The turtles stood me up for the second night- we had tried to confirm it was happening without much luck apart from someone saying they didn't think it was turtle season. So I went to bed not planning to get up but as always, I then woke every 20 minutes looking at the time and at 12.30 decided it would be very embarrassing if the ranger DID turn up and I was in bed. After all, Viva the guide had said it was confirmed before she left on Saturday.

If I was in in the UK, it would be a matter of putting some trainers on and going out in my onesie at 01.00am in the morning. This being the tropics, you have to get properly dressed, put contact lenses in as glasses steam up and then drown yourself all over in DEET. Only to find unsurprisingly that no-one turns up to collect you. I was disappointed in the other three's lack of turtle solidarity who were never going in the first place and had no intention of getting up in the middle of the night to keep me company. After an hour I decided my only options were to go by myself or go back to bed and as there are scary noises out there I went back to bed.

It is much drier in the north and on the way to Cartegena, we passed miles of fishing villages which were just like West Africa - shanty tin shacks, mountains of rubbish, stagnant water everywhere and pigs wandering around. The national swamp was on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other with a road practically in the sea between the two - a bit like Slapton Sands where I'm doing my bird ringing course next year woohoo! Mangrove swamps led us into Cartagena - if I thought Tayrona was humid, this is like having your own personal steam room set on maximum for 24 hours. We arrived to flooded streets as they had just had a huge hailstorm. God knows that was all about.

We slithered out of the hotel and onto some horse and carriages to have a look round the town. The place is stunning- like Palma old town with huge stone churches and balconies with little squares of palm trees and bougainvillea. Cartagena is an island (I think, I may have that wrong though), and the town is surrounded by old walls looking out to the Caribbean Sea with pelicans diving. We are here for 3 days if we survive the humidity. If you're wondering why I only have a picture of the fruit ladies backsides, it's because I thought it would be a bit like an American taking a photo of a Beefeater in London so snobbishly decided against it.