Cartagena, Colombia

We had 2 full days to enjoy the city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. The city was founded in 1533 and since then has been the major port in the export of gold, silver and emeralds from Colombia back to Spain and the import of slaves from Africa. With so much money in the city it was invaded by pirates so many times that it was decided to defend Cartagena by building a couple of big forts and surrounding the city with walls. The city is a World Heritage site so it remains very pretty to walk around with the coloured buildings with balconies. Most of the buildings are actually restaurants or boutique hotels. If you poke your nose thorough the entrance to the hotels you can see how they have refurbed the inside so they are multi-stored with court yards and the outside still looks like the originally 2 story building. We had a morning tour around the city with an excellent guide who explained all the history and this gave us an afternoon to explore ourselves without getting too lost.

The following day myself, Tony, Francois, Pete and Kirsten booked a trip to dive off the Rosario islands off the Cartagena coast. The boat ride to and from the islands was great fun due to the choppy nature of the sea and the diving was fantastic. Me and Kirsten havn't dived for while so we where nervous that we would have to do a refresher course which involves all the skills but we didn't have to and we comfortably dived to have look at a ship wreck and also a huge wall of coral. The highlights where definitely the moray eel and the big lion fish.

Since Cartagena we have headed south and bush camped at the side of a road last night in a friendly families garden which was more like a rubble pit. They where very kind and let us camp for free (of course we gave them a donation) which was very welcome as we where on a mountain pass after dark and we hadn't found any other accommodation. Since the border all the locals and police have been very friendly, giving us waves and cheers as we have passed. We are currently in Medellin over the Easter weekend. It's very busy proper Colombian city so ill be back to let you know how I get on!