The start of the Gringo Trail

As Twylad sailed into the mouth of Cartegena harbour with only 1ft of water to spare under her keel from the century's old under-sea wall built to repel those dastardly Brits, everyone on board was sad in their own ways as the adventure was newly over. After waiting on the boat for some dodgy visa dealings (which would come back to haunt me later on) we left Twylad for the last time to set foot on South American soil.

The city itself is one of the most developed in the whole of Colombia as it if one of the major resorts for Colombian tourism. And this was a major difference you would see for the rest of the country, the amount of locals travelling throughout the country is far more than ever seen in the whole of central America.
Cartegena itself has been quite a highly contested piece of real estate for many centuries, as can be seen from the 100+ forts that line the coast and give the fortified city its character.

Most amusing is reading about the history of the place in the informative naval museum, where we learn that Sir Francis Drake wasn´t the brave heroic adventurer we were taught in British history classes at school, but a pillaging pirate determined to destroy the peaceful Spanish way of life (that they had created after a fair amount of pillaging themselves). Oh the two sides to history...
Just outside the city is one of the greatest hangover cures known to man in the rather strange form of a mud volcano.

I´ve never really been one for spa breaks, but this was incredible. Try as you might you just couldn´t sink below shoulder level, not that you would want to with all the mud massages and scrubs available on the surface.

A few hours along the coast is the ´beach resort´ of Santa Marta, although it is hard to see the attraction with the biggest container port in Colombia at the end of the beach. However just a 15 minute hop over the hill is a completely different matter, the beautiful coved town of Taganga surrounded by mountains that make it look like something out of Captain Corelli´s Mandolin.

With one of the nicest hostels so far perched half way up the hill, perfect for chilling in a hammock on the patio watching the sunset

and enjoying one of the very fine sandwiches from down the road (I think I tried pretty much the whole menu, and they even deliver for only 200m away).
The town itself has been converted into a little Israeli Butlins, with most of the signs and menu´s written in Hebrew (not quite sure why they can´t learn Spanish like the rest of us); a despite some really nice diving nearby

the shops themselves are a little cowboy, churning out ´advanced´ divers without them even having opened the theory book.

Further along the coast you get to the Tayrona national park, made famous by the book Gringo Trail where
after treking through the jungle for a few hours (allbeit on a properly made path now, a change from the self machetted one in the book) you get to Arecifies beach where the book has its ending, not to ruin the story, but you really shouldn´t swim here...

Another hour walk along the beach and you get to Cabo San Juan, a beautiful little cove with one of the greatest penthouses in the world perched on top on a rocky outcrop.


where you wake up in your hamock looking over the bay.

which is the perfect to while away several days if you have brought enough insect repellent, cans of tuna, and a good camera to take adventage of the sunsets and local boudlers