Well our plans have changed considerably over the last few days! We had orignally planned to head from Uruguay up to Paraguay and then across to Rio. However, we got to the bus station and found that we would either have to wait several days for a bus to Paraguay or go way back into Argentina to get across another way. Neither option particularly appealed and after getting the map out we figured that the current plan required a lot of long distance buses for very few actual locations. So we took the radical decision of taking an overnight bus back to Buenos Aires and flying up to Colombia for some sunshine.

The trip was a bit of an ordeal as the driver of the bus was incapable of driving for more than half an hour without stalling and turning all the lights on. We arrived in BA at 6.30am but our flight out wasn't until 3.30am the next morning. We couldn't find anywhere to store our bags so we ended up booking a dorm bed in a cheap hostel and leaving our stuff there while we wittled away the hours in the cinema. We finally managed to get out of Argentina and flew up to Panama before flying back down to Bogota, seems a bit weird but that was the cheapest way to do it!

We arrived in Bogota not quite knowing what to expect because you hear all sorts of stories about Colombia but so far we've been pleasently surprised. We got a taxi with the most curious driver in the world, who wanted to know everything from our favourite music to how many people get stabbed in London each year, and found a nice little hotel in the city centre. There is a big festival going on in Bogota this month as it's the anniversary of its foundation and so we've been having a great time wandering around the streets. The first day we stumbled into the Palaza de Bolivar (having no idea where we were) to find an old car show going on. Our favourite was definately the Army jeep with huge machine gun on the back. It was even drawing admiring looks from the policemen and army soldiers who seem to be stationed on every corner. We also spent time searching for the Gold museum but for the first few hours it proved as elusive as El Dorado and we only got to it after walking all over the town. The time since then has been spent watching guinea pig racing in the street, eating corn and pineapple from the street stalls (just like being back in Africa), and going up to the top of Monserrate mountain at the edge of the city. It is quite a strange experince standing on top of the mountain looking at the huge sprawling mass of Bogota on one side and rainforest on the other.

We're still not quite sure where we're going next but if Bogota is anything to go by the rest of Colombia should be pretty cool!