Friday 28th February (Odyssey Day 112) A lazy start again today as we didn’t leave until 1000. It will be a short day today so why not enjoy the beach for a little longer? Hannah and I had our last go at the slack line and after so much practice, we did both manage to get all the way across. I obviously had severe delusions about my balance before this! We then headed off toward the city of Barranquilla and as we arrived on the outskirts of town and drove through a few slums, everyone was getting worried about spending Carnival here. As it turned out, we drove through the bad part of town and arrived in quite a nice and clean area where our hotel was. The majority of the group are in the Golden ... read more

Saturday 22nd February (Odyssey Day 106) Another travel day today, it’s a good thing Ithaca is comfortable since we spend so much time aboard her. We left Bogota at 0900 which was a rather late start actually and Hannah and I managed to find the time to head across the road to a café for muffins for breakfast. Whilst there I got chatting with an American girl who was there doing work for a documentary on Colombia. It was interesting to hear what someone who had already been in the country a few weeks had to say about the increasing tourism of the area, as well as the pre-conceived ideas most people have when coming here. The reputation of Colombia is something we have all heard, and the most common things people mention when I said ... read more

Tuesday 18th February (Odyssey Day 102) We were a little late leaving this morning, just after 0900. Simon managed to get the truck right to the hostel this time, and it made packing a lot easier even if we did hold up quite a lot of traffic doing so! Heading out of town, we drove through a lot of hills again on another long, winding and bumpy road. It was still light when we arrived in San Agustin, which was a definite bonus. We made it to our camp after a few false directions and having to turn around in really narrow areas. The track to the camp was also very narrow and Simon had to reverse down it to park. The camp itself is a lovely area of sloping green grass and sheltered communal areas. ... read more

Sunday 16th February (Odyssey Day 100) We departed the camp at 0800 this morning heading for the border with Colombia. It wasn’t too strenuous for us and we managed to cross the border just before lunch. A very easy crossing here, and now we will be in Colombia for a little over a month. This is a country everyone has been looking forward to for various reasons, it is one country that always got surprised looks from people back home when it was mentioned we would be visiting. The question was always ‘is it safe to visit?’ and now we have a chance to form our own opinions first hand. We arrived in to the town of Pasto at 1600, a reasonable hour for a change since the border crossing had been an easy one. Here ... read more

Friday 14th February (Odyssey Day 98) We were planning on a 0800 start this morning, but breakfast at the hotel was eggs and took a rather long time to come, so we were a half hour late leaving. That’s not too bad considering we did get a very good breakfast in the end, one well worth the delay. We stopped in a sizable town not too far along the way at about 1100. I have no recollection of what the name of the town was but the meet up time was to be 1230 as this would be the only practical place for everyone to buy lunch. It was rather odd to be having an early lunch for a change, it’s usually nearly mid-afternoon by the time we have a lunch stop. Hannah, Mike, Eamon and ... read more

Sunday 9th February (Odyssey Day 93) It was a lazy breakfast of bread rolls with jam today. We certainly had an easy start to the day. Ellie and I soon headed out to the San Francisco Monastery and catacombs. It only cost S/. 7 to enter this beautiful looking monastery. You do need to have a guide to take you around though and we had to wait about 10 minutes for the next group with an English speaking guide. The tour was very informative but a bit rushed. The guide was certainly enthusiastic about the place, though he seemed to speak in a whisper most of the time. Perhaps that was just his way of adding to the enthralling atmosphere of the place. In the ossuary are piles of the bones of approximately 25000 people found ... read more