I love this place! What a stunning city! The people are so friendly and genuine - always saying hello but not in the sleazy way that it works in other Latin America countries. Although I was called the most beautiful girl in the world and the queen of all girls the other day (clearly by a blind man!!).

Anyway, Cartagena is renowned as a fairytale city of romance, legends and sheer beauty. It's official name is Cartagena de Indias and it's a walled city full of cobbled streets and beautifully restored balconied buildings of all different colours. In the 16th century it became the main Spanish port in the Caribbean and because treasure was stored here until it was able to be shipped back to Spain, it became a target for pirates and in that century alone, it suffered 5 major attacks, including one led by Sir Francis Drake who came with something like 20,000 men.

Even though it's an olde worlde charming city, it's clearly incredibly wealthy here with gorgeous designer boutiques (I didn't dare go in!), nice restaurants and swanky cars.

Anyway, after getting off the boat and getting our land legs back on Sunday, I got a taxi to my hotel where I was greeted by the night watchman who just gave me a room with no request for my name or any documents (just as well, as my passport had been 'confiscated'!!). Straight in the shower (cold but I didn't care!) and then I couldn't sleep for some reason despite being exhausted - I was still awake at 3am. Of course, typically I pinged awake at 7am and, after pottering around for a while, decided to hit the city for some brunch. First problem was finding an ATM and despite having a map and asking people, this proved to be the biggest challenge I'd faced in a while. Maybe it was tiredness or sheer stupidity but this was one city I couldn't get to grips with. I walked around in circles and none of the streets were where they map said they were. Maybe I should just have done the female thing and turned the map upside down! Finally got myself sorted (in terms of money but still not directions) and treated myself to a fantastic cup of Colombian coffee and a crepe.

I had to be back near the marina at 6pm where we were all meeting John, Eileen and some bloke from an 'agency' to get our passports back. Of course, they were late although 2 of the guys had walked past the port to make sure the yacht was still there so at least we knew we could go back to the boat if all else failed! They finally turned up sans said bloke who turned up 40 minutes later but with no stamps in our passports! Aaargh! John then went with him to the office. Beats me how immigration is closed on a Sunday yet this bloke could get our documents sorted at 7pm in the evening in his office. Oh well. They finally came back at 8.30pm with everything sorted although my heart skipped a beat when I couldn't find the Panama exit stamp at first! Walked back to my hotel via a little funky restaurant where I ate alone in the corner (yep, back to being the norma no mates solo traveller!).

On Tuesday I had arranged to go diving so it was an early start as I had to be at the shop by 7.30am. Well, I say I had arranged to go diving, it was actually Viv who went backwards and forwards with them to sort it out for me (one minute I was arriving on Sunday, the next on Monday and I had no way of confirming as no access to email while on the boat and to phone would have been the cost of the GDP of a small country! In any case, I only had 1 bar of reception on the first 2 days and could only achieve that while waving the phone around in the air willing the message to send!). So, thanks again Viv for sorting me out - you can be my PA any day! (Yeah right, she says!)

Anyway, I was very impressed with the dive outfit which is called Diving Planet, owned by Andres. He's Colombian, from Bogota, but very western in his way of thinking - cares about his clients and takes an interest but also very commercial. He also runs a foundation that links up struggling reefs and people with disabilities - helping them to do something they may never have thought possible and allowing them the opportunity to contribute to helping conserve the marine environment. He was very passionate about it and explained how much it helps in people's rehabilitation - boosting self-esteem and confidence, opening their eyes to new capabilities and helping them to face and overcome challenges. Brilliant.

We picked up a Swiss couple who were joining me for the dives - Stefan and Barbara. They've been on the road exactly the same time as me and then it transpired that Stefan was working at Credit Suisse - in HR in Zurich! Small world or what? He used to produce the global reports that I used to receive although I've never had any contact with him directly. We knew a lot of the same people so had a good old moan! It was good to meet someone who understands the industry I've come from and why I don't want to go back into it!

Anyway, we took a boat to the Rosario Islands about an hour away, all very professionally run, and met the dive instructors once we were there. Andres clearly chooses his staff based on looks and number of muscles so the views were pretty good!! There was a huge group diving together but as the 3 of us were more experienced, we got to go in our little group which was really nice and relaxing - finally I got to dive with some considerate people. I've had a lot of bad experiences lately with very inconsiderate people bashing me and getting in my way underwater (mainly Americans I hate to say) but we were all very similar so it was perfect. The coral was beautiful but not much life down there although we did see a few rays and some squid (my first squid - yay!) and fish of course. The 2nd dive was much better as we were on a wall. Now being so much more confident underwater, I kept wandering off to explore nooks and crannies on my own and had to keep being told to come back up as I was going too deep. It's not that long ago that I was always almost clinging onto the dive instructors in case I lost them! All good and I'm proud of myself!

On Wednesday morning I was picked up by Iris de Jesus, my guide for a walk through the old town. We were joined by an Australian guy and his Brazilian 'lady' as he kept calling her. Iris was great. He must have been well into his 70s as he came to Cartagena in 1953 before joining the Merchant Navy where he spent 25 years travelling the world. He's been a tour guide for the last 25 years here. He was wearing his panama hat and walking with a cane and his greyish hair was tucked into a little pony tail - very sweet man and he knew his stuff and was funny with it! We had a great morning wandering the streets before going up to one of the main fortresses, built to keep out the pirates! We also visited the gold museum and an emerald shop. Colombia supplies the world with 60% of its emeralds. I'm not normally an emerald fan but they were beautiful. No shopping for me though - I bought my diamond ring for myself last year so the next piece is to be bought for me!!

That evening I had arranged to meet up for dinner with Leanne who was my roommate in Honduras and Nicaragua. She had also taken a boat from Panama with her on/off/not sure what he is boyfriend, Toby, so it was great that we could connect and I was looking forward to a good old gossip over a drink or two. There ended up being 2 other people who were on a $1 a day budget (well, not quite but you know what I mean) so we ended up in a plastic-chaired, fluorescent-lit place with the usual rice and beans combo. The food was good but it wasn't quite what I had been looking forward to! Never mind, it was great to catch up with Leanne in any case and finally meet Toby after everything I'd heard!

On Thursday I was picked up to go to the Volcan de Lodo El Totumo This is like a miniature volcano - 15m high and 2,000m deep - instead of spewing out lava and ash, it spews mud, a phenomenon caused by the pressure of gases emitted by decaying organic matter underground. So there you go. Anyway, it was a bizarre and unique experience. We had to change into our swimwear on the bus and leave everything there except your camera. We climbed up some specially constructed wooden steps to the crater which was only a few metres in diameter and were suddenly confronted with a load of grey people sloshing around! My camera was taken off me for a couple of dollars. I don't know how they do it but the guys have about 20 cameras each and they know exactly which is whose and take the right photos of the right people. I gingerly stepped down into the gloop and was helped to lie down and then pushed across the other side on the surface of the mud. It was lukewarm grey mud with the consistency of thickly whipped cream. When you tried to stand up, you just suspended vertically in the stuff and were so buoyant. I'm not sure if the crater itself reaches 2,000m (I doubt it) but there was certainly no way or touching the bottom - very weird sensation. Anyway, after being pushed to the other side, I was then totally covered with the mud and massaged by a local guy chest deep in the mud, flipped over and further massaged. Was good though! He then flipped me upright where I bobbed around a bit like a weeble while trying to cycle with my legs to move - but kept falling over so I had to grab hold of people to get to the outer edge where I could cling on! Another guy then helped me squeeze myself out and up a ladder where my bikini bottoms promptly fell off. Luckily I was covered in mud! He pulled them up for me and tried to wipe off the excess mud and then sent me on my way down a precarious set of stairs. By this time it had started to rain, so the stairs were super muddy and slippery - I'm surprised nobody went flying. It was at that point that I looked down and noticed I had 2 sets of boobs as my bikini top had filled with mud and was sagging down to my waist. Aaargh! Could this day get any more undignified?! Oh yes, of course it could! I made it down to the bottom of the stairs where I then got stuck and couldn't get onto the 'road' so stood there contemplating my strategy until a random other tourist came over and offered me a hand (I clearly looked a bit distressed, even though I was covered in grey mud!). I then staggered down a dirt track (which now had rivers running down it from the torrential rain) looking like some kind of zombie, convinced it would be easier to sit on my bum and slide. Made it to the lake where I was accosted by a little old woman and shoved in the lake where she tried to drown me with buckets of muddy water. Before I knew it, she had whipped off my bikini top and then demanded the bottoms! Luckily the water was deep enough and muddy enough to hide what it needed to! Staggered back up the dirt track (getting really quite muddy again!) to find that our bus had driven up the road (which was now a river) as otherwise it would get stuck so had to pick my way up to it, by which time I may as well not have bothered getting into the lake! Anyway, it was great fun and a good experience that I'm not sure you can get elsewhere.

We stopped at a seaside restaurant for lunch which I'm sure is normally stunning but it was monsoon rain so you could hardly see 10 metres. Then the storm started. I don't think I've ever heard such loud claps of thunder. We were then supposed to be going off to do a canoe tour of some mangroves but they said it was too dangerous in the storm so we aborted the plan and came back to the city where I hibernated for the rest of the afternoon before sneaking out for a takeaway pizza!

Friday ended up being quite a nice day. I was booked onto a trip to the Rosario Islands which are 27 small coral islands forming a national park, an hour's boat ride away from, Cartagena. It was basically a day of relaxing on the beach which I wouldn't normally do but as it was booked and paid for as part of my trip, I thought it would do me good to do nothing for the day. On the way I got chatting to Melissa and Daniel from the US who were very nice. I spent the morning lazing on a sun lounger reading trashy magazines and working on my lobster look and then met up with them for lunch which was fantastic. I had a delicious seafood soup. Oh, and that was after 2 cups of ceviche that they served us on the beach - I'msearching for the best ceviche in Latin America as it has now become one of my favourite foods - this one came close I reckon!

Got back to Cartagena where Melissa and Dan invited me to join them for dinner so I met them later on in the Sofitel (best hotel in the city - very swanky - I remember those days, sigh….). I needed to catch up as they were already on the cocktails so had an amazing strawberry daiquiri before we wandered across the road to a place specialising in ceviche where we had a delicious combo plus a weird (but it worked) hot shrimp ceviche which looked like macaroni cheese! Oh, and some dodgy wine that I insisted on finishing, classy chick that I am. They paid for dinner which was very generous of them ( although it made me feel bad) and then we went back to the Sofitel bar where there was a Cuban band playing who had earlier in the evening been playing the theme tune to 'Inspector Gadget'. More drinks (with Dan having a very girly pink cocktail - sorry, I had to mention it!) before calling it a night. I had a wonderful evening and it cost me nothing. Thank you so much guys - you made my day and evening much more interesting and exciting than it otherwise would have been and I appreciate it! I've met so many weird people on my trip that it's always refreshing to meet such kind and genuine people like yourselves!

Well, that's it for Cartagena. I'll be sad to leave and I would love to come back (it's being added to that list). The only thing I'm not sad to leave is my resident mosquito which have I have endeavoured to catch and crush to death every day since getting here but failed. In return, he has eaten me alive every night and is now 10 times his former self with a big grin on his face.

I've been very impressed with what I've seen and experienced in Colombia so far - very civilized, super organised and efficient and very helpful, friendly and patient people, who at the same time are very commercially minded - none of which I was expecting to find here. I've also felt very safe, even wandering alone at night - often through streets full of hookers! The only thing I haven't experienced (which is a good thing!) is anyone offering me any substances. I presume it's because they know what/who they're looking for and I look so straight and innocent that there's no point.

I'm looking forward to exploring more of this great country.