You may have noticed that my photos have suddenly got a bit better. This is because Jeff here is a photographer so every plaza, coffee plantation, strange person and mountain sees us all crawling about on the floor to take a photo. As Lisa says, as soon as you see Jeff taking a picture you need to see what he's doing, so this finds him peacefully doing his thing one minute and being rushed by us like a bunch of Japanese tourists the next.

We were a bit late setting off yesterday as they were cementing the runway. We then had an hours drive on tiny pot-holed roads through thick bamboo plantations to the place we are staying. In the dark it looked like we are staying in a tennis court - high chain mail fences with barbed wire surrounding us, with the main hotel up the lane which the security guard has to unlock for you to be let in. Not sure why, maybe the coffee gringos or chirruping crickets are really cafetiere-wielding mass murderers.

It looked a lot better this morning. I was woken up with a blast of hoots and tweets and trills, opened the big wooden shutters and saw lines and lines of coffee bushes. There were yellow birds and birds with blue heads, large black vultures and little green parrots. After breakfasting on arepas ( this time like pitta bread) and scrambled eggs we drove down tiny lanes with overhanging bamboo and arrived at a sleepy little town called Salento. Here there is the typical main square with cobbled streets leading off it where men in Stetsons and ponchos sit drinking coffee and chatting.

30 minutes on and we arrived at the Valley of palm trees which the wax of the trunks is used to waterproof houses. There was every shade of green you can imagine with tall, skinny palm trees dotted about on the hills. It was also full of huge black and yellow wasps which apparently eat tarantulas and scorpions but won't sting humans. I know that old chestnut - oh wasps don't sting this month. Pah, I'm not THAT gullible.

After a bit of a walk and a gorgeous dinner overlooking the valley we went on to another typical Colombian town where there is more industry and life- not so perfect, which I preferred. Still had all the brightly coloured houses with balconies and coffee shops. Tomorrow we go visiting the coffee plantations. I have got away with it today and had chocolate and orange tea instead!