I don't know if it was my new-found friend the hammock or the four grueling hours of hiking up hill, but I slept like a baby, not waking up until the sun started to creep up over the mountains. When I was a kid my Dad had a set of nature CDs that played the sounds of the Amazon (the series was very creatively called "Nature", a true testament to the limits of human ingenuity). They got everything right with the gushing river, singing birds and chirping frogs but ...

Yes, the bus was late. But they actually called the hostel to tell us they'd be late, which was downright shocking. We've had a fantastic experience with our tour company so far. There are only four companies that do this trek so you're a little short on choice, but we played roulette and won :) This isn't our first jungle tour so we were ready for the two to four hour process of gathering everyone in the group, getting the food together, packing the Jeep, etc. ...

We both knew full well that the bus to Santa Marta would not be on time. But what if, just this once, it was? What if we finally succumbed to that casual coolness towards time and deadlines so engrained in South American life only to find that our bus came on time, left without us, and our vacation was ruined, scarring our Colombian memories for all time? At five minutes to nine we were on the street corner, sucking up car fumes and dripping in sweat. Guess what?...

Today is our last day in Cartagena before heading out for the Ciudad Perdida trek, and we took it pretty slow. We're settling into a little routine of sleep in, get a fresh juice, and aimlessly wander the Old Town. As we sipped our guanabana and lulo juices we flipped through the guide book for some ideas of what to do today. One of the top picks was the gold museum (the place we had spent an hour trying to find yesterday) so we slurped down our fruity concoction...

We woke up this morning with high hopes. Our hostel was advertising a free pancake breakfast included in the rate, and we had visions of fresh fruit, delicious Colombian coffee, and of course pancakes. Not even close. There are probably forty or fifty people staying here, and there was one girl on one stove making one pancake at a time. Literally. The coffee was pretty bad, but as it turns out that really isn't their fault; our guidebook told us most of the good ...