Andrea: After squeezing 4 days worth of clothes from our main backpacks into our daypacks (granted, it was only a bathing suit, 1 pair if shorts and 2 shirts each), we were off to the beautiful Tayrona Park. Our first stop was the supermarket in Santa Marta the morning we left. Scouring the aisles for the cheapest meal options that would last 3 nights and not be too heavy to carry, we settled on peanuts, cookies, 1 loaf of bread, jam in a bag, 4 oranges, 6 apples...

Vern: We got had. We arrived at Cartagena bus terminal and a man came over to us advertising a direct bus to the port town of Santa Marta (from where we were to connect to a little beach village, Taganga, where we'd be spending the night). We followed him to the bus across the road from the bus station (alarm bell one) and then haggled with the ticket-issuer until agreeing on a fair price. We stowed our backpacks and boarded the bus, then noticed we hadn't been g...

Vern: Our two days in the walled city of Cartagena were very relaxed. In the mornings we hit the beach, in the afternoon we wandered through the winding streets of the beautifully preserved Old Town, and in the evening, while enjoying the dish of the day, we were waited on by Tiger Woods. Or at least a young man who looked uncannily like him. The temperature stayed at 30-degrees celsius and dropped only marginally lower at night. The beach, outside of the Old To...

Vern: This is probably the most wholesome piece of text you'll ever read about Bogotá. No kidnappings, no paramilitary coups, no guitar-cases falling open to reveal RPGs and no cocaine. In fact, the most shocking thing you'll come to read about involves hot chocolate. The government has done a lot to secure the city and armed police are on most corners, however the parliamentary buildings do not welcome visitors and the south of the city is out of bounds unless...

Vern: On our first full day in Salento, we prepared and ate our granola in the outdoor kitchen, then donned some rubber Wellington boots and hiked into town. A row of colourfully painted vintage jeeps were lined up on one side of the town square and in the centre of the square stood a life-size bronze statue of South America's great liberator, Simon Bolivar. Andrea roughy translated the plaque beneath the statue to read "Simon Bolivar marched into Salento on 12 ...