The road goes on forever and the party never ends

First of all let me thank all of you who responded to my pathetic appeal for email. Sometimes it gets lonely out here and it is weeks before I hear from anyone. I write these blogs and I sometimes wonder if anyone is reading them because people so infrequently respond to them. So once again, THANK YOU!

It is tuesday in Cartagena. Tomorrow I am taking off for Santa Marta. It is 203 kilometers (about125 miles) down the Caribbean coast. Outside of Santa Marta is Ciudad Perdida, the lost city. It is an archeological site that was discovered in 1975. It is a 3 day hike in one day and night at the site and 2 days hike back. I guess it is downhill on the way back. I have heard differing reports about the cost and whatnot. So I will have to look into it when I get there. From Santa Marta I head south to Bogota. It is 918 kilometers about 500 miles. I have 2 options. I can take a route that is fairly flat until about the last 144 kilometers about 80 miles, and then goes straight up and straight down etc. Or I can take a route that more or less gradually starts going up for the last 300 or so kilometers. Colombia is interesting in that in most countries the population centers are on the plains and relatively few people live in the mountains. In Colombia it is the opposite. The result being that if I go the flat route it will be rather distant between significant population areas. Hmmmmmmm decisions, decisions. Right now I am leaning toward the flat route and see how I feel when I get to the climb. I mean God invented busses for a reason right?
On Sunday I had an interesting time. I went to a mud volcano. It is a cone about 60-70 feet high and at the top is perhaps 15 feet across. It is filled with mud. you go about 4 feet down a ladder and just lie down and float in the mud. It is great. It is impossible to drown it is that buoyant. A couple of times I tried to push myself further down and I just bobbed right back up. It is very relaxing and messy. After you are done you go to a marshy part of the ocean where the water is muddy to the point where you cannot see and there are women there who wash you off. They also tell you to take off your shorts and they wash those off for you too. It was fun. Well this is all for now. It may be a while before I can get to another computer. Have a good one.
hasta la vista baby
Charlie