The day started like the other days here with a breakfast next door. It is run by a very nice couple that only seem to cater for breakfast. As we emerged from our posada they are normally sitting outside waiting for customers. They see us and greet us in, the food is very good and cheap with the added bonus of some nice classical music to go with the surroundings. This village has so many nice places to sit and relax, I especially like the coffee shops with nice ...

As I said if we could find a place that doesn't eat us we will be laughing - well we are rolling around laughing. Liz did not get bit last night, the place is spotless, crisp sheets, steaming hot showers TV and for less money than the place last night. Liz looks like a happy bunny again as we sat down to the first breakfast in ages. Here was the litmus test for Columbia and it has passed - we are going to like Columbia hopefully very much. We went to the square...

It gets worse for Liz, she couldn't get much sleep as her bites were driving her mad. In addition she has now picked up bed bug bites from last night. Bless her she is putting on a brave face but we really need to find somewhere that doesn't involve being bitten to death. The places in Columbia up to now have just been transit places, we have been heading to Villa de Leiva. This is a village that has the rare acolade of being protected by the nation. This should...

Last night poor Liz got a few more itchy bites to add to her collection, fleas were the suspects. We headed out without breakfast with the intention of getting some snacks at the bus terminal, Columbia is very vegy unfriendly but at least the coffee is good. It must have been raining really hard during the night going by the difficulty in finding a dry route across the road to the bus terminal. It was an expected 5 hours to Bucaramanga but expected does not me...

Liz declared at 6am that she was fit enough to travel. As buses started at 3am to the border it was safe to say that we needed to set off ASAP. We both were keen to get to Columbia and to stay would mean having to use the ATM's. This is the first country where we havn't used them. Chavez sets the official rate at half the 'real' market rate making it a form of daylight robbery. We didn't reserve a bus so we took what was going - a local bus. It was a 5 hour jou...