MRJ SthAmericanAdventures

After spending the previous few weeks chilling on the northern coast of Colombia followed by five days out at sea and on beautiful islands, arriving in the bright lights and concrete jungle of Panama City was a little shock to the system. After a very long day of travelling in the middle of no where and feeling like we had been on a complete adventure we were happy to be finally in the city and finding a bed for the night. By this stage a shower and food were the only two priorities on the list and that was all I could manage for the night before colapsing in bed. The part of Panama City that we were staying in was pretty flash and we could have been in any city in the western world, probably ... read more

We had gone back to Cartagena to find ourselves a yacht to sail to Panama and found that we had a few spare days. I decided that some sight-seeing was in order as the previous time I had been in Cartagena was spent partying at the fiesta. I booked myself on a tour to the nearby mud volcano, something that was pretty rare and I had been told was definately worth going to see. After being picked up first in the van I then spent the next two hours picking up the others and getting stuck in traffic.......not what I was expecting at all! Finally we made it to the other side of Cartagena and passed the huge amounts of water that had slowed the traffic down and we were on our way to the volcano. ... read more

After a slow start Darragh, Sharyn and I made it to the bus station and onto a bus that was apparantly going directly to Santa Marta, about 4 hours north of Cartagena. It didn't take long for all of us to get comfortable and enjoy the chance to do nothing for 4 hours on the bus. Only a couple of hours later though we pull into a large town and were told bluntly to get off the bus and change to another smaller one......yes just another instance where they tell gringos whatever they want to hear. Again after a bus ride that took longer than expected we arrived in the bustling town of Santa Marta. Santa Marta is a large industrial port town with not a lot of interest for us so we jumped straight into ... read more

After leaving Salento in the early hours we headed off towards the city of Medellin. Again yet another endless windy road was our path and again we were witness to amazing scenery as we made our way north. It seemed today that the hills were even greener, steeper and more magical then I had seen before in Colombia. By this time my patience for taking long bus rides was waining and with 2 hours to go to Medellin I couldn't sit still in my seat, so when we did arrive on the city outskirts I was pretty damned happy. Medellin is situated in in a valley and surrounded by lush mountains that also harbour quaint pueblos or towns. The town was founded in 1675 and in it's early days consisted mostly of individual haciendas that later ... read more

So we had finally made it to our final destination in this part of the world and I was happy to be back in Colombia again. Straight away the difference is obvious as there is a lot more money in Colombia than other countries and people here are happy to see tourists in their country. The infrastructure is better, the people are more educated, the shops are nicer, the houses are nicer, the people are extremely friendly and helpful, I believe that they have a great way of looking at life, they love their salsa and play much better music than most other places in Sth America - this matters as music is everywhere on this continent and is played at high volumes regardless of the neighbours. The most notable difference here as opposed to Peru ... read more