Cartagena, Colombia.

The reason for putting ourselves through such a grueling journey in such a short space of time had been to reach Cartegena on the caribean coast of Colombia. We had a flight booked for the 14th May from Quito to San Jose (Costa Rica) and decided we would tavel from Solento Valley all the way the Cartegena via Cali and then break up the journey at various stops on the way back down.

The city of Cartegena was the main highlight of Colombia. The buildings were colourful, the sun was shining, and there were fruit stalls everywhere. The main tourist attraction is the old town, which is surounded by fortified walls which were built after an attack in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake and for future protection from Pirate raids.

We had reached Cartegena on the 24th April a day before Jo´s birthday and for her birthday went for a dip in the mud Volcano. This was probably one of those things you would do once, but never again. It was definately an experience but a very weird one. We got some good pictures, and there is a video somewhere on the blog.

Half way through Colombia we had realised just how little fun getting a bus back down to Quito (Equador) for our flight to San Jose (Costa Rica) on the 14th May would be. After the very accurate way of looking at the map and seeing Costa Rica only a thumb print or two away from Cartagena, we had decided to cancel our flight and try sailing to Panama and travelling through to Costa Rica.

We found out that there are no such ferry services doing this route but yacht owners take backpackers for a fee. After searching the web and hearing many horror stories mainly involving over crowding on the boats and pissed/stoned captains we found a few recomendations.