Day 731 (30.03.09) After getting a few things done in the morning we set off with Vic to explore town. We spent some time wandering around the grid of streets lined with grand white-washed buildings with ornate windows and lanterns hanging from each corner. Not a huge stop on the tourist trail it makes for a good place to wander and watch local life going on around you. There are also lots of things to do in the surrounding area and had we not already spent more time than we planned to in Colombia we might have stayed longer! John joined [View Full Entry]

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Day 728 (27.03.09) We'd come to Cali purely for the nightlife as we'd heard it was the centre of Salsa in Colombia and we thought this would be a great place to celebrate Chrissie's third birthday on the road. With only one or two large group lessons lurking distantly in our Salsa history we decided that we really ought to brush up on a few moves if we were to be able to hit the dance floor with the style that we'd like! We booked a lesson with Jason at Academia de Baile and turned up with our dancing shoes ready [View Full Entry]

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Day 726 (25.03.09) Having had some more leisurely starts to our days it came as a bit of a shock when we got up for the 7.30am jeep from Salento out to Cocora for another day of walking. With its huge, lanky looking rubber palms and stunning walking it is an obvious and not to be missed days walking if you're in the area and we set off excited for more exercise and fresh air. Cramming 12 (not including the driver) onto our jeep which has seats for only 6 we ended up with Mark on the roof and many more [View Full Entry]

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Day 725 (24.03.09) When we'd headed out on foot this morning from Salento, a small and pretty village perched amongst the verdant hills and valleys of Colombia's main coffee growing region, we never expected the experiences that would greet us before the day was out. In all our guidebook searches and chats with locals we couldn't seem to find out anything about coffee plantations that you could visit but a guy Mark had met had said he'd been out the day before and found one you could at least walk through. So, armed with just a tiny hand-drawn map, we put [View Full Entry]

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Day 723 (22.03.09) Today was filled with bus travel as we made our way into Colombia's Zona Cafetera, first to the large town of Armenia and then on towards Salento an hour up the road. We passed through lush countryside and stunning views of the dramatic hills that make up this area and arrived into the town's main square just as night was falling. The plaza was full of revellers supping on beers and sitting around in food tents and the usual band of stray dogs that you find everywhere in this continent were running rings around excited kids. We learned [View Full Entry]

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Day 721 (20.03.09) Once a no-go city on the travel itinerary for Colombia due to it's major role in the Cocaine trade, recent years have seen Medellin receive a major clean-up (including a public scheme where weapons could be traded for musical instruments) and it now features on most travellers' lists of places to visit. Arriving into the city at the crack of dawn, we stopped in at a local cafe for a couple of coffees before checking into our room. Safely installed, showered and ready for the day we went out to see what the city had to offer. On [View Full Entry]

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Day 720 (19.03.09) "Get lost!", that's what someone had said to us. No, it wasn't an attempt to get rid of us it was their suggestion as to what to do in the city of Cartagena. And that's exactly what we did, on numerous occasions. The maze like streets of the old town are wrapped inside chunky walls built centuries ago to protect this major port from pirate attacks and it's easy to become lost as you meander your way around. We were staying in the more down and dirty area of Getsemani and started the day with some breakfast in [View Full Entry]

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Day 718 (17.03.09) After a pretty uneventful bus ride across to Cartagena, we arrived and did some planning and booking before dinner at a local cheap eatery and bed ... exciting stuff! Day 719 (18.03.09) On thing we never thought we'd do would be to climb into the crater of a volcano for a bath but that's exactly what we were planning for tioday's main activity. Just 50km from Catragena is the Volcan de Lodo El Totumo a 15m mound which is actually a volcano but which, instead of spewing lava, erupts with thick liquid mud. When it's not erupting you [View Full Entry]

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Day 715 (14.03.09) Not far up the coast from Taganga is the Parque Nacional Tayrona and we'd been told that it was a must on our travels in Colombia. Having packed a few things into a day pack we had to decide on the best method of getting to the park. There were three options available to us. We could take a minibus to Santa Marta, another bus to the park entrance and then a jeep to the path for the 2 hour walk to the beach we planned to stay at. We could take a cab all the way from [View Full Entry]

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Day 710 (09.03.09) Arriving in Taganga at around 9ish after the coldest bus we had been on yet (they really racked up the air con on this one) and therefore a very sleepless night we went in search of the our mate Vic who had made the journey up from San Gill the day before. When we got to the hostel we had mentioned was a possiblity we found her not there, and it was a bit of a dump so we weren't really surprised. Mark went off in search of an alternative place to stay, scoring a room in a [View Full Entry]

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