Northern Colombia: From Cartagena to the forests of Tayrona and El Totumo Mud Volcano

For a moment, I feel like Kathleen Turner in 1984’s comic love story/adventure, Romancing the Stone, as I lean against the parapet of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas in Cartagena, and stare out into the encroaching darkness. Except that I am not here trolling the alleyways of Colombia’s walled city looking for a lost suitor who has somehow managed to abscond with a priceless emerald treasure that, together, we’ve unearthed.