Colommbia!

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We started our time in Colombia with open minds but I think we were all secretly a little scared. Made the mistake of checking the foreign office website the day before and it didnt do much to make us feel better. The jist of it was, you can go to Colombia we recommend it only on business, dont go here, here or here, dont use roads,fly everywhere, and dont do the trek to the lost city. Hmmm...

Anyway the border crossing went without a hitch and we even met a friendly policeman who had a 10 pound note he was trying to change for dollars! It was weird to see english currency after so long, I guess he must have taken it as a bribe for something! We had been told that the section of road between the border and Cali, our first stop, was the most dangerous in Colombia and should not be travelled at night. However the policeman said it was fine and so did the bus company and we were assured that there would be a guard on our bus and helicopters patrolling up and down the road. We decided to go for it. The bus was amazing.. actually more comfortable than the beds in alot of hostels! And the journey was fine too, we went through numerous police roadblocks but didnt get stopped at any. That has basically been our experience of Colombia so far, alot of hype about things being dangerous, and then finding that not only are they safe but the facilities are much better than any of the other countries we have visited and at a fraction of the price. The food here is brilliant, the roads are good, the busses are awesome, hostels are great, beaches are beautiful, etc etc.

We went out to a salsa club for the night in Cali which was fun but a little embarassing, EVERYONE can salsa here, and a number of attempts have gone to prove that it is nowhere as easy as it looks! In Cali we also met up with Balz and Gary, some friends of Jamie´s that had come out to suprise Sam and Jamie. We have spent the last few weeks as a group of 6 which has been pretty fun. From Cali we went to Medellin, which used to have a lot of problems with the drug trade. It has now totally cleaned up its act and is a beautiful city to explore. They have a brilliant metro system with one section comprised of cable cars that go up one side of the valley that the city is in with ioncredible views from the top. We also went to the cemetery in Medellin which was an interesting way to see the 2 sides to the city, the rich graves were in the centre and then around the edges were the poorer ones, all decorated with football stickers and flyers for salsa nights. It was sad to see so many photos of young men on the graves, presumably a lot of them caught up with the coke cartels.

From Medellin we came to Santa Marta on the coast and began the trek to the lost city of the Tyrona Indians. Sadly Gary got sick with heatstroke and couldnt complete the trek so I came back with him and took up nurse duty! The others finished a few days later and said we hadnt missed a huge ammount, the views from the top were apparently spectacular but there were also ridiculous ammounts of mosquitoes. Since then we have spent our time between here (Santa Marta) and the next door fishing village of Taganga. We also spent a couple of nights in the Tyrona National Park which has the best beaches I have ever seen, little coves of white sand with jungle behind and clear blue sea. We slept in our hammocks in little open sided hut on a rock on the end of a peninsula so you could hear the waves all night long and the views were stunning. Hope I´m not making you too jealous, we´re going back there next week too!

All the beaches around this area are beautiful, and we have done very little except sunbathe and snorkel. There are loads of tropical fish and coral here and the water is so clear that Jamie and I have decided to do a PADI open water a course which we start tomorrow. I think we will be here for another couple of weeks then the plan is to head to Cartagena (more beaches) then south to Bogota and a stay on a coffee finca before we head through Venezuela and come home. Less than a month to go now, look forward to seeing you all soon, Cat xxxx

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