On Thursday we headed out of Colombia on a freezing cold bus to Venezuela, which probably more than any other country so far really was a bit if an unknown. It is far less visited than the other major countries in South America, and coupled with what we knew about there being a parallel market for exchanging US dollars we kinda got the feeling that it wasn't gonna be easy travelling through.We arrived in Caracas around 6am, having strangely only passed through a...

We got dropped off at the National Park entrance by our slightly crazy chauffeur Jose where I had to pay 5 times what the girls did just for being that little bit older! And then started our mini adventure and easily the stupidest thing we have done yet - we ended up trekking for almost 2 hours BAREFOOT through the sodden jungle!With Jose now acting as an impromptu guide we tried to plot out way through the 'path' which had turned to inches deep of mud and sludg...

The bus ride to Taganga where we were planning on spending a few days chilling out by the beach was supposed to only take 4 hours, cost 25,000 pesos and be dead straightforward and relaxed, but in what is probably the first time we have felt properly ripped off we had to pay 35,000, change busses half way through a 5 hour trip sat next to a shifty looking character in a seat that was broken, and then get dropped off in the searing heat in the wrong place which le...

Grateful for the stopover in Medellin, we arrived in Cartagena with me believing we were due some good karma and hoping for a nice time as my last visit here was somewhat tainted by a couple of bad experiences. Thankfully the overnight bus had been pretty good and we checked in to a really cool new hostel which was set in a tastefully restored old colonial building, and which had it's own pool and roof top terrace from which you could see the entrance to the old...

We set off on Sunday morning on what really was a mini-adventure. Despite trying for ages and looking at a variety of options, flight times and prices had forced our arm, and together with us wanting to avoid doing a particular stretch of road from the border with Ecuador up to Cali in the dark (bandits have regularly hijaked busses along this route!) we had made our bleary-eyed decision to just get up and go for it. Although we were definately shooting a littl...