Colombia`s great. Don`t give a FARC what others tell you.

Ok, so you deserve more about Colombia than that last pitiful excuse.

Cartegena, on the Caribbean coast, is spectacular. A real gem. (fitting then, that the country`s second largest export are emeralds.)

This place has passion. Oodles of it. Sexy street dance, fiestas and lazy siestas.

Think Latin American Seville, where the beautiful and seriously stylish sip coffee and sashay around under quaint Spanish flower draped balconies. Image is everything - it`s top of the worldchampion league for plastic surgery - some of the breasts around here would give Pamela Anderson a run for her money.

The Miss Colombia pageant has been running while I`ve been here, so exquistely slender doe-eyed, dark haired girls are here in their hundreds which could make a gringo stand out in the crowd. For all the wrong reasons!

There`s lots of this country I regret missing out on but have only just made it up the coast to overwhelmingly hot, but chilled and beautiful Taganga and Tayrona National Park. Met some lovely travellers (as well as a few not-so-lovely Brits on the look out for cheap drugs, threesomes and fights. They get everywhere.) But I really didn`t want to leave!

And tomorrow, after a gruelling day on a lot of aeroplanes, I`m off to La Paz. A city different in every way imaginable. In preparation and true Colombian spirit, I`ve treated myself to a full manicure and pedicure, darling. The prettiest fingers and toes in backpackerdom.

Cartegena, Colombia

The lazy person`s guide....

Goodbye Ecuador...

I`ve done a few uncharacteristic things over the last few months, like; climbing muddy, very active volcanos, crawled on my stomach through small underground tunnels, hiked all day, waded through amazonian mud swamps (full of leaches), swam with electric eels, stingrays, anacondas and sharks, found tarantulas in my bedroom, cockroaches in my lunch, fished (caught my first one - a piranha!) visited a shaman, ate lots of soup containing popcorn and chips, molycoddled monkeys, fed lions, bears and jaguars and shouted `Goooooooool!' at the top of my voice when Ecuador score at the beautiful game...

Two and a half months in Ecuador may have changed me. Certainly some of the experiences I`ve had here have been some of the best so far. But the fact you never get what you pay for is driving me slightly insane. My friend told me that her friends had recently come to Ecuador to cash in on the opportunity for cheap plastic surgery. Fine, if you're happy to risk the fact you want wrinkle reduction but actually come out with smaller boobs. That`s how it is here. Get used to it.

I`ve just come back from 2 glorious weeks in the Galapagos (would`ve been a whole lot less stressful if the airline hadn`t cancelled both of my flights and I hadn`t had to be rescued at sea because both motors on the twin engine boat conked out!) But I already miss the fish market in Pelican Bay where sealions and pelicans beg for fish scraps like a pack of hungry dogs. I`m convinced Tortuga Bay on Santa Cruz is the most beautiful beach in the world, with huge marine iguanas and small white tip reef sharks basking in the shallow surf...

I`ve said enough. On to Colombia tomorrow....until next time....

Having a whale of a time...

apologies for my absence. i´m not really sure if anyone´s reading anymore anyway! since the last entry, things have been somewhat less relaxed. I´ve completed a whip-round gringo tour of southern peru in less than two weeks and though i´m glad i´ve seen the things i´ve seen i can´t say it was an altogether pleasurable experience. and it cost a small fortune. i never want to go on another gringo tour as long as I live!

the peruvians are getting to grips with mass tourism and offer what they think the tourist wants. so you get this weird simulacra peru instead of the real one. everywhere you go you´re confronted with a woman in traditional dress, trailing a dutiful llama. even at the top of a large hill on an island in the middle of lake titicaca, there´s the obligitory pan pipe band, complete with amp. if i see another gringo buffet lunch or hear another tour guide screeching down a mic, (or worse, at macchu pichu they had really loud whistles) I think I´ll scream.

It´s refreshing to be somewhere new. I´m in ecuador until late november and am currently living with a lovely family in quito brushing up on the spanish...

we went to the coast for the weekend (a 10 hour bus journey) but all was worth it. i now know where the expression used for the title of this blog came from. on the way to a national park island just off the coast, our small boat was surrounded by humpback whales. they were having so much fun jumping right out of the water, in pairs, over and over again for almost an hour! it was like a montage of the best bits of the blue planet played out right before

my eyes. one of the best days of my life....

R & R in Praia do Forte

If I´ve got deja vu so have the locals, many of whom recognise me from a Christmas holiday here in 2006.

It´s a touristy, (somewhat middle-class) sleepy little fishing village with little to do everyday but watch turtles, whales and some very sexy surfers in the glorious sunshine.

It´s a hard life but someone´s got to do it.

And then there was one.....

Just a quick update to let you know that I´m now going solo as my travelling partner ditched me (by email! Apparently I didn´t want to do the same things she did blah, blah, blah) I am nervous, very - and have had a few sleepless nights but have decided to go on and see how it goes.

Please don´t worry, I will be OK. There are gringos everywhere, plus I met a lovely girl, Louise, in Rio so we´re travelling together for a bit.

We´re in Salvador right now, staying in the Pelirinho - the pretty, cobbled old part of the city with a very dark history. Went to my first candomble ceremony the other night. Was relieved yet disappointed not to be witness to any exorcisms, psychotropic drug taking or sacrificial rites. Just a load of women in big lacy dresses and fancy head dresses dancing in a trancelike fashion to some hypnotic drums.

We area eating wonderful mocqueca (traditional Bahian stew without the fish brain juice I unwittingly consumed in Rio!) and falling asleep most nights to the sound of the most amazing drums.

Leaving today though and am looking forward to it since my camera was ripped off from across my body yesterday. Have a sneaky feeling the kids sell them back to the shops so at least have done my bit for the local economy....

Life in the favela

I had mixed feelings about a favela tour. I didn´t want to be a typical gringo, gawping at those less fortunate as if they were animals in a zoo. It was only when I learned that the money we contribute is used by NGO´s to support the favela, that I justified the trip. Besides, I reasoned, you can´t ignore something that is intrinsically such a huge part of life in Rio. Just sweep it under the carpet while we carry on enjoying life in well-to-do Ipanema.

The tour started with a hair-raising motorbike taxi ride, dodging and weaving trucks, buses and cars at breakneck speed up to the very top. Rocinha is a sprawling hillside neighbourhood. The biggest favela in South America.

The narrow network of streets were designed that way, apparently, to make police evasion easier. People on lookouts inform of police arrival with use of flares. However, we were told that incidents between law enforcers and residents occur on a daily basis. And usually involve guns.

We were given one rule; do not take photos of men with guns or walkie talkies. Dealers do not take kindly to being imortalised in a gringo´s holiday pics. We started a rapid decent (didn´t do to dawdle) through one of the main arteries of the favela (street 1) It was hard to imagine this narrow, dark, dirty, rubbish, excrement-filled passageway as a main street. The stench of open sewer clawed at my throat and as I stepped in puddles of unidentified liquids, I wished I had worn something more practical than flip-flops.

Drugs earn the favela between $US 1-3 million a month, by which time half a tonne of cocaine has changed hands. The ADA (amigo de amigos) are the controlling gang. Disputes among rivals are common.

Other than that, life carried on as normal. People enjoyed the benefits of electricity and running water. Most have mod cons and government subsidised cable TV. The locals were friendly and welcoming. We visited a gallery, a bakery (keen to capitalise on a recent visit from Lenny kravitz, they sold ´Kravitz bread pudding´) and saw where our money went when we visited a nursery. Adorable, smiling, happy little faces made me sad as i realised that many of their parents couldn´t afford to look after them and couln´t help wondering what their future might hold. Decent education is a priviledge of the rich.

Despite this, the sky was full of evidence of children enjoying their holidays. Kites twitched and fluttered over the multitude of decripit roof tops, some kids taunted us with the only English vocab they knew ´Gringo´, ´money´, ´photo´.....

Really glad I came but left, intrigued wanting to experience and learn more frustrated by the fact the only (safe) way to do so is on the internet.....