MEH GUSTA, MEH GUSTA, MEH GUSTA, MEH GUSTAHola! So last time I left you all I had just finished the North American Leg of my World Tour. So, with fond memories Canada and the US I was eagerly awaiting my arrival in Bogota, Colombia, where I was to meet up with Claire, who I hadn´t seen in over 2 months!So, leaving LA, three buses and 2 flights later I was in South America.Claire and I spent only a day and a half in Bogota, in which time we reached the summit of Ceroo De Montserrate via train, where over 40, 000 people make the pilgrimage to a little church at the top every Sunday.Later in the day we then took our seats at Estadio El Campan where we saw an inspirational Medellin side come from a goal down and score two late goals to beat Bogota 3-2 on the day.After a few drinks in the evening we had to be up early for a bus journey from Bogota up to Medellin, a bus journey that should usually take 9 hours, taking us 19, because of various road closers and Police checks.Arriving in Medellin, we pretty much went straight to bed saving our energy for the following day when we climbed up a small mountain to a tiny village called Pueblito Paisa where we had lunch and took in the spectacular views from a high.That evening, after a better than expected haircut from Claire we headed out to the lively Parque Lleras where we spent the evening drinking the local cervaza, Club Colombia.After a short visit to Medellin, we boarded another bus the next day towards the Caribbean coast to Cartagena, the nicest city I have visited so far.However, we spent our first night in, well lets put it this way, a s**thole, but arriving late in the evening we had little choice and made a quick escape to Casa Viena the next morning, the nicest room I have stayed in so far, in the nicest city I have visited so far.That day Claire and I took a tour to Volcan De Lodo in El Totumo, 50km North East of Cartagena where instead of lava the volcano spews mud and after taking a cleansing and relaxing mud bath at the top we then headed to Calipso Sun Beach where we had lunch and caught a few rays.After a tiring day, we had a efw drinks and dinner in Cartegena´s old town, full of beautiful, and colourful buildings, with a great and friendly atmosphere.Despite the reputation Colombia has for being dangerous, we in fact felt safe all the time we were there, and were quite surprised at how welcoming and friendly Colombian people were. The next day we took another tour, this time on a boat, where we visited some tiny islands out in the Caribbean Sea, with each one home to only one or two houses, only accessible by boat or canoe.Following that we headed to Isla De Baru 20km West of the city where we had lunch on Playa Blanca and took a dip in its beautiful blue waters.Having severely sun burnt my shoulders, to the point where they later in the week actually blistered we headed out that evening for a night of drinking and dancing at Mista Babilla, a local favourite which played an abundance of salsa music and then the occasional dance hit that none of the locals knew and me and Claire were the only ones dancing too.Anyway, the next day a little tired and hungover we had a lazy day walking around the old town before catching an early night.Leaving Cartegena we caught a bus to Santa Marta, where we then immediately headed to Parque Nacional Tayrona, an interesting experience to say the least.Arriving just before dark in the middle of a thunder storm we had a 1 hour walk ahead of us to get to Ariciffes where we hoped we could stay the night.However, with it too dangerous to walk in the dark, especially with no torch and conditions making it near impossible to walk the trail we decided to head to a hotel 10 minutes walk from where the jeep had dropped us off in the middle of the jungle. Unfortunately, the hotel was full, which put us in a bit of a sticky situation to say the least.Soaking wet, being attacked my mosquitos, stuck in the jungle with no where to stay, we literally did not now what to do.We were offered, by a man who looked after some horses a small hut to sleep in, however on inspection we found it was filthy inside and was also home to the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life. Unable to stay in there we decided to head back to the hotel and we were prepared to beg them to let us wait in their reception area until the morning.Fortunately, on our way one of the Park wardens saw our struggle and offered us the hut they used to stay warm and dry in when sitting out the night shift. Clean, warm and kind of safe, we took up his offer, not without payment of course.10 hours later and after little sleep we were still alive, but with the rain still falling we decided to get out of the jungle and head back to Taganga, a tiny fishing village, where we checked in to the beachside Casa Blanca, had a much needed shower and some breakfast.Not wasting anytime we had booked ourselves onto and started an open water diving course which gave us our PADI qualification by the afternoon.So, the next 3 and a half days were spent in Taganga, diving finally up to a depth of 18m, and I´m happy to say passing our exam at the end of the course!We did get the chance to meet some cool people on the course and we all went out for a celebratory drink or 6 after passing our exam and ended up at a house party, which pretty much, half of Taganga turned up to. Not deterred by our experience of Tayrona Parque the first time, we decided to give it another try, this time in ridiculously hot conditions and took the walk through the jungle, via Ariciffes, to Cabo San Juan De La Guia, a tiny bay with an amazing beach, spectacular sunsets and feel of paradise to it.Spending the nights in hammocks up in hut on the top of hill we spent the next morning on the beach before heading back, this time by horse, leaving the Parque and returning to the city of Santa Marta, a couple of KM from Taganga, again right on the beach. With many loose end to tie up, we did relatively little apart from have a nice meal and a few drinks before flying back to Bogota the next morning.Arriving back in Bogota, we did a bit of shopping, had some much needed internet time and had early night.It was time to say goodbye to Colombia, an amazing country, where we could have easily spent many more weeks. Definitely my favourite country so far, and it will be a hard one to beat! We arrived in Quito, Ecuador yesterday and plan to spend Christmas on the Beach in Montanita, hopefully with the sun shining down on us, which will be a different experience from a wet and cold family Christmas back home to say the least!