About a 6 hour mini bus journey from Cartagena lies Taganga, a small charming fishing village. It has a Mediterranean feel to it with unpaved roads, a small beach and being set at the side of a mountain. Despite all this Taganga is remarkable in that it is not very photogenic. The heat in the village is unrelenting, it seemed at times like the village spent the entire day in siesta.

Taganga has possibly the cheapest scuba diving in the World at $45 for 2 dives. Craig went for it, the diving was ok, certainly not the worst of our trip. The water was warm with a bit of coral, some crustaceans, moray eels and reef fish, the visibility was ok too. It was just Craig and the divemaster on the dives so it was really relaxing and possible to look at what we wanted.

We had 2 options while here, either to take 6 days and hike to the lost city and back or to spend a couple of days at Tayrona National Park. Whichever we did would be over Gemma´s birthday so careful consideration was needed.

We of course, opted for the Tayrona National Park, which is a beautifully forested area set between hills and the sea. There are spectacular beaches, rock formations and walks and the park has numerous campsites. The National Park is secluded, the campsite we stayed at (Cabo San Juan) is a 3 hour walk from the park entrance with no vehicular access.

We spent our time in the park climbing 1000m to a small lost city in the hills, walking on the sandy beach and swimming in the rather chilly sea. For some reason the hill attract clouds and therefore the sun shone infrequently, which was in stark contrast to the climate a few miles away in Taganga. We slept one night in a tent and the other night in the open in hammocks set up on a rocky outcrop set into the sea. Things were rudimentary, lights out at the camp occurred around 9.30pm shortly after the only shop selling beer and the restaurant would close. Consequently there was little partying and no fancy meal for Gemma's birthday, but she enjoyed it nevertheless.