I have had my blog hacked into by advertisers so haven't been able to write the last 3 days of my trip. The last day at Cartagena was a dull morning of monasteries and fort visits - not my kind of thing but I gritted my teeth. We started misbehaving in the monastery by taking photos of us draped around a well rather than listening to Jesus business and were swiftly reprimanded by the guide with a loud ' Come along girls!!! '. There was nothing very exciting up there except a good view of the town and a display of silver legs and arms. Apparently if someone is cured by Jesus or Mary or whoever, they bring along a silver replica of the cured area and it goes in a cabinet. There were lots of legs, a few arms, a few little silver people which I assume were children and a couple of hearts. No other internal organs that I could see. There was a statue of that legless fraud outside the fort - obviously HE hadn't prayed hard enough.

The boredom was dulled by a visit to a hotel in the old town centre ( rather than the ****** red light / backpacker district we are in) with a beautiful courtyard. 3 of us enjoyed a bottle of wine and lunch sitting watching the world go by. I was full of good intentions of then going walking around the old town but a huge thunderstorm and torrential rain overhead plus almost complete darkness, gave me the perfect excuse to go back with Gill and Lisa and sleep the wine off. The thunder was so loud it went straight through us and we sat under the stone arches trembling. The only thing for it was to order more wine and watch the electric cables and sockets of the fans disappearing in all the puddles and streams. Eventually getting a taxi, we went through flooded streets, with a taxi driver who concentrated on his sudoku all the way. For those who remember me being pulled from my car window after driving into a flood so deep my car floated, I was very impressed with my being able to keep it together.

We got back to Bogota and our last meal saw us off in a taxi for a meal. He went in exactly the opposite direction, up the hill, juddered past the monastery, back past the hotel, lurching up another hill, then stopped to ask someone. He then did a 15 point turn in the only area of the empty street where two students were sitting on the kerb. So as well as scraping the back of the car every time he reversed, he nearly knocked them down as well. Off we went again, only for him to ask at a little shop and scraped all the car again. We eventually got into La Candelaria and got stuck in the middle of two opposing demonstrations who were walking up the street where he had the uncanny knack of nearly knocked a girl over yet again. Her friend had to pull her from the bumper.

So an eventful end to the trip which was compounded by Gill asking a plain clothes policeman where the nearest shopping centre was while he was on a stake out. Hundreds of police and plain clothes stormed past so she never did get her answer which was a bit annoying.

Next trip is a very civilised Dubai to stay with the gorgeous Jacque, so we will do the blog together!