Cartagena is hot, and on my arrival it was bursting at the seams with thousands of people taking to the streets for a festival to celebrate Cartagena's independence from the Spanish (just about two hundred years later, Simon Bolivar is still a big hit in these parts). As a usual and necessary corollary to this they also celebrate, every year in Cartagena the crowning of Miss Columbia (to this royalty, the late Senor Bolivar unfortunately has to bend the knee). Dropped off in the middle of nowhere for $7 (my taxi driver vaguely indicating that the parade made it impossible to proceed any further), I had to take out my back-pack and proceed on foot. The Carteginian accent being difficult to master (this is generally accepted as being true), I nodded my head in agreement (whilst not having a clue) and set of in the general direction indicated by his waving hand. Did I tell you that Cartagena is hot (I will get to the women later) - during the day the temperature climbs to about 35C (with plenty of humidity) followed by a precipitous drop down to 30C at night. I soon established that the ventilator in my hostal room managed to merely evenly distribute the heat across my body. Not surprisingly after a while, my undies seemed to be already whet when I put them on (with apologies to sensitive readers). Anyhow, within seconds of this introductory trek to the hostal, it appeared as if I had just ambled through a waterfall with my backpack on. This was a good thing, since the essence of the parade and accompanying street celebrations consisted of people doing their utmost to ensure that others got soaked in water, foam, paint and other liquids I shuddered to identify. I was thus given a fairly unchallenged passage, and with a stroke of good fortune actually found my hotel. A short while later, and with much better luck, I also managed to bump into Tejs, my good friend from Antigua (this was utterly random and highly improbable) but was the catalyst for a very good few days to follow. Courtesy of Tejs' singlemindedness, we landed up in the Casino Rio to join the who's who of Colombia in one of the various Miss Columbia events. We connected with some journalists following this (to me rather peculiar) jamboree, and the long and short of it was that we - with the necessary introductions from the periodista-gang - managed to get into a number of very well-connected and well-heeled parties. In fact, the one seeing us on the roof of the Hotel Santa Clara - comfortably the most famous and best hotel in Cartagena - hobnobbing with you know who (which we did not) was a rather surreal experience. Tejs duly managed to be interviewed by a private television channel and it was a laugh to watch the beauty queens file past below in the main coastal road of Cartega, taking it all in from 'the spot to be'. I tried to look as elegant as possible in my flip flops and somewhat travel-worn shirt ... It reinforced how important in life it could be "to know the man". A number of parties and events rolled by in this way. At some point Tejs left for Bogota, and my good friend Mike Marques - on a business trip in the Americas - joined up with me for the weekend. The highlight was taking part in a grand regatta - that eventually turned into an all-out water fight - in the Cartagena harbour - the 24 beauty queens and entourage again being ever present. Thus, even though it was mostly difficult to breathe, never mind sleep, the food was excellent, the Carteginians happy and friendly, taxis cheap, the old city beautiful (I would go so far as to say it is one of the most romantic old cities I have seen anywhere), the women often and surprisingly beautiful (with a clear predilection for large breasts - frequently and clearly surgically enhanced). I also discovered one of my favourite watering holes of the trip so far - Cafe del Mar on the old city wall, elegant, with fantastic music, a view of the old town and the glitzy outline of Boca Grande, and from whence I watched a beautiful sun set over the Caribbean for the last time, before flying out to Bogota early the next morning.