Dan left for two nights in Panama, while I had decided to save some coin and kill some time in Cartagena. By this stage my back was getting worse and I headed to the chemist for a game of charades, before finally getting the message across that I needed something for my back. Whatever I ended up with helped a little, and I decided to go out for a few drinks in Plaza del Aduana that night with an aussie guy Peter, two poms Christian and Kevin, and two yanks Liz and Jess. The beers seemed to help, aided later by a bottle of Aguariente that we all made quick work of before heading off for a few more drinks on the city wall. Rather than pay exorbitant prices at Café Del Mar, we grabbed a few beers from a street vendor and sat on the wall next to Del Mar, same view, same effect. By the time I went to bed, my muscles were starting to ache a bit again and things were not looking good.
I woke up shivering and it felt like someone had taken a metal baseball bat and smacked me across the chest, back, neck and wrist. It hurt to roll over and I could barely get out of bed. After I had a shower my back spasmed and I had to stand still in the same position for about five minutes before I could move again.
Rather than ride it out, I decided I should try and see a doctor. I managed to get a hold of Peter and he organised for Lucia’s brother Raul (who lived in Cartagena) to come and pick me up. I’d just been after the name of an English speaking doctor, but hey, a lift to the hospital was welcome too!
Raul and his wife came and picked me up and took me to the hospital but couldn’t get me an appointment until the afternoon. In the meantime Raul gave me a brief touron the way to his house, of all the suburbs of Cartagena that I hadn’t made it to. We drove past the castle, Castille San Felipe, the church over looking Cartagena, La Popa, and the big harbour where all the transport ships came in, including a massive French warship Jeanne de Arc.
I whiled away the afternoon at Raul’s, trying not to move much, scoring an awesome home-made soup in the process that his wife had made for lunch.
The doctor’s waiting room was extremely crowded, and there seemed to be some kind of jostling for position, while I sat there wincing. The doctor was a friend of theirs, and spoke pretty good English, so I was able to explain the problem reasonably well. I had originally had ideas of Malaria swirling through my head, but we hadn’t seemed to have visited the high risk areas. After showing the doctor the painkillers I’d gotten from the chemist, he dutifully prescribed some triple the strength and then, almost as an afterthought, began ruffling through his drawers, before pulling out a big needle. Having no idea what he was giving me, I lay down while he stabbed me in the hip with it and promised me it would fix the back ache. Fair enough.
After downing some painkillers, I thanked Raul and his wife profusely for their help and was dropped back at the hostel, feeling a little guilty for taking up so much of their day. The pain as eased and there was quite a bit of action happening at the hostel, with about 20 or so people sitting around drinking. On doctor’s orders I stayed away from alcohol, but joined in with the general conversation. There was a random assortment of people, and a couple of the guys were the type you just hate to meet while travelling. Loud, obnoxious, hero-complex type guys, they’d bought a bottle of Aguardiente and were pretty much forcing it down everyone’s throat (but feel free to give some money for the privilege). Determined to be party leaders, they dragged about half the group out to go to Café Del Mar (really what’s the obsession with this place?) After stumbling through the city in the most random route, they decided to stop in at Plaza Santo Domingo to meet some others. By this stage a few pommies and an Irish girl I’d been talking to were getting a bit fed up so we bailed on the heroes and headed for Café del Mar.
With the wind blowing a gale up on the city wall, and ridiculous prices for drinks, we all decided to hit up the street vendors again, and head for another part of town, via the hostel. I made a strategic exit and headed to bed, only to be woken up by Liz and Jess at about four am and again at six as they packed to leave. I realised that some people just have no idea sometimes, as they stumbled around for about ten minutes talking at the top of their voices, and doing the same again when they woke up to pack and leave. The funny thing was that the previous night they’d actually asked someone about dorm etiquette, and unfortunately been told by someone just as bad, that there is none.