went to a fancy hotel restaurant for a juice. We went back to the hostel to have a break. At 3pm went on a three-hour boat trip on the river. There were loads of birds. We were supposed to see a lot of monkeys but I was disappointed because we only saw a few. But there were loads of giant iguanas on the banks of the river. We went to the same hotel restaurant for dinner as we did for juice. We had spaghetti and lemonade. We also got to try two traditional Momposian desserts. One was a cooked banana plantain with jelly. The other was candied lime peel. Both were very tasty and sweet. If you have the candied lime peel with cheese, which I did, it tastes sour and sweet at the same time.

The First Day in Mompox

A church near our hostel

Eek! It's a water alien invasion

Today we went walking around Mompox. It's an old town with lots of churches and on an island in a river system. My favourite of the things that we saw was a cemetery where there were lots of cats, kittens, and a dog. The reason I like cemeteries is because they are quiet. We went for a juice a little while later and then we slowly walked home. We watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics and the Queen parachuted out of a helicopter. In the evening we went and had traditional Italian pizza made by an Austrian who owns a restaurant nearby. He made all the furniture in his restaurant by hand and there was a real wood-fired pizza oven.

Don't blink!

Going to Mompox

The day before yesterday we expected to be driven to Mompox in a seven-seater van but instead instead we got a four-seater pick-up. It was a long drive and some of the road was quite bumpy. It took a lot more time than we expected since the driver was delivering parcels as well. We also went the long way round where you do not take the ferry. We had a small stop at a gas station to fill up the tank and get refreshments. After a lot more driving we got on a car ferry made from three canoes with some planks on top. In the river there were some bits of plants. I decided to call them weed aliens.

Me on the ferry

We checked into the hostel and went for lunch in a moto-taxi. This is a means of transport. The front part is a motorbike and the other part is a little box with a seat and a roof on top. In the hostel there's a dog called Monty. Our room has a bathroom and a big bedroom. There are a double bed and two single beds. We went and had sandwiches for dinner. When we went to go and buy some water at a convenience store there was a power black-out. Lucy's theory was that she pressed a button on an arcade bingo machine and that was the off switch for the whole village. Everyone had candles. There was a nearby thunderstorm, and glowworms helped, too. The power outage wasn't too long and when the power came back on again Lucy and I blew out all the candles in the hostel to be helpful.