Once all 8 of us were ready it was time to clamber into a jeep in a very crampt manner and start to get to know each other. There were 3 French people, Lionel, Stouph and Maria, Carl (German), Ruth (English), Arjen (Dutch), Luke and I. Unfortunately, the hangovers Luke and I were suffering from meant that conversation was a little difficult and limited so perhaps we did not come across as friendly as we had intended. I think this is certainly safe to say when I...

Upon arrival in Santa Maria we could tell it was going to be hot, despite being the evening when we arrived you could feel the heat. We got a taxi through town to our hostel and had a few beers at the bar before chilling on the rooftop and passing out to enjoy a very deep and long sleep. Next morning we extended the sleep with a lie in, but once awakened we went for a stroll through town to the beach and along the waterfront. We also went to the busier streets i...

We arrived in Bogota early in the morning and got a taxi to our hostel in La Candeleria which is the old part of town. On the way there we saw a naked lady in the street standing outside a hostel, which was very odd for 6.30am on a Sunday morning. At the hostel we had to wait until midday to check in so we wasted some time chatting and drinking coffee until 10am when we had signed up for the bike tour around the city. Just after 10am we were led to the bike sto...

Mathilde and I arrived in Medellin around 7am and I soon found Harriet in her dorm. We had a very hushed welcome as we tried not to wake everyone up before having a good old chinwag over coffee. It was good to see a familiar face again after so long. It was also a reunion with Jonathon and Luke, my travel companions prior to the Galapagos trip so was good to have so many people under one roof. Luke was not semi-local and told us that we should head up the cable ...

Having been caught up at the border for 20 minutes because they thought my passport was a fake we managed to catch a bus to Cali. This bus journey was meant to be the most dangerous one of the trip and fortunately it passed without incident. Mathilde and I chatted rubbish all day and rocked up in Cali around midnight on a Sunday night. Having been on a bus all day we were keen to get out and about despite the time so had a quick shower and took a cab to anywhere ...