Hola mi amigos! I´m just loving the diving here. It´s outstanding. Vida Marina: ¨Sea Life¨. The visability the other day was over 60ft that´s about 20m for the Europeans. I´m becoming a standing joke on the boat-every day just after we´ve left the shop & the tanks are filled & on the boat, I´ve finally got everyone in the boat, the achors away & all the divers & students are kitted up, their gears stowed & the life jackets are on. . . . then I just exclaim with much gusto & relish: ¨another day in paradise¨ and all before 8:30 [View Full Entry]

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The night life in Taganga is quite good & consists of lots of wee bars & restaurants & a club called El Garage: it’s open & busy Wednesday-Saturday & it’s stinking hot there even though it’s completely out doors. Afterwards everyone usually goes to the beach for the after-party which is cool, in a hot sweaty kind of way, especially when there’s a 24 hour bottle shop round the corner! [View Full Entry]

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Linda & I decided we’d check out a few dive places & after much consideration & deliberation we went for a couple of dives with Vida Marina (http://www.buceovidamarina.com/home_big.html), just because there was a nice wee Scottish lassie Jill working as a Dive Master there & the Colombian chappie Santiago (yes another one) who owned the place had an honest smile & some of the best SCUBA gear I'd seen so far.....in South America! In any event it's all worked out swimmingly, & most of the people I know here have had a damn fine time with Vida Marina so all is [View Full Entry]

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I received a little miffed comment from a Colombian blog reader about the “drug cartels, bandits & kidnappers” description in a previous blog…..so apologies to all Colombians who are in denial about their history, their current state of affairs & their potential future. No offence was intended. There are no terrorists; no one I know in this particular hostel has been robbed on the way to Playa Grande (twice) & kidnappings never happen…….here….ever……honest! Oh Fingerprinting your mail: Following on from how settled this country truly [View Full Entry]

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Buenos Diaz Bogotá: Things are pretty cool in Bogotá in fact its freezing cold & it rains in big huge thunderstorms most days around 3 PM! I didn’t realise somewhere so close to the equator could be so cold, I guess its got something to do with the fact we are almost at 10000 ft. After arriving at Bogota Airport, Danny & I decided it would be prudent to share taxi costs & have safety in numbers so we headed into town & stayed at a great hostel called El Cafecito, a lovely big old house with big rooms, fireplaces & [View Full Entry]

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Danny & I visited Monserrate, the church on the top of one of the highest hills overlooking Bogota where they had a little alley behind that sold everything from Jesus on a rope soap to fried intestines & beer, just what you need before going to church! You take a gondola to the top a bit like Sugar Loaf mountain in Rio except not as classy. There’s a cable car just like Wellington’s but 5 times the size it was broken the day we went up. Andy the Aussie & I went to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá. It’s an underground [View Full Entry]

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So after the dodgy goings on with Santiago & his friend Charles I headed off to another place called Cha Cha Night Club on the top floor of a skyscraper, great club with stunning views over the city, see photo! Anyway it was about time to leave Bogota & head for the beach & the sun when I discovered that DJ Sacha was playing another fabulous club called “The End” on the roof of a hotel so I opted to stay to the end of the week & have one more BIG night out before heading to the Caribbean. I wasn’t [View Full Entry]

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...after recovering from Sacha I headed North on a big scary fast bus with the coldest aircon on the planet to Taganga: a beach village near Santa Marta on the Caribbean Coast. The beach is average but it’s the staging post for trips into the Lost City (which was only rediscovered and hacked out the jungle in 1975) the absolutely stunning Tayrona National Park & of course Scuba diving in the Caribbean. A couple of weeks ago I met a lovely Irish lass called Linda & we disappeared into Tayrona, there’s no internet, phones or very many people. The 1st night [View Full Entry]

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I’m about 9 weeks into my world travels 18 flights completed so far & find myself travelling around Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon checking out the zoo which was a wee bit sad but had some cool animals that we hadn't seen on our amazing Amazon tour. The highlight was the pink fresh water dolphins that they hand-feed fish to so that you get a look at them out of the solid brown water...typical of most skanky wet places around the Amazon! Alas it's time to leave Peru & my traves with Julz behind & head out on my ownsome to [View Full Entry]

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I had to make one last entry to say I now understand the power of being tall. My 12.50 pm flight that I booked only a week earlier was cancelled and I was put on the 4 pm back to Lima. The 4pm flight arrived at 4.30 with a dud engine and wasn't going anywhere. At 6pm the flight was officially cancelled till the next day. Now knowing that another flight to Lima had been due to go at 5 and hadn't arrived yet I raced for the counter. This is where the height advantage came in. At 5ft 1in I [View Full Entry]

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