So having arrived in the most stylish way on the sail boat but looking like death, Cartagena was upon us, and my starting point in Colombia. Cartagena was a mix of a colonial old town which had some charm and character but also felt rather seedy at night, and the new town was old streets size of alley ways, but somehow they managed to get a car parked and another car travelling down. sometimes it amazes me! My first meal was a lunch for $3.50 including a drink in a bag which was fresh fruit of some sort and really nice. my dish itself was pork with salad, rice and fried yuca. really nice. but the most random thing was, 2 girls from my boat wanted veggie food, so they ordered an ate in a cafe and i was allowed by the staff in a vegetarian cafe to take my pork dish in and eat it there. was amusing to me, never be allowed to do that in england!

I went to a mud volcano called Totomo with a few of the aussies from my boat, and it was such an odd experience. its not been long since the volcano erupted and buried the village, however it was ok for us, just huge bubbles every now and then. when you get it, you float, feet and legs rise and a guy grabbed me and shoved me over into the massage area, where another guy began a mud massage. all this costed extra, but still like $1.50 each extra so i though what the hell, im only here once and its dirt cheap, excuse the pun there! So the massage was only about 5mins then i spent the next half hour trying to keep my legs n feet down as once they rise to a certain point, its impossible to try get them back down without help and kicking lots of people as the crater was very busy. After being covered head to food for a good amount of time, we left the crater and walked barefoot down to a lagoon, not as nice as it sounds, but does the job. well the women there do. there are women for $1.50 extra will wash all the mud off you and out of ur hair. i didnt need it, but u dont get a choice and i was grabbed by a woman, told to sit down and next thing i knew buckets and buckets were being poured over my head. then she told me to take off my bikini. id heard about this part by others, most of the women dont give you warning and whip it off themselves, but mine ordered me to do it. so next thing i know is im naked under the water, luckily there are leaves and dirt in the lagoon so nothing is visible! finally i felt a lot cleaner and was no longer a mud monster, so i went to get changed.

One night me and the aussies hung out at a park where lots of families were. there were street food sellers and even more odd, there were alcohol vendors on the street too. one woman who we got some street cocktails from had children and everyday she went on to this same spot and sold her cocktails. shes been doing it for 20 years. in central america it is illegal to drink alcohol on the streets let alone, sell it out of a little stall! my cocktail was amazing though, it was rum with banana and mango if i remember rightly.

On the night before i left we had met a few at the mud volcano so we all arranged to have pizza and bevvies at the hotel of the aussies. well me and matt went out to get pizza. a huge mistake was ordering from a supposedly italian restaurant. first of all 2 supposedly large pizzas came out in 2 tiny carrier bags wrapped in foil. well. they had folded over a tiny oval shaped thing and the cheese had all stuck to the foil. the dough was not cooked either. a bit of a disaster and we had a very angry matt. we all put on a brave face so he didnt go back and go mental at them, but we all knew it was awful. next day the 2 aussis girls payed for it! i was ok. i duno how but i am cast bloody iron i think.

On my last morning before the bus to my next destination, i decided to go with matt who wasnt being ill to the Fort. This was great to see, but afterall it has been built and never actually needed so not any history there apart from basically "this is a fort that was built to protect Cartagena" from the seemingly invisible threats! gotta laugh!!!

My next destination was santa Marta. i never planned on going there, instead onto the beach nearby called Taganga. however when i arrived i realised i was beached out and fed up of just another city the same as the last, so only spent 1 day in Santa Marta and did nothing except wandered round on a wild goose chase with a bad map looking for the Avianca airline office to book a flight out of there the next morning! after walking for an hour and asking about 8 people who all gave me different directions, id had enough and went to ask in the hostel again, this time the non local owner told me it was 1 block along to the left on the same road. not amused. he apologised on behalf of the local receptionist, who was sat there rather quietly!

I checked in my 18kg rucksack and flew to Bogota and immediately felt the cold. it was insane how hot and humid up north was, and Bogota because of the high altitude was insanely cold.

I checked in and got changed into trousers, tshirt, scarf and hoodie and found out my warm night clothes. ie leggings, shorts and a cardigan cus i dont have any pjs actually warm! improvising from what i do have! I planned to spend a week at least there but as soon as i arrived i knew i hadnt been that cold since i left england in march and that i wouldnt last long. That day i met up with a girl called Gemma who id first met on a night bus in panama, then kept seeing her and her mate Sadie in hostels in Colombia. me and gemma went to find lunch and ended up with Arepas, a national food. hard to describe but im not a fan unless theyre cheese arepas. these were a folded one with chicken and mushroom filling. i scraped out the filling! We carried on and stumbled across an area with a busy street at sundown, then it turned magical. the christmas lights came on and this was the first time we had both felt at all christmassy. shes from bristol so we both agreed that u can have lights and trees but its just not the same without feeling freezing cold! so we in that instant turned into huge children and went back to get our cameras and returned. we tried on all the hats they were selling as part of the xmas theme, and paid for some hugely odd hats of which i have never seen anything similar in other places! we are unique! We tried another national dish but this is 2 thin plate sized wafers and in the middle is caramel smothered. it is incredible and something luckily Carolina from my boat had made me try in a smaller size on pizza night. the lights were amazing, the atmosphere was amazing, and it felt like the whole of bogota was out that night as we seemed to be fighting against the crowd the whole time! took half hour to get 3 blocks away. street statues were everywhere scaring people, and street food. i wont forget how happy i felt that night. never thought i would appreciate xmas lights when i was away from it being a normality at home.

The hostel i was in Cranky Croc was recommended to me months ago however it was one of my favourites so far. they had 2 open wood fires well if the wood wasnt wet, a comfy tv room with as much inbetweeners as you need, though i still havent seen the movie, and the most comfy beds of my trip. i didnt want to leave them the first day. it was so cold outside and this was the first time on my entire trip i have had a duvet to sleep under and a top sheet, and the beds get made everyday perfectly too. normally u get a sheet and sometimes dont even need that as its too hot but there was duvet worthy and felt so much like home. it was a very sociable hostel with a lot of people, and it was great to be able to flit from group to group with ease. thats why i loved black cat in antigua so much.

I went with Gemma and Sadie to a police museum where we had a tour by a fake policeman who was very very odd and just talked to all the girls chests the whole time. there were a lot of real police there too. we saw lots of guns and learnt a bit about Pablo Escobar. We saw a Harley Davidson 1150cc engine, engraved in several places with gold and ivory and then we saw a few more things relating to the drug war with Pablo. including the photos of his dead body on that rooftop after the popo shot him, as they say, his ray bans, his guns also engraved in gold and ivory. and we saw mugshots of the highest members of the cartel. one caught our eyes as he looked so young. one of the higher guys was a 16year old, who killed 20 policemen (at least) and got paid $1million for each one by pablo!

On my last day there a group of 8 of us walked up to the cable car station at the bottom of Cerro monserrate. This was harder work than it sounds. Bogota is at very high altitude, and without doing anything lots of us felt sick anyway, but we walked up a steep hill to get to the station. it was hard work and we all had headaches or felt sick by the time we got there. soon it was put aside as we were in the car heading up a very steep cable to the top. at the top was a grand church, restaurant, cafe and shops. It was a great view over bogota when we arrived but soon clouded over and became chilly. me and one other guy who id been chatting to, lost sight of the group so we left thinking theyd gone with out us. after queueing for 30mins to get down the bottom, as a church service had just finished, the other guys showed up. at that point we decided to see them back at the hostel. it was sebs first day on his 3 month trip in south so he wanted to try some local food but with beans. so i introduced him to frijoles in a soup. was more like a stew but it was bloody good. we watched the madrid v barca game on tv in the bar then went back and i got in front of the fire!

At the last minute on the sat night, knowing everything in latin america closes on a sunday, i decided at 10pm that id take the bus to medellin in the morning with a fellow hostel guest. not having packed but not unpacked much either i got up at 7am and showered n sorted out. by 8 we were paid and in a cab on the way to the bus station 25km the other side of bogota. took a while to get there and we got the last 2 spaces on the bus luckily. well i say luckily, maybe it was unlucky...it was $35for a 9 hour ride to medellin leaving at 9am. i got the scarf out and began to get stuck into the last chunk of my book. at 2pm having shivered because the air con was on full blast we stopped for 45mins at a service station. the queue was stupid so we ate bread that my temporary travel buddy bought in bogota. we got back into the ice cube, and the hours ticked by slowly. at 7pm we stopped again in the middle of nowhere and the driver told us there were still 4 or 5 hours to go. i was annoyed cus we shouldve been there by 6pm. i didnt have a reservation in any hostels and was annoyed.id seen a sign to medellin saying left and we had gone right so i was guessing there were issues with the roads as there have been floods and landslides recently. still the bus company shouldve warned us. i think id of stayed in bogota or flew. finally freezing and highly annoyed i arrived in medellin at 11:45pm. it was a bloody outrage. and at that point i realised i was through with travelling...and i just cant do it anymore. id already seen a job sat night advertised on fb for a hostel in antigua i know. id emailed and because i got there so late i was so tired, i hadnt been able to check. i was miserable. jumped into a taxi alone as travel buddy who had actually annoyed me by keep unnecessarily calling me "babe", had a reservation in a different area of the city. My taxi driver was useless and clearly taking the piss as it was metered. he drove superslow on purpose and claimed there were camera just as everyone else was speeding by 3 times the speed of us. i told him to speed up but we were almost there by that time, then we faffed around cus he had no idea where the hostel was even though he told me he was a tourism official... fat chance thats reality mate! luckily the hostel i chose is somewhat of a party place with 24 hour reception so relieved i checked into the last bed. i was so tired, and jumped into bed at 12;45am. A guy came into my dorm rustling in a bag and as i moved i scared him, and he talks to me saying when did i arrive. i said 10mins ago etc then out of nowhere he offered me cocaine. not a great move mate. 1 im in bed having just had a 15 hours bus ride and 2 i dont do drugs. i was not amused.

next day i checked out other hostels online but wanted to book the escobar tour through mine so decided to stay another night and avoid all the people who were complete a******s in my place, a decision i reached after going to grab lunch with an aussie who was a rude p**** I did the Pablo Escobar tour in the afternoon along with 3 other people from other hostels. we went to his grave, not very exciting. but the surreal insane part was we went to what was a safe house for pablo and his family during the war of drugs. we met his brother Roberto who was his second in command, and met the family. we walked round the house which they had converted into a bit of a museum and saw interesting photos and things. for example, there was a safe cove behind what looks like a bookcase. you turn it round like in the movies,and theres space for 4 people, although not much and then there was a lift shaft and gave them chance to hide or escape! We also saw a picture in the hallway with a hole in which i thought was a bullet hole. our guide confirmed it was from sept 2010 when a gang raided the house and tried to kill roberto. the police had got a tip off and were waiting in the house for the intruders much to their surprise! when u move the photo to the side, u see a huge bullet hole in the brick wall! it really brings home that things did happen and are still happening there. we saw 2 cars used to transport the drugs by pablo and roberto and saw bullet holes in one of the cars shot from the Cali cartel to pablo and the medellin cartel. the glass was bulletproof so they were fine but it shattered the outer glass.clever clever people. Roberto stands by that he pablo and the rest of the family never took cocaine themselves. it was free for any cartel member but family was prohibited. These days, they try to keep a low profile, theyve done the time etc, and Roberto wants him and his family to live in safety but his brother to be remembered. He claimes Pablo shot himself on the roof that day and there are other stories he told us too but he says pablo wouldve killed himself rather than being killed by the enemy, the police! he had a weird warning the day before he was caught n killed, he was sitting with his guard and someone else whilst he was on the run at his dining table. the guard knocked his glass of wine off the table and it landed upright without smashing. this prompted the guard to tell him this is a sign bad things are going to happen and they should leave the house. instead pablo dismissed the warning, and next day he was killed. a very interesting afternoon. the children in the family are banned from even playing with waterguns as they want nothng to do with carrying on the past and want to live in safety anon now. kinda difficult and i wish them luck. even now police are searching for the remaining cartel members from back in the 80s and 90s and kill ones they do find. they were given an ultimatum in 2001, turn urself in or when we find u, we will kill you. some did turn themselves in but others are still being killed today. Id love to learn more after that taster. seems a compelling story.

When i got back from the tour i got a hair cut very short and read an email at 7pm saying i had got the job in antigua. i said i would start monday and dithered on whether to leave the next day. i went out to find an internet cafe at 8:30pm, luckily i did and they had a printer, so i booked a flight for 8am next morning as i realised i was done travelling and had nothing else to do in medellin.

at bogota airport the security was tight. To get into my departure lounge i had my daypack emptied and everything searched including all books and hard drive n bags. as we were just about to be called for boarding, i heard my name called on the tannoy. i went over and the woman told me the police had pulled my bag off the plane and wanted to search it with me in 5 mins. i took a seat and waited. i was called and taken out the back of the room into a corridor area where 2 police were with 3 bags. i picked mine out, and opened it, realising theyd already broken one of my locks off. so annoying. he made me empty all my clothes out and he searched in my makeup case n bags inside. after a few mins of rooting around he was happy and i attempted to close my bag with bad packing, he zipped it up for me in the end. guess thats what i get for flying in from medellin then to salvador. pretty odd trip route!

I stepped off the plane into the heat, its so great...

so here i am back in El Salvador on the beach on Weds 14 dec with a job to start on monday. as soon as i landed i felt relief and like im home. i head back to antigua at the weekend but not before i visit the sanctuary tomorrow.