Life seems so (relatively) wealthy and European that its very hard to believe that this country has been plauged by terroism for over 30 years, and that the guerillas control large parts of land. In fact, the only thing that makes you think you are in a so-called
"dangerous" country is the large numbers of army patrolling the roads and lots of guards
with guns. (BIG GUNS and machine guns)

Its acutally a bit surreal, after being in Peru for the last 5 months, its suddenly if we have arrived in the land of plenty - big supermarkets, wide freeways, flash cars.................. Its so nice to be in a place where you can GET Stuff, as opposed to Peru where you cannot get anything.

We crossed the Ecuadorian border about two weeks ago, and from the moment we arrived, the landscape changed to lovely green rolling hills dotted with fat cows and white cottages. We travelled northwards over a road which is considered RED for danger - a guerilla hotspot - known for holdups, though not usually during the day when we travelled. We should have been warned when the ticket seller told us that our combi
was like "an aeroplane, but on the land!" It sure was like an aeroplane, a rather scary thought when you are travelling on windy mountain roads with huge amounts of ongoing traffic and passing on blind corners. About three hours into the 6 hour trip I decided I was more petrified of the driver than the guerillas....................... which I suspected our driver would try to outrun, like everything else on the road.

Onto Cali, the world famous home of Salsa, and apparently the home of the most beautiful women in Colombia, which is saying something because Colombia is reputed to be the home of the most beautiful women in the world!!! Bo was sadly disappointed in Cali, but then expectactions are always difficult to live up to... never mind, the women further north didn´t disappoint and mum and I have revised the story anyway, Colombia is just generally home to beautiful people.

Speaking of being petrified, we went paragliding the other day. Mum has been talking about doing it for years, and she figured it was a great way to spend her 60th birthday. So that is what we did, we went and jumped off a mountain at Medellin. So in paragliding speak WE FLEW. mum and Bo just loved it, and Felix and I well.... lets say we won't be doing it in a hurry again!

Our first taste of the Caribbean coast was Santa Marta -a beautiful colonial city with blue sea, white beaches.... are still considering how to avoid an outbreak of yellow fever in one of the national parks in this region or if we want to do a 6 day hike where apparently soldiers need to guard the whole route in order to make it safe!!!!

We have been in the Cartagena region for the past week - its an amazing old city with loads of charm, that well and truly lives up to its reputation as a steamy, vibrant Caribbean port. Narrow streets, lined by colonial buildings with ornate vernandahs overflowing with tropical flowers... the other part its charm is that it is surrounded
by old walls to keep out the enemy, namely Sir Francis Drake, the Englishman whom we learnt in school was a hero. Here they call him a "pirate" as he wanted to take the rich slave trading port of Cartagena and steal all the gold! They say that if the Spanish
hadn´t built such amazing fortifications (which we have been visiting over past few days) the English would have taken Cartagena and probably the Latin America would speak English these days... the twists and turns of history!

Also spent a couple days on pure white sand beaches of the Caribean lined with palms, and edging turquoise blue water. Very beautiful but absolutely no match for Walpole´s beaches!

Carnaval is celebrated all over the Catholic world, though the parties are most famous in Rio de Janeiro.... and in Colombia they say they have the biggest celebrations in Barranquilla, here on the north coast. (Also famous as the home of Shakira!) So here we are in Barranquilla for Carnaval...

Bo, Judy and Felix at Las Lajas, near Ipiales on the Colombian/Ecuadorian border.

Arie & Felix, Taganga Colombia

Bo & Felix at Carnaval, Baranquilla - and below, on the Avianca plane in Bogota

Below: Botero - now anyone a little plump is affectionately referred to as a 'Boterito'.

Felix, Bo and Judy at Volcan Totumo

Felix and Arie visiting the San Agustin ruins on horseback.

Copyright Ariana Svenson, 2005 - Comments and enquiries, please email us.