Before heading onward to Medellin we had decided on a farewell dalliance in Bogota, the Colombian capital. Once considered a good place to avoid, Bogota is now relatively safe and brimming with culture. Not that we saw much of it - we spent the weekend either in bed or in the student bar which was basically the nearest bar to the hostel. Though we did visit the Pablo Escobar museum. Which was good.

After the weekend it was goodbye to Kev and Claire, they were headed upward to the Caribbean coast and I en route to Medellin via the stunning Zona Cafetera countryside. Having set aside this time for some studying and relaxing, I was truly gobsmacked upon arrival as I quickly learnt that the town's annual festival was about to kick off!

The Fiera de las Flores is for a week or so (I arrived on a monday - five days to go) and sounds harmless enough - the flower festival. While this might conjur up images of Kew Gardens and gentlefolk in Chelsea the festival is in fact a no holds barred, week long knees up that is a whole year in the making. Every night there was free music, cheap beer and the friendliest locals this side of the river. River Hudson, that is. The climax was the Desfile de Silleteros which featured hundreds of farmers from the surrounding countryside parading through the city's streets with their backs laden with elaborate flower arrangements. Whilst low flying helicopters threw fowers from their doors, much to the hundred thousand or so spectators delight. Madness!

Medellin itself - a super brash city stocked to the brim with elaborate public works projets, even more elaborate private projects and more skin tight jeans and plastic breasts than you can shake a scalpel at - and that's just the men! After the first week of craziness it was time to buckle down to a week of Spanish lessons, in a school conviently located on the other side of the hostel's garden wall. Met some lovely people, took some salsa lessons, yet failed to deploy my new salsa skills at the salsatec....probably because my new salsa skills didn't exist. So all in all Medellin was excellent....onward to the Carribean coast!