'Panama, s***, I'm still only in Panama' I thought as I woke up my second day here and looked out my hotel window looking out over the city and saw a helicopter landing on the roof opposite. Our hotel room, littered with beer cans and flooded thanks to some faulty plumbing in the bathroom, slightly resembled Martin Sheen's in Apocalypse Now, short of broken glass and blood stains. On the taxi from the airport to the city, I was greeting with billboards inviting ...

Here ends the South American part of my trip before I hit central accompanied by Duncan, but it would have been hard to end on a better note. As a city Cartagena has a lot to offer; the forts and colonial buildings in the historic center are great to explore though just outside this area is bustling caribbean style markets. And of course a few nights of revelry were involved in the mix. We got into a bit of a routine here. As Cartagena is also very popular with ...

After only a few minutes of arriving at my hostel in Bogota, I was greeted by some guys that I knew from Medelling carrying large quantities of drink. From here the weekend proceeded as can be expected. The first night we went on search of a phantom nightclub, by the name of aha or something equally unpronunable, led by one of the owners of the hostel who didn´t seem to have much of a clue what she was doing. Thankfully the next night was a lot better. Thi...

I am definitely not used to the friendly Colombian spirit. When I arrived at the bus station in Medellin and had five policemen walking me around the bus station, I wasn´t feeling too comfortable. What it turned out they were doing was finding directions for my hostel for me to tell a taxi driver where to take me. They even negotiated a price for the taxi and didn´t even expect a tip in return. My plans for taking more Spanish lessons have fallen flat...

I can rest easy now I know why Cali was so quiet; it was a five day weekend in Colombia and most people left the city for the country and the small town of Salento. The town, with it´s colourful buildings, horses roaming the streets and old western style saloons seems like something out of a Garcia Marquez book. As the main hostel was full, I checked in to a small guesthouse run by an old woman with many cats. Probably being the first visitor in ages, she ...