It's 11pm and the three of us find ourselves stranded under a bridge on a highway in Colombia's fourth largest city, Barranquilla.

We do not want to be here, it's not very nice. We want to be in beautiful Cartagena, the walled colonial port city on the Caribbean coast.

But half way through our three hour journey, our 'taxi' driver and his other 'passenger' have told us to get out of his Sedan and change into a larger car. Given the hour and this less than charming roadside location, we are pretty reluctant.

The punter at the beach who sold us the taxi tickets did not mention any half way vehicle switch. And at the beginning of the trip the driver told us we were all going directly to Cartagena and we should get there around midnight.

But now he is telling us that his tyre suddenly has a puncture. Nick checks the tyre. It's definitely not flat.

The driver and the other passenger (who is behaving more and more like his girlfriend) eventually persuade us it's safe to move and that all five of us will continue our journey to Cartagena together.

Sceptically we agree and move our bags into the bigger car. The girlfriend gets into the front seat and sits there for a while, checking her phone. The driver has disappeared in his black car into the night and doesn't return. After about 10 minutes while the three of us are not paying attention, she too absconds without warning. To be more accurate, she runs away from the car.

We realised we have been lied to and are now sitting in a public minibus. We now have to wait for this thing to fill up before we continue on to Cartagena. Who knows how long that's going to take.

Vic is especially annoyed since he bought two packets of crisps at the petrol station and gave one packet to the driver and his girlfriend as gesture of goodwill.

Nick pulls out the business card from the punter on the beach to see if we can at least call him to make a noise:

"Jorge Martinez Touristic Services

For taxi trip, boat trip, jungle tour, souvenirs and "supplier of all other special tourist products of colombia".

This makes us laugh. Plus we are all still alive, unharmed and we have all our possessions. And what's the rush to get to Cartagena anyway? We're on holiday.