My friend Paula along with her boyfriend, Daniel, collect me from the airport. I have heard so many scary things about taxi`s in Bogota that I am happy to have a friend in the city. They take me to my hostel, La Pinta, where I settle in for the night. I see some people in the hostel bar so I drop my bag in my dorm and head down to join them. I meet a couple of people including Gareth (a Welsh guy who has been travelling around the world for over 2 years ), an American guy called George and a Scottish guy called Mike. The following morning I head into Downtown for a look around. I catch one of the local buses which is a real eye opener. There are street vendors selling things from sweets to chains and entertainers reading from the bible or rapping. I, of course, stick out like a sore thumb and think its best to keep my head down and look as casual as possible. That night I go out for a burger and some beers with my hostel buddies. We head to Zona T which is a very safe and popular area full of restaurants and nigthclubs. Saturday night I go out with Paula and her friends to the famous Andres Carne de Res. Its absolutely amazing. I loved it. Theres only one word that can describe it - crazy. Anyone visiting bogota HAS to go. Its unlike any othe place on earth. The following morning i had an early flight so I ate plenty and kept my drinking to a minimum.

The following day I flew to Cartagena to spend a week studying Spanish. Cartagena is extremely hot and humid but a truly beautiful and romantic city. It has a large Caribbean influance which is seen and felt throughout the entire city. In the morning its busy with street vendors, markets traders, people selling fresh fruit and juices. By lunch time its quiet. People are hiding in their air conditioned homes away from the heat and then by the evening the city springs into life again. There is a large wall built to protect the city which makes for a great walk as the sun is setting. You can grab a beer from one of the many locals selling them or pull up and chair and sip on a cocktail at the great Cafe del Mar. I had heard it was very touristy, but there wasnt as many as I´d expected. After spending a couple of nights in a hostel I move in with a Colombian family for the rest of the week organised by the Spainsh school. I live with a lady called Suzie her son and a girl from NYC who is also studying Spanish. I also meet some really nice people on the Spanish course that I hang out with for the week.

I was killing time until Tomas flew out to join me so I took myself off to San Andres (the colombian Caribbean island) for a few days. I stay in a hostel and share a dorm with a lovely lady from Bogota called Marta. She cant speak a work of English and I cant speak Spanish but that doesnt stop us going to the beach and going shopping together. We meet an Australian guy who speaks a little Spanish so we begin communicating through him.

I decide to go to Bogota and meet Tomas as a surprise. He´s expecting to meet me in Cartagena

After spending 2 nights in Cartagena we made our way along the coast in the direction of Venezuela to a town called Santa Marta. We stayed in a very nice hostel called Playa del Ritmo which was owned by some friends from Bogota who gave up city life to run their own business. It was right on the beach and just far enough from town. Santa Marta its self is a pretty miserable place. Lonely Planet describes it as a place where Colombians holiday but that surely cant be true. The city is big, congested and dirty. The beach is horrible and also dirty. You couldnt want to swim in the sea as there are many boats either packed there or rusting away. The biggest draw for this city is the nearby ancient ruins. From Santa Marta you can do the 4 day trek to the Lost City. A less well known achient city - the Colombian Machu Picchu. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and to top it off my useless knee gave up on me and I had to ride a bloody mule out of the jungle. On the second to last day of the hike a 2 hour walk took me, tomas and one of the guides over 5 hours because I couldnt go faster than a snail. We arrived at the camp soaked to the bone and in complete darkness. I have never been so happy to see a cold outdoor shower and bed bug bed in my life.

Once out of the jungle we took our first long distancee bus. 12 hours to Medellin. The first 11 hours were fine, it was freezing cold but we managed to sleep. The last hour was on very windy roads which made me very sick. Aiming in to a tiny dirty toilet while the bus is moving around mountains was very difficult! We spent just 4 days in Medellin. The hostel we stayed in, Black Sheep, was realllly nice and the guy who owns it was great. He is a Kiwi guy who speaks perfect Spanish. There wasnt much to see and do in Medellin so we got some tattoos and moved onto the coffee region for a couple of nights. It was raining while we were there so we didnt do as much outdoor stuff as we wanted but we did the obligatory coffee plantation tour. We had heard about some nice hot springs in a town on the way back to Medellin so we decide to pay them a visit. We book into a hostel called Coffee Town in Santa Rosa and the following day pay a visit to the the hot springs. Well nice is far from how we would describe them. A bunch of hairy, fat and sweaty hairy people bobbing around some artificial pool. YUCK!!!!!!!! I managed to put half my body in before freaking out and getting out. Tomas handled it a bit better and lasted at least a full minute. It was a complete waste of time and money going there. Anybody visiting Santa Rose, do not go there!!!!!!!

We returned to Medellin and the following day caught a bus to Guatape which has an extemely large rock surrounded by an artificial lake. It became very famous when Pablo Escabar bought a house there which was later blown up my the Colombian police. You can take a boat ride to what is left of the house which we thought we were doing! But our stupid boat tour didnt go anywhere near it. We were gutted!!! The rain wouldnt stop so we jumped on a bus and returned to Medellin for our early morning flight to Quito.

That was the end of Colombia. It has been a fabulous 4 weeks and a great beginning to our South American Tour.