Our flight from Colombia into Brazil was somehow cheaper to fly via San Andres with a 4 hour stopover and then to Panama City with a 2 hour stopover before heading into Manaus, Brazil. FOUR hours on a Caribbean paradise island...waiting lounge on the beach! So as we're speeding out of arrivals dodging the slow poke people with snorkel and googles in hand I notice our luggage on the carousel. WAIT! I stopped in mid skip, snorkel in the air...In addition I think ...

Bogota is really like the New York of South America. As we arrived over the Easter public holidays many of the stores were closed but this meant downtown roads were cordoned off to traffic and the streets were filled with teenage wannabe gangs, baby brats, dog walkers and bike riders milling about. There was everything available from llama rides, jugglers, chicks and bunnies for sale, food, helium balloons and cellphone chargers - it was like a visit to the circu...

We decided to bus it from the Colombian border to Cartegena! As per the advice given we travelled the south of Colombia by day up to Cali (this is due to continuing threats of kidnappings and hold ups by the guerillas), then hopped on an overnight bus to Medellin. The trip was 21 hours! At Medellin we decided to take a break and view the city before catching another 13 hour overnight bus to Cartagena. We really enjoyed Medellin, it was a modern city with an effic...