After arriving fairly late at the hostel yesterday I decided to book the hostel arranged tour to lake guatavita and the salt cathedral.

The driver picked me up at around 8am – his name was Israel and he was from Venezuela so we got talking about all the problems there (in English). He had been shot three times when he was protesting against the government and had the scars to prove it. It makes you realise how different some people’s lives are.

We picked up a few more people – two girls from Israel (Noah and Michela) and a couple from Brazil (Walter and Roberta) – and headed off to the lake.

The lake itself was amazing as was the history around it. When the Spanish invaded they thought it was el dorado – a place of gold as they found some gold in it. This was the gold the indigenous people had thrown in to stop the Spanish getting hold of it So after draining over 60m of the lake they realised it wasn’t a gold mine and the lake has been protected since 2001 and open to the public since 2005. Nobody knows how deep it is though.

The colour of the lake is due to the algae in it. The highest point we climbed to was around 3000m.

We stopped for lunch in Zipaquira and I ate capybara (like a large rodent). It was very tasty.

Feeling very full we set off for the salt cathedral which was absolutely amazing. The cathedral is obviously in a salt mine and the miners made it themselves without any payment- certain parts of the mine are still being mined for salt.

As you follow the route you follow the stations of the cross.

At the deepest point of the cathedral we were 180m underground. This chandelier is also made out of salt.

As well as salt the mine does contain minerals but these are not mined – in particular there is quite a lot of fools gold (iron) which when it decomposes forms sulpher so in some areas you can smell this.

Although all the mine is salt the majority of it is black as the salt mixes with the coal.

This cathedral has the largest underground cross- although it looks like it is a cross that is hanging down the cross is actually carved into the wall – it’s a bit of an optical illusion, enhanced by the lighting.

The cathedral also hosts the largest sculpture made out of salt.

After the tour we watched a light show in another part of the underground cathedral which was amazing.

I was really impressed with the cathedral – just the sheer size of it and the fact that it had all been made by miners by hand.

When we returned back to the hotel I had a cuba Libra and got chatting to Hugo – a French guy living in Spain. He’s also spent 3 years living in Bolivia so I picked up lots of tips from him about where to go.

So most of today was spent travelling. First of all a bus from Salento to Pereira which the hostel said left at 11am but it didn’t actually leave until 1130am, so I spent about 40 minutes at the bus terminal playing with the dogs and admiring the local sculpture.

At Periera I met another English couple and we shared a taxi to the airport. It’s a tiny little airport but I grabbed some lunch and sat and read my book.

The flight to Bogota was delayed by about an hour. I travelled business class as when I booked the tickets it was the same price as economy – just wish the flight itself had been longer than 40 minutes!

Had to wait ages for the bags to come through but after that it was pretty straightforward getting to the hostel in a taxi.

The hostel seems really nice and the staff are very helpful and friendly.

I’m in a bit of a dodgy area of town appatently so I’m staying in tonight and I’ll go exploring tomorrow.

I was panicking a little bit this morning as the two cash machines in the town square were not working and I was getting low on Pesos. Luckily by the time I came back from the coffee farm tour one of the machines was up and running again.

There are a lot of coffee farms around Salento but I had heard good things about the Don Elias Finca so we decided to go there. It’s a small organic coffee farm and our guide showed us around and explained how the coffee was made too.

As the farm is organic they plant fruit trees such as banana and orange trees which attract the insects and keeps them off the coffee plants. They also plant avocado trees to provide shade for the coffee plants. The coffee is harvested twice each year and after both 8 and 16 years the coffee plants are cut back to around 15cm so a new plant grows. And after around 20 years the plant is dug up and a new coffee plant is planted.

Our guide talked us through the removal of the pulp, the drying, the peeling and the roasting process. The best grade coffee is exported and the lower grade coffee is sold in Colombia itself.

Following the coffee farm tour Bob and Peter departed for Call and I went and had a huge Colombian lunch.

I then decided to burn off some of the calories I had consumed and walked up to the Mirador over Salento- some great views of the town from.up there.

I walked across from this lookout to another one just a few metres away.

I went for a quick afternoon nap before heading out to get some dinner – I was craving something healthy so had a massive salad which was so tasty.

It poured with rain and we had thunderstorms this evening but I went to the local Tejo hall – it’s a bit like bowling but with explosives. Basically you throw a stone to try and hit the white triangles which explode if you manage to hit them.

Tomorrow I’m off to Bogota where the weather looks a bit like English weather – rainy and colder.

This place is amazing. It’s a half hour jeep ride from the town square in Salento along a fairly decent road.

I went with Bob and Peter and when we arrived we were directed onto the path to take – which was actually not the way we’d planned to go hour in the end it worked out a good route.

As soon as you get to the valley you can see the massive palm trees – I’ve never seen anything like it before.

It’s a good couple of hours hike with a pretty steady upward incline, to get to the small finca at the top – at 2860m. It’s a good resting place and they serve a nice cup of coffee.

From there it’s about another hours hike to the hummingbird sanctuary, down and then up, over some rickety bridges. We saw a variety of different hummingbirds and they whizz right past your head.

The entrance fee include a hot chocolate with cheese – I’m getting quite a taste for this.

We also met a coati whilst having our drink, he was really cute.

It was then another 2 hour hike through pine forests, along a river (I got wet feet) before arriving back at the starting point.

Salento itself is also really pretty but quite a bit more touristy then Jardin.

We went to watch the sunset at the Mirador but it was cloudy and we got there a little bit late.

But we stopped for an artisan beer as it had started to rain before heading back into town and having some delicious food at Cafe Barroca and a couple if runs in the square itself. Bob and I also tried a little bit of salsa and merangue.

Great day but feeling tired now – hopefully I’ll sleep past 5am which seems to be the time I’m waking up at the moment for some reason.

This was an interesting journey to say the least. We left Jardin at 8am on a very old bus and spent the next 4 hours driving through beautiful scenery but over very bumpy country roads. We stopped briefly for the use of toilets at what seemed like a little farm.

It was a quick turnaround in Riosucio with just enough time to buy tickets for the next bus to Pereira. This second bus was much more comfortable and the roads much smoother but a couple of hours into the journey we got stuck in a massive traffic jam – which seemed to go on forever (about an hour), i think some bridge was down. And with no aircon it was quite hot and sticky. However, the local entertainment kicked in with a couple of buskers jumping on the bus and singing to us.

The transfer at Pereira went smoothly and I chatted with two brothers from Buffalo, NY over a beer. This last bus journey to Salento.took about an hour, so all in all I was travelling for around 11 hours today.

I booked into my hostel and I seem to have a whole 5 bed dorm to myself. I met up with Bob and Peter again and we had some delicious trout for dinner and a nice long chat over some Colombian coffee – mine had some amoretto in it.

Weather was a mixture of sunshine and showers.

Today was an early start so I just grabbed a quick breakfast of cereal at the hostel before setting off.

At the meeting point I met my fellow travellers, from Colombia, Germany, Guatemala and America. We took a jeep ride over dirt roads for around 40 minutes and then hiked to a lovely place in the middle of nowhere that served up some delicious Colombian snacks along with a mixed sugar cane and coffee drink – very sweet.

The weather wasn’t great- the first time it’s rained since I’ve been here, but the views were still pretty amazing.

After snacks we trekked down to the waterfall, it was a bit slippery underfoot but we all made it ok.

The waterfall coming through the cave was amazing – to get a better view I jumped in and swam under the hole in the cave. The water was freezing so I didn’t stay in for long.

After a bit of time to dry off – I’d forgotten to take a towel – we then hiked back, stopping for more snacks on the way.

I had a pretty chilled afternoon in the hammock at the hostel, reading and chatting to some of the other guests.

I made a delicious prawn salad tonight – the pet cat ended up having a prawn too.

Tomorrow is another early start as the journey to Salento is via 3 different buses and will take at least 10 hours.

I left Medellin early this morning to catch the bus to Jardin. It was a minibus (around 12 people) and I got to sit up front with the French lady I met at the bus station, Bridgete, who was also travelling on her own.

The route to Jardin was really scenic but also a little scary as there had been several landslides along the way and at one point literally half the road was gone! Luckily we had a good driver, who was also lovely and shared his oranges with us.

Jardin itself is a beautiful town with a gorgeous ‘minor basillica’.

I decided to walk from the bus station to my hostel – not realising it was mainly an uphill 20 minute walk – which felt longer with both my rucksacks! But the hostel is in such beautiful surroundings it’s worth the walk.

I then decided to trek over to the Jardin Crista del Rey. I took a unique route that took me through some fields where I had to avoid the barbed wire and electric fencing- but eventually I got back on the right path.

I then wandered back into town where I met a guy, Marcus from Germany, in the town square – we chatted for a bit and then decided it was time for a beer.

I then booked my trip to the ‘splendid cave’ tomorrow, before having an earlyish dinner at Cafe Europa. This is an amazing little restaurant where they literally cook everything from scratch after you order it.

I didn’t time it very well though as I had to walk back to the hostel in the dark but it was actually quite tranquil and I saw a lot of fireflies. The hostel has a pet dog and cat so I’m loving it.

And a tiny bat has just flown past me and made itself at home in the roof above the sofa.

We had quite a relaxing morning, I packed my bags with all my nice clean clothes, and then we headed into Medellin in one of the local mini buses. We dropped my bags at Hector’s mum’s house and then took the metro to the start of the cable car in San Javier. We took the cable car up to La Aurora and then back down again. It was so interesting and you could really see the difference between the poorer and richer areas of Medellin, and also how the city is spreading out into the hills. We stopped for a drink outside the modern art museum and in the early evening we wandered through the Ciudad de Rio park and looked at all the street stalls. I tried my first Michelada – lime juice, beer, salt around the top of the glass and fruit (Mango) inside that you eat. It was really nice. The moon was really bright too – the lunar eclipse was earlier in the morning and you couldn’t see it in Medellin as it was already below the horizon when the eclipse happened.

If anyone is ever travelling to Medellin I would highly recommend a day in Guatape – it’s one of the prettiest towns I’ve ever visited. We started the day with an interesting breakfast of cheese, arepa and hot chocolate – you actually dip the cheese into the chocolate!

That set us up nicely for the climb up the rock. They say it’s formed from volcanic rock but another theory is that it’s the remains of a meteorite.

After 675 steps we made it to the top and the views were stunning.

And from the rock we headed into Guatape itself and just wandered around the courful streets and visited the church. There were a couple of places for sale but they weren’t cheap – not far off Surrey prices.

We had some delicious grilled trout in garlic whilst we were there too. In the evening we popped to Hector’s aunt so I could do my washing and then just had a little wander in the evening around the Rionegro area, where Hector lives, and stopped off for a quick beer.

Weather is still lovely – but not quite as hot as in the North, which is actually quite nice as we’re doing a lot of walking around.

Today I flew to Medellin from Santa Marta, luckily a direct flight. Unfortunately I hadn’t printed out my boarding pass so was charged for that at the airport – something to remember for future flights.

Hector picked me up from the airport and I dumped my bags at his gorgeous new flat before we headed off to explore Medellin.

We travelled into the city via the ‘forgotten road which was a really scenic route. I was really impressed with the city and the public transport was fantastic which made it very easy to get around. We saw the cemetary, the Basillica, the old town hall, a couple of other amazing churches, some great parks and visited a number of different areas including Poblado. We had some delicious food (Arepas for lunch in Bueonas Aires and steak for dinner in El Poblado) as well as a couple of beers along the way. We stayed the night in the Laurales area which is one of the nicer areas of town. So far I’m really liking this city – there is so much history and a complete mixture of new and old.