We caught a taxi from the hostel in Bogota to the terminal des transportes passing through graffiti alley - the main thoroughfare into the city from the west that is lined with incredible graffiti... none of which I was able to take a photo of. The taxi driver was the nicest ever and waved us off as he drove away. The terminal is huge and took a bit of time to determine where we could get tickets to Villa de Leyva. Most companies said they had buses leaving in the afternoon... it was 9:30am. Luckily, the last ticket booth had one leaving in 6 minutes, so we rushed off to the gate and boarded our minibus... then I rushed back off again to find the loo, returning with 5 minutes of Colombian time left to go.

The first 1.5 hours of the journey we spent just trying to get out of Bogota as the minibus drove really slowly along the curb with the conductor shouting Villa de Leyva out of the window in case any passers by fancied the 4 hour trip. The bus driver offered for me to sit in the front so I could look out at the scenery, but I declined... and lucky I did. He then put on an eclectic music video for those in the back to enjoy, and we were treated to the sounds and sights of Bonnie Tyler´s Total Eclipse of the Heart. We sat and waited to see what would come on next. Better than we could have possibly hoped, on came Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do It For You). I was so excited I almost cried, whereas Alex proclaimed this the best day of her life as we enjoyed the clips of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, the greatest film ever made. The playlist then proceeded as thus:

• Colombian mariachi band
• Vengaboys (I only kiss kiss kiss when the sun don´t shine)
• Colombian music + mullet + accordian
• Shakira
• Colombian wild west theme
• Shakira
• Queen (I want to break free)
• Miscellaneous Colombian boyband x 5
• Shaggy (who happens to be playing in Bogota on Sep 20th)
• Guns n Roses
• UB40
• Much more miscellaneous Colombian music
• Britney Spears

It rained the entire way to Tunja, and after a brief stop we took a dramatic drive to Villa de Leyva along some steep mountainsides, overlooking farmland and small towns. On arrival we walked from the little bus terminal along the cobbled street to the Plaza de Mayor (which is the biggest plaza of its kind in Colombia). We were pondering over an eating place when an english speaking lady came to see if we needed help. No not really, but she did teach us the spanish for ´discount´, which we have used at most restaurants, hostels and bus stations since. We decided on a restaurant on the plaza, where I attempted the biggest plate of pasta I have ever seen, and watched some people filming a girl pretending to fly a kite. Then walked to a recommended hostel that features eclectic furniture, seven cats and a nice big garden.

We headed out to walk up to the viewpoint and after receiving directions from a guard, we managed to misinterpret them and after over an hour of walking away from the mirador we decided that we may have taken the wrong path. Still, it was a nice walk. We returned to town totally parched so went for a quick beer at some small bar on the plaza. The only people in there were 5 nice local men watching the US Open Tennis Men´s Final: Nadal vs Djokovic. We sat and watched it with them and after ensuring that Nadal won we all said goodnight and returned to the hostel to enjoy a yoghurt supper.

Day 50 - Hiking day today, but not before breakfast. So we went in search of a bakery (which everyone in Bogota told us Villa de Leyva was great for... lots of bakeries) - more scrambled eggs, bread-like crossiants, juice and coffee. We also popped by the bus station to ascertain how to get to Santa Marta tomorrow, and came away having ascertained nothing, but had a nice chat with some of the bus people. We walked on into the countryside and stopped periodically for directions (which we have learnt is a risky strategy, but the lack of maps and signage deem it necessary). We stopped at the Casa Barro, which is a really cool terracotta house that looks like a grotto. Then walked a great deal further to the Muisca Observatory - the sight where pre-hispanic populations predicted the seasons... but that´s not why we were there. We were there because Alex had read that there were a number of penis-shaped rock formations left by the muiscas, creating a rather unique landscape. We spent over an hour at the observatory... probably longer than anyone has ever spent there before.

Walking further through the arid landscape we finally emerged on the main road and stopped at a little shack where an old lady sold us cold water and chicken crisps. We sat and ate our lunch on her verandah, although I ended up giving half of mine to a very wobbly little dog. Some guys were enjoying a beer in the shack next door and one spent the entire time trying to control his gundog (named Suco it would seem). We walked on and finally saw the two blue lakes (once we had passed them), so enjoyed their view from afar while sat on a rock. We returned to town after 5 hours hiking in the sun, which means that despite 3+ applications, Miss Williams is very very sunburnt.

Later in the evening we walked through town to find that the second World Cup Qualifier for Colombia (versus Uruguay, who won) was on. We went to a restaurant in a courtyard but as we tried to order the waiter got confused, ran off, and returned with a mob of rude people who simply made things worse. They were so rude in fact, that we left without ordering and went in search of another restaurant (which wasn´t all that easy since it´s a Tuesday night and most places are shut). We found one place and formed the only two customers in the place. The poor waiter could barely prise his eyes from the football as he poured us some wine

Day 51 - Woke Alex up at 7am by poking her in the forehead, and we set off for a pre-breakfast walk up to the mirador we missed the day we arrived. The walk was actually tougher than we expected, and it took 45 strenuous minutes to reach the Jesus (and Mary) overlooking the city. The view was impressive - a perfect, white colonial town surrounded by mountains. We headed down before I reached the hanger stage and had another classic Colombian breakfast. We headed back to the hostel for a well-needed shower before a day and night of travel, only to find the shower completely absent of water pressure. I went in search of the outdoor shower, which turned out to be 3 sides of white tarpaulin and a pipe of cold water. I did my best to shower with cats and kittens coming in and out around my feet under the sides. I had just managed to wash the conditioner out of my hair when the water packed up altogether. Alex had a similar experience in a separate shower, and ended up washing in the sink.

We walked to the bus station to catch the bus to Tunja - the first leg of many to Tayrona National Park on the Caribbean coast. At Tunja we walked through the bus terminal, not entirely sure how we would secure a bus for the next leg until a female security guard asked where we were going. We said Santa Marta (city near Tayrona) and she then´responded by shouting ´Diego´ at the top of her voice. All of a sudden we were surrounded by 3+ men all talking to us at the same time. I have no idea who Diego is and still don´t. Our spanish comprehension isn´t great when only one person is talking, but if there is one thing I´ve learnt is that I trust my spanish more than I trust other people´s english... one ´english speaking´ local decided he would translate for us, saying there were no direct buses to Santa Marta (which is what we thought anyway), but a bus was leaving right now to Cienaga, which is 20 minutes from Santa Marta. He said it arrived at 18:00 and cost 1900 pesos. Really?! No, 19,000. Really?! I mean 90,000. That sounds more like it. Only once we were on the coach not really sure where we were going and when we would arrive, did we consider the distances and it was only after we asked the bus drivers a couple of hours later than we realised our aid must have meant 18 hours... arriving at 5am!

The journey was absolutely spectacular - Colombia must be the most mountainous country in the world... no wonder guerilla groups can survive here! We stopped at a services at 3pm and we bought guava jam and cheese snacks, which we´d had our eye on for a while. The bus played films until dark and the drivers even put the english subtitles on for us, wherever possible. The first film was a french one called the Intouchables, which was really good and very touching. At the end I told Alex not to look at me... I was a mess. The next film was some horrendous latino ´comedy´ full of women in low cut tops. Then ´Olympus has Fallen´, which made the children cry with its violence and unoriginal plot. Finally ´The Elite Troop` - another kid friendly number.

We made it almost as far as Bucaramanga before dark which is the far side and at the bottom of the mountains we were travelling on. Of course declining from a mountain range usually means a fairly hairy road, made worse by our drivers attitude towards overtaking (only on blind corners) and speed limits, which are for jokes. We had been led to believe that we would stop for food after Bucaramanga, but 10pm came and went and all we had left to eat were some plums from Villa de Leyva.

After a reasonable sleep spread on a double seat, one of the drivers woke me up at 5am (he took ages to find me apparently) and moved Alex and I onto another bus to Santa Marta. I don´t know how they arranged the transfer on the side of the road, but it was really nice of them to bother, meaning that we avoided being stranded at Cienaga. We also didn´t have to pay anymore (which is actually a bit of a false positive since everytime I reminded the driver he owed me 20,000 pesos in change he just laughed at me and waved his arm).