Well, today was one of those days when nothing goes quite as it should. The plan was to go up the cable car to Parque Arvi in the morning and back to downtown Medellín in the afternoon. This was my only day for sightseeing proper here as am doing another bus trip tomorrow. To get to the park you take two separate cable cars from one of the mainline metro stations. The first, which is included in the 50p fare, was built to link poor people living high up on one of the hills to the centre of the city in the valley. (There are other cable cars serving other slopes, although slope is too gentle a word). The first ride gives you a bird's eye view of poverty whereas the cable car to the park ... read more

Said goodbye to the B and B in Cartagena with some relief. It was the cook's day off so the gardener prepared breakfast, which was a bit hit and miss. Everything went very smoothly at the airport. With some trepidation I checked my case in. The idea had been to travel with just hand luggage but this turned out to be totally impractical what with the 200 ml bottles of shampoo (none provided anywhere), camomile lotion for mosquito bites (all that the pharmacies here seemed to offer) and body lotion for my sore feet (cream for feet unobtainable here). It would also have helped if I had only taken one jumper and jettisoned the make-up! Fears proved unfounded. Avianca did not lose my luggage. Established that a taxi from the airport to my area of Medellin ... read more

Had a quiet and rather lazy day yesterday in Santa Marta. In the morning I went to the Quinta San Pedro which is where Simón Bolívar died in poverty and obscurity, having failed to keep the states he liberated together as a single country. I took the hotel staff's advice and went and returned by taxi - the fare of 7 thousand pesos is less than £2. Unfortunately the place was mobbed by elderly and very decrepit- looking American tourists whose guides had microphones and were competing with each other in volume. Perhaps a lot of their charges were deaf. Anyway it made me think that I had better get my travelling in quick before I was reduced to doing it their way. I found out from the taxi driver that they had come off a ... read more

Hi everybody. I left Bogota today and am now on the coast in Santa Marta, in the so-called historic quarter. I can see why the Colombians go to the high rise resort next door as this place is really run down and decrepit. It is also a port with petroleum storage etc. However when I went out after dark this evening I was pleasantly surprised to see that it looked a lot better and was quite lively with street musicians and people eating out of doors round the illuminated square and in the street next to me. It certainly feels a lot safer than my bit of Bogotá at night. The reason I am here is to do a trip to Parque Tayrona which is supposed to be very beautiful. You do a trek through the ... read more

Hi everybody. Thought I would just write a few lines to let you all know that I am still alive! This is also by way of being a record of my trip so don't feel obliged to read it all. Sorry there are no photos - will have to wait till I get home to upload these. I decided not to take my smart phone for security reasons, now wish that I had. My other ancient mobile doesn't seem to accept Colombian Sim Cards. The journey was fine apart from the transfer in Miami which was very tedious because of the time, a couple of hours, it took to get through Customs and Immigration, which we seemed to have to do about three times. It appears that America is such a poor country it provides fewer ... read more