We went to Castillo Grande, a black sand beach in the resort area of Cartagena which was extremely relaxing and much quieter than the other beaches we have visited. We spent a few hours sunbathing before heading back to Cartagena.

We had a lovely leisurely lunch at this Bistro place and ate delicious fish and chips, and wandered around Cartagena which is a really pretty city with well kept buildings and incredible street art. The rest of the afternoon we got everything ready for the boat that evening.

At 6 we met our sailing group at the marina, and on a Colombian schedule sat for two hours before the police showed up to search us. The police searches were extremely thorough, and it was funny because they spoke no English and told the captain they thought I was a beautiful girl and wanted me to come back to Colombia soon! Very official of them.

Our boat was named La Gitanita and was a beautiful sail boat; our captain was called Jonathan and his assistant Luis, two lovely enthusiastic Colombian guys. We set off, out of Colombia and into limbo in the high seas between Colombia and Panama. There was 11 of us on the boat: Liv, Leanne, Jesse, Selena, Jess, Martine, Nancy, Martina, Jonathan, Luis and Me. Not long after leaving the sea became pretty rough and the boat rocked heavily from side to side. It was almost impossible to keep balance and Liv and I literally flew around our cabin bouncing off the walls and giggled uncontrollably as we could not for the life of us stay standing. It was going to be an interesting few days!