Scuba-diving in Colombia...and other bits so far

Colombia is an amazing country. The people are some of the friendliest we have met so far, even though their Spanish is much more harder to understand as they speak very fast and in a bit of a mumble. The landscape is unbelievably green and lush too. After Cali we stopped off in the coffee region called Zona Cafetera. Our hostel, Mona Lisa, was located 40-minutes out of Manizalles and was more like a litle villa rather than a hostel as we had it all to ourselves. Our group of 8, including our Scottish mate Johnno, was big enough to make our own fiestas. The hostel featured a cute little kitchen which we cooked up some great meals in, plus a lovely pool, which I later realised turned my blonde hair green for a while thanks to the over-chlorination! During our stay here we visited a coffee plantation for a nice local cuppa and went for a huge hike to a nearby waterfall with a 20-metre drop. The hostel guy who led us here then said "now you jump", followed by a laugh. So after John led the way a few of us followed. One of the scariest things I have ever done in my life!!! According to the crew, I let out 3 screams in the short time I free-fell into the water! And then a massive rush of water went up the backside...Em said she felt like she'd been hiot by a truck!

After Zona Cafetera we chilled with Pablo Escobar's old homies in Medellin for 3 nights. We took this awesome tour around the city of the places where he was shot, etc., which was awesome. Medellin was basically one big party, so by the time we got to Taganga, our first stop on the Caribbean coast, we were ready for some chill-out time.

Taganga is a cute fishing village which offers great-value scuba-diving adventures and courses, and is used as a base to explore the stunning national park, Parque Tayrona. Four of us were keen to get our dive licenses. We organised it with Calypso dive who run NAUI courses in the actual national park as part of a diving safari tour. It cost us 530,000 pesos, 315AUD, which was so cheap. We headed into the park afer 2 days in Taganga and it was amazing. Turquoise water, fresh fish for lunch, two dives a day in beautiful sites with amazing marine life and aleepign in hammocks. I'm calling it one of the best experiences of my life so far!!! We went further into the park after here and stayed two more nighs at Cabo San Juan Del Guia, where more perfect water, coconut palm trees and huge big boulders awaited.

Our final stop before we left South America was Cartagena, which is known as the most romantic city in South America. The city boasts an Old Town precinct with colourful Spanish-colonial architecture, narrow streets, clock towers and amazing restaurants. It's stunning and was a great way to end the first part of our travels.

We are now in Panama, leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow. More updates on Panama later, cos this is way too long already.

Love you all. xxx