All aboard the puke bus to Bogota

The morning after my fun jaunt through the death zone of Medellin was finally time to move on – to Manizales, coffee capital of Colombia. But not before finally meeting the Aussie guy also on a homestay across the street – the one the girls were doing...

Slumming it in Medellin

My last day in Medellin started off well – my visa got sorted in five minutes and then I went for a wandering Spanish lesson in which my teacher Jorge and I walked around town and ate a huge lunch. Then he had to go teach another class and I had a task to attend...

In which I get really drunk in Medellin

I’m now four/five days into my homestay and Saturday night was a great turning point with my family – we got plastered together, Colombia style. But my story begins a few hours earlier, when I shunned Spanish lessons in favour of taking a day trip to Gautape, a...

Expanding my waistline in Taganga

After cramming more exercise into five days than I have in my entire life, I just wanted to lay my butt down on a beach and eat lots of food for a couple of days – so that’s exactly what I did. We got back to Santa Marta on the Friday night, I slept like a baby...

Carnaval in Colombia

So the day after getting back from Cabo de la Vela (which I promised to continue – basically we had a bad journey back, being ripped off and arguing with taxi drivers a lot), we went to Laura’s cousin’s apartment in Barranquilla, a swanky place in a...
Further off the beaten path in Colombia…

Further off the beaten path in Colombia…

After Cartagena Laura and I went off the beaten path (even more so than just being in Colombia…) to a place called Punta Gallinas. The Lonely Planet describes it as being near impossible to reach without being on an organised tour that costs $350 (for 3 days!), and...

Panama

A retrospective post about Panama, as things have been such a whirlwind that I’ve blasted through to Colombia and been too excited about this amazing country that I just want to write about here. But Panama was really gorgeous. The landscape up north was similar to...