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From the Caribbean to the Andes On our arrival in Colombia our friendly cab driver pulling back on his cigarette in disapproval pointed out Bananas a prostitute bar right opposite our hotel. However Cartagena is simply wonderful, caught between boutique clothes shops and hustlers, the richly coloured colonial buildings soak up the heat and the narrow streets provide afternoon shade in the old walled port designed to keep out the British and French. 
The street-life has a vibrant yet relaxed feel and the best way to enjoy is simply to wander. Grab fresh empanadas and tinto, a small coffee sold from street vendors out of flasks and sit in one of the shaded plazas where young dancers perform to a frenzy to beating drums. We tried half a dozen fruit juices that I had never heard of before, such as guanabana, lulo, curuba, zapote, tomate de arbol and nispero. Afro American women carry baskets of exotic fruit on their heads. And in a traditional barbers I got an open razor shave and haircut. 
Nearby is a mud volcano where we took a smooth mud bath. Its a natural phenomena but we think the locals made it look more of a volcano shape. Anyhow its therapeutic and weird floating in thick mud that's so buoyant its impossible to feel the bottom as you are always bouncing back up again to your chest.
Busing east along the coast we stayed 2 nights in old Santa Marta, where Colombians go on holiday. The narrow streets are gritty but full of atmosphere. Calle (street) 17 is full of night clubs and we passed a night dancing La Puerta to salsa and western dance music. The people here are incredibly friendly and really know how to enjoy themselves.
We stayed in the area for 2 weeks, mainly at the neighbouring fishing village of Taganga. Life in Taganga was all within 50 metres, the entire distance between our hotel, the beach, the dive shop and the restaurant, that's easy living. Soon we kept meeting the same characters every day. We became friends with Luis an eccentric but nice man, probably homeless but very intelligent and always departed saying "Thank you for believing in Colombia, this record will self destruct in 5 seconds". I gave him a book called 1491 about life in the Americas before Colombus. We also met up again with Sinead we met first in Belize and Conner from our school in Guate, both Irish.
Johanna got her advanced scuba diver and I got my rescue diver with Aquantis Divers http://www.aquantisdivecenter.com, so now I am a padi master scuba diver! Johan and Yolima whose business it was, were great and really made us feel welcome. Underwater the visibility averaged only 15 metres but the coral and fish variety were stunning. Not that it mattered to me, I was learning to rescue panicked and non-responsive divers underwater and on the surface giving rescue breathes and learning primary first aid.
We took a bumpy boat ride out to Cabo de San Juan in Tayrona national park, here are some of the most lovely beaches I've ever seen. It was too hot in the tent and so we moved into a cabin on a small promontory with a 360 degree view. Half of 2 stunning beaches and rainforest hills, the other of the sea, where at night horizontal lightning streaked frequently across the sky lighting the shore like daylight, pura magia.
In the morning on a deserted beach I asked Johanna to marry me and she said yes. We kept it secret to ourselves for 2 days and just enjoyed swimming and cooling off in the sea and relaxed reading and eating coconuts that I cracked open on the rocks. On the third day we walked out 1.5 hours through jungle paths spotting white faced monkeys and red squirrels running up palm trees.
Back in Taganga we had seafood at a beach restaurant and were serenaded by a local guitarist and songwriter http://www.rolando-sanchez.xoundboy.com. We then spilt the beans and told our friends Jill and Karen, two rugby girls from Yorkshire and Dorset and celebrated with champagne and chocolates.
We had a 10 hour bus journey south to Giron, an old colonial white washed town of cobbled streets and bridges over a tiny river. One of the best things about Latin America are it's small town plazas. Here people of all ages just hang about, sit, talk or stroll, eating ice cream, drinking coffee or eating grilled meat and sumptuous BBQ maize cobs. Perhaps someone plays a guitar and sings or kids chase a ball but there is such a contented peace in the air that you don't often find in western Europe.
In one bar we started talking with a local who now lives in Walthamstow, east London. He was amazed to find tourists in his home town, 10 years ago he said it was too dangerous to visit. I asked him why all the motorcyclists here wore vests and helmets with their number plates on and he replied that they used to gain a bad reputation from careless driving but also from shooting incidents and so the law was changed.
Following the Andean foothills south west we stopped over at several old colonial towns. San Gil is a Colombian adventure sports centre although is now being discovered by backpackers. We went white water rafting here with guides from the national rafting team. For them it was only a grade 3 river but they kept themselves entertained by getting us to flip the boat and throwing us into the cold river. Nearby we walked along the old stone Spanish trail between two perfectly beautiful colonial villages of Barichara and Guane through rustic farmland and spotting brightly coloured birds in the trees.
Villa de Leyva was much colder and surrounded by mountains. There is quite a boom with weekenders from Bogota here and luxury homes are popping up in the highland desert scrub. We stayed at a lovely finca called Colombian Highlands called just outside of town and backing onto lovely viewpoint walks over town. We chilled out here reading in hammocks but also hired bikes to explore the valley including sky blue ponds, fossilised rocks and an ancient monument consisting of huge stone penises aligned to the rising of the sun's seasons.
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