Volcan de Lodo El Totumo

I have a few Colombian friends who had recommended a few places to visit for while I’m there, one of them being the Volcan de Lodo el Totumo! He had mentioned something about mud and people giving you a bath. I was so confused but of course I was down to try it.

Volcan de Lodo el Totumo is a huge tourist spot! We got to the place, and my dad looked at me and was like “you made us come all this way for this tiny thing.” I didn’t know what to expect. It was a small volcano, nothing else; there was nothing around besides small huts were they had bathrooms and people selling food.

Apparently, you’re supposed to climb up the stairs, (which were extremely unsteady and uneven), and at the top, there’s a huge pit of mud where you “chill” and take a bath”. I didn’t come all the way there to not go in, but I did second think to myself. It looked so unsanitary and completely slimy but I thought hey, why not.

My brother and mum went to the top but didn’t go in, they were the official photographers. My dad and I went in, and boy was it an experience. The mud was super soft, and we were floating like crazy in there. It was extremely deep but you didn’t even have to tread water. It was super cool. While you’re in the mud, there are local pe

ople who are in there who give you massages and talk to you [I didn’t understand what they were saying obviously] but the massage was so relaxing.

 

We were in there for about 20 minutes, and then I was done. I wanted to wash all this stuff off.

There were no showers. Just a lake, which I had been warned 10 minutes prior to watch out for the alligators. I live in Florida, so I know gators, but it still freaked me out. I went down to the lake and there was a lady there with a bucket, telling me to get in the water so she could wash me off. I was shocked, I didn’t know what to do, I haven’t had anyone give me a bath since I was a baby. I did it anyways and it was actually kinda cool.

No alligator bites or injuries! :D

I felt like a new woman! Super fresh and my skin felt extremely soft.

Same country, different city

Second time in the country, but first time to this city. Last time I went to Colombia, I was in Bogota for a wedding, and now I’m in Cartagena for fun!

Cartagena is much different, well so far it is. Its less busy than Bogota since its not the capital, but still a lot of people. Cartagena itself has about 1 million people.

There are a lot of run down areas in this part of the city, but I find that the people are very nice, and everything is way cheaper.

I’m bad with names of places especially when I can’t even pronounce them, but in English, the area is called Old Town. At this place they have a lot of small stores and restaurants. There was a famous clock tower there also which was really nice to see.

Around the town, they had horse and carriage rides, people selling food and bracelets on the street, and locals dancing and singing. It was so cultural and fun to see how the “people” of Colombia do things!

Horse and carriage ride à went around the town for about 15 minutes, and the driver gave us a tour in Spanish; kinda redundant but I was able to understand a few bits and pieces. It was funny because at the start of the ride, we were delayed because the horse had to pee; he filled up a whole bucket.

Crepes and Waffles à When I went to this place in Bogota, I fell in love. This was one of my favorite dessert places!!! I love nutella and crepes so this place was heaven to me. I had my own dessert, and devoured the entire thing. Definitely worth it. We ended up going a few times just in the short amount of time we were here. The waitress began to recognize us and we were able to order without even looking at the menu!

What happens in Miami, stays in Miami

Miami, a city filled with flashing lights, loud noises, and parties! After a 4 hour drive, which was supposed to be 3 ½, I have finally arrive in Miami (Biscayne area) from Orlando, Florida.
I am here to visit my brother as he recently moved from LA.

His apartment kind of speaks for itself as it has the most amazing view of the city and body of water.
I woke up to a clear sky, sun shining, and wind blowing. Had breakfast on the patio which extended from one side of the apartment to the other. I could really get used to this! haha. The waffles and fruit were so tasty :P

First time in a very long time that I was able to relax and do absolutely nothing. It felt good not to think and just sit; no school! Time didn't pass but it felt good to relax.

Night #1: Charity event at Nikki Beach sponsered by Neat Stuff Incorporation.

The night started of slow because for once, we were on time, and when I say on time, literally 8:00pm on the dot. The venue wasn't even ready.
At this charity event, they had set up casino tables, buffet, and an open bar for their guests. The theme was Las Vegas. I had attempted to learn how to play the game "Krabs" but slowly gave up after an hour. I just enjoyed rolling the dice and prayed to roll a number that they told me to do.
I think i'll stick to my coin slots or roulette!!

Towards the end of the night, they had prepared an auction for the guests to bid on. All the money raised was then going to go to orphan children who didn't have clothes or the necessities for this World. There were paintings, jewerlly, tickets, and many other things.

Cerro de Monserrate

What a phenomenal experience!!! My mum, dad and I went to the top via cable car to see the view of Bogota and the church. It was a little scary going up because we were basically held onto by a cable, and we went about 1200 meters up.

At the top, the view was amazing!! You could see the entire city, absolutely stunning. Since it was a tourist attraction, we ended up meeting lots of foreigners from all around the world, it was like the United Nations.

Coming down was way more scary; I could see the cable shaking and it went faster than it did going up.

Colombia bound

The worst thing about traveling is the transportation part of the trip. Long, tiring and unnecessary stress. What made this a lengthy process was that I had to wake up at 5:30am for my flight, but on the same day as daylight savings. I was so worried that my alarm would ring an hour late, and that the clocks wouldn’t automatically change.

I woke up periodically through the night in panic that I would miss my flight.

GOOD NEWS. I didn’t miss it. I had a stop over in Fort Lauderdale, which wasn’t bad since the fight was only about 45 minutes with the same layover time.

Arrival: the stress continued as I landed in Colombia and my bag wasn’t at baggage claim. I saw the same suitcases going around and around, but no sign of mine. The conveyer belt had stopped moving so no new bags were coming. I started to feel slightly anxious; 45 minutes passed by, and I went to a lady who worked there to ask but she didn’t speak English. I thought to myself, GREAT, another problem -__-.

After about an hour, the conveyer belt started moving; I was the happiest girl ever.

Martha (the bride) and her family came to pick me up from the airport, and took me out to eat some lunch. The restaurant was called Colombia Club; the food was amazing. I was able to eat the traditional Colombian food [arepas, empanadas, arroz con pollo, fresh juice].

Hotel: WOW!! The hotel is beautiful, very nicely decorated and lots to do. No others were in Colombia yet, so I was alone at the hotel. It was time to order room service, hit up the spa, and just relax. I went into the sauna, and Jacuzzi and it was so relaxing.

Turned out to be a great day after all.

Day trips are fun too

Pretty spontaneous trip to Miami. Two days and One night.
It doesn't matter how long you go, but what you do and who you go with.

This trip started off being really hectic, a four hour journey from Orlando to Miami, two stop overs, many re-routes of direction, and a wining person wanting to use the bathroom (me).

My mum and I decided to go to Miami for the night as she had an appointment the next day in downtown. Why not make a trip out of it?
I'm trying to find this hotel amongst all the tall buildings, cars hooting at me, and being just completely unfamilar with the area. I ended up going down the wrong way on a "one way" road, driving around in circles, and entering a parking garage thinking it would lead us to the hotel. (It didn't).

We had to ask for directions and call the hotel.
Finally, we found it and boy were we happy!
The exterior of the hotel didn't seem that great, but the inside was beautiful!! The amenities, decoration, and service was astounding. My mum and I went to go check in, and they asked if we wanted to be upgraded to the suite complementary!! Obviously we said yes!

Our room was HUGEEEEEE!!! it had a king bed, a study room, living room, two bathrooms, and a tv in the toilet! It was crazy; and the view was fantastic. We were right on the water, surrounded by tall buildings, and the city lights.
We explored the hotel and saw that the hotel had an indoor billards room, bowling alley, swimming pool, and fitness center. Pretty nice.... I just wish we were here for longer than one day. So much to do but very little time.

Our night ended with visiting the bar in the hotel; the food and company was great!

San Fran bound

Day 0

So the journey begins, unfortunately at 4am. I figured if we left early morning then we would have more down time upon arriving, but I never considered the fact that I'm not a morning person. My alarm goes off at 4am, just 3 hours after I actually went to sleep. I thought I was dreaming.... Reality kicked in though.

We boarded the flight and headed to Charlotte, North Carolina (our stopover). It was such a crowded airport especially for 9am... But it was lovely and so big. Restaurants and stores everywhere. Our next fright rolls around and we get good seats until it all began....the man behind us had a slight problem, actually a huge problem. SNORING. from the time we sat down to the minute we landed. It was so loud, the loudest I've ever heard, the worst part was that he sat directly behind me and it honestly sounded like he was going to die. All the surrounding people around were laughing and debating on what to do. My mum was ready to spill some water on him to wake him up, she was getting a headache. LONGEST 5 HOURS OF MY LIFE!!

It was quite the adventure, but just happy to finally arrive in San Francisco.

Arriving in San Francisco and greeted by the cold and windy weather. That's something that reminded me of England. My dad was already in Cali so he picked us up and we did some minor sight seeing around the city. We started off at fishermans wharf and strolled along hitting up In n' Out burger. Now, this has been something I've been craving for years now. I got so excited seeing the sign and rushed in to put in my order. Delicious.

One thing that I noticed about people from Cali are that they are extremely happy and nice! They are all willing to help and always have a smile on their face.

It's dinner time - we hit up a Thai restaurant that was recommended to us! I'm so excited because I really like eating noodles, veggies etc. we order our food to be spicy because we figured that since we were Indian, we could handle it. Boy were we more than wrong. It was the spiciest thing I have ever tasted!!! We had to get ice cream to cool our mouths.

Day 1

The first full day in California was spent roaming the streets of San Francisco. It was a typical tourist day hitting all the major sites: the coit tower, ghirardeli chocolate factory, Kara's cupcakes, Lombard street, and some famous houses.

We got to have free chocolate samples at the factory along with wine tasting at the store close by. We picked up some famous cupcakes for the journey to satisfy our sweet tooth. It was worth it. After walking around for a little we went to the local pub for lunch. The view was spectacular, and it was nice just to be inside away from the cold and wind.

One of my favorite shows is full house, and I knew that the house that it was filmed in was in SF, so I made sure we went to see the actual house. It looked really different on the outside since this big tree was built in front but it was so cool knowing that once upon a time, all the actors and actresses were there. Also we went to the house where Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed! This is one of my favorites movies, the houses were close together so it wasn't a hassle!

We ended the day at our friends house for dinner. They had just renovated their house and it looked amazing, so high tech and modern. It felt good to have a home cooked meal.

Day 2

It's always good to relax, especially when you're on holiday. I slept in.... We'll my parents version of sleeping in (8am), and lounged around the house admiring our amazing view of Santana row. We played cards with the family, and my mum made a big breakfast for all of us. It was delicious. My brother and I went to whole foods for some groceries and then got a car wash. I was fascinated by this car wash lol, it was much different than the ones I've seen, so high tech and just quick. It was an automatic car wash but then they had a bunch of workers approach either car after to dry it, they were on a conveyer belt taking turns on every angle of the vehicle. We were in and out of that place in a jiffy and the car was sparkling clean.

Next on the agenda was lunch and walking around Santana Row. It was filled with boutiques, shops, restaurants, and cafés. Beautiful place to walk around and the weather was spectacular. Stopping by at Pizza Antics for lunch, we ordered two pizzas that reminded me of being back in Italy. There was so much flavor and the portions were on point. Not to mention, they had my favorite drink, elderflower.

Ending the day right by driving to Oakland for dinner. Blackhawk grill. Great food, drinks and company. The scenery was really cool, they had this fountain filled with ducks and a bunch of stores around it. My brother bought duck food so we sat outside and fed the ducks, they all swarmed us. I put some in my hand and the ducks pecked at my hand, it felt like a drill.

Day 3

The day started early as we set off to monetary, pebble beach and the 17 mile drive. The journey felt like forever but was definitely worth it by the time we got there. The bright blue water, sandy beaches, and huge waves were so picturesque. I distinctly remember looking out in the ocean and seeing a huge splash, and the people around me saying 'Wow did you see that?' I became extremely curious, thinking what could be out there, I took off my sunglasses to get a better look and there I saw it, a huge splash again. WHALES. There were a few whales jumping out of the water playing with each other in the distance. It was magical. My first time ever seeing a whale, well besides sea world of course. Besides whales, we also saw some sea otters. It was kind of hard to miss as they smelt terrible and made so much noise. This trip was different than regular beach trips because it wasn't somewhere you could sit and suntan, it was completely scenic. What a better way to end the day than to tour the actual google headquarters!!!! I was so shocked when we were able to do this. My brother and dad had a connection with a worker there and he offered to take us on a tour. I've only seen bits and pieces from the movie The Internship and it just looked so cool. We met up with the guy and he took us into the buildings and we saw pele working in the rooms and their cubicles. They had a gym, an arcade, bikes, volleyball court, and much more. It was such a fun work environment. We took tons if pictures and we even got to ride the google bikes around the google campus. This experience honestly felt like a dream. Too good to be true. It was sooo cool to do this.

Day 4

So everything we wanted to do on this trip was done except going to the Golden Gate Bridge, well we did go but this time we wanted to go really close and actually cross the bridge. We woke up early and all of us drove to San Francisco to look at the bridge. It was breathtaking. Since it was early morning, it was extremely foggy so it was hard to see the entire thing, but the parts that were visible was awesome. I can see why it's one of the world wonders. Taking pictures was interesting as the wind was going against us and our hair was flying everywhere, but besides the point. There was a little spot where cars could park to take a picture of the view, and it was packed with tourists. People asking each other to take pictures and taking turns to stand in front of the bridge. Completely touristy.

My brother had a meeting to go to so we were crunched for time so we went to this sandwich place that he recommended. Thankfully we went there. They had healthy sandwiches and the most amazing creeps ever. It was so tasty. Turns out my brothers meeting got cancelled so we took it easy and wandered around downtown San Francisco. At that point, we saw the tram service going up and down the streets. My mum and I looked at each other and knew we both wanted to ride one, we hopped on one and took it for a few stops. It was so cool hanging over the edge. The man in charge had told me to stay close to the tram otherwise I'd hit the cars. Pretty crazy how they would allow that, a huge safety hazard but so worth it. Done. Everything on our holiday check list.

It's basically impossible to go to San Francisco without shopping we left the boys at the apartment and my mum and I hit the town. There were is many stores and so many possible spending opportunities lol. *in conclusion! not that much damage was done*

That night we went to Santa Cruz for dinner. We had a chiropractor appointment for all of us and then we stayed and had dinner with the doctor himself. We went to this Italian place where the portions were HUGE. My brother and I ordered a salad and pasta to share~ the salad came out first and we were full before the main dish even came out. The food was super good though. We ended up taking home 4 boxes of food, one from each of us.