Tired, miserable and sleep deprived we arrive in a very hot (38C) Santa Marta. We think we've had enough of overnight buses. We get a double room and look into going to the Lost City. Prices start around $500,000 Colombian Pesos (£160) for 5 days. People generally seem to have enjoyed it but the mention of it being hard, sweaty and mosquito ridden don't do anything to wet my appetite for it, especially the mosquito part. After some discussion we decide not to bother and instead book a snorkelling trip off the coast of the Tayrona National Park. The trip is good and the highlights are tiny cuttlefish, phosphorescent jellyfish, trumpetfish and boxfish. The snorkelling trip is from Taganga, a little town ten minutes over a headland from Santa Marta. We instantly like the place and decide to spend some time there too.

By the time we reach Taganga we are addicted to natural limonada, it's just so refreshing (and very very sweet but that's not the point). So much so that we need at least one hit a day. You don't want to catch Helena in the morning before her limonada fix.

With some spare time now to fill we book a fishing trip and a tour of the Tayrona National Park. The fishing trip is great fun. Just us two, El Capitan Sergio and an Israeli (who surprisingly paid less than we did, SHOCK!). First we drop some lines whilst making our way to the fishing grounds. I get a bite but as reeling it in he gets away.

Next we anchor up and start to drop lines just off the boat. El Capitan is pulling out fish faster than he can bait up. Two red snapper and two groupers before we'd even had a bite. Helena catches a snapper, whilst I just splodge away slowly getting sunburnt and cursing the fish who eat my bait but don't get hooked.

At least we have lunch sorted already as we move the boat to shallower water for the harpoon fishing. After some instruction on the use of the harpoon we're in the water and looking for unsuspecting victims (no not the Israeli). After a few practice shots and re-loads I'm ready for my first dive with intent to spear a fish, only to hear my name cried from Helena. I stop turn and she tells me something has got her ankle. Instantly I'm thinking shark, fish, eel! I swim over and take a look. Glistening in the sunlight dark purple strands are stuck to her ankle. Jellyfish! We shout for Sergio to bring the boat round and as he arrives Helena is complaining of the pain and getting a little worried. Spanish, Spanglish and English can't describe what has happened so Helena lifts her foot out and shows the damage. Sergio looking a little worried himself now drags Helena out of the water and starts to pull the tendrils from her skin. Next he washes her ankle in petrol.

We make for the lunch site and Helena has her ankle washed with soap and then a fresh slab of aloe vera plant tied to the red sores. The snapper is well cooked and easy to take off the bone yet lacking a little flavour. The grouper is very tasty, although more boney.

Helena is feeling better and we take to the water again to try out the harpoon once more. On the third or fourth dive I'm convinced I hit a fish with the harpoon but it didn't penetrate the flesh. Turns out the harpoon is about as sharp as my finger. The only way it will spear a fish is if the fish is about six inch away. Nonetheless we continue to chase the fish and enjoy the challenge.

The next day we are up early by Bruno and catch a taxi back to Santa Marta to catch a bus to the Tayrona National Park. Once in Santa Marta we wait for a bus for some time watching the unusually slow traffic drift past. Turns out there is a demonstration on the Pacific highway causing the congestion. We start to walk a short distance to get past the traffic and hopefully catch a taxi. News arrives that on the road we're walking on a motorcyclist has been hit by a lorry and is dead. We approach a cordoned off crowd to find the reports are true. Somes relatives are there already, cleary very upset. The whole area is a very sad and emotionally charged. We move on knowing there is nothing we can do to help.

Once in the national park we start a 3 hour walk to Pueblito - an old indigenous settlement found approximately 40 years ago. It's very humid, hot and muddy. Along the way we slip and slide past an indigenous village and meet a couple of the children who live there. We also see the famous black and yellow poison arrow frogs and eat avocado fresh from the tree. The ruins of Pueblito are unfortunately not very well preserved but you get a idea that it was a fairly large community who would forage and hunt in the forest and also the sea about a hour and a half away. We continued our tour heading towards the sea and arrived at the lovely beaches of Cabo San Juan. We had half an hour to relax and swim then tucked into some tasty fresh fish.

The last part of the tour was a walk along the coast past further impressive beaches like La Piscina (a natural swimming pool protected from strong currents and waves by a ring of rocks a hundred metres or so offshore) and Arrecife. Arrecife had many wahed up coconuts so instead of the English tradition on skimming with stones into the sea it was who could chuck a coconut the furthest.