Cartegena is by far the most beautiful city we have visited in South America so far. As you turn into each street, there seems to be yet another beautiful row of coloured houses or a mural to see. We arrived on a Sunday evening which in Columbia has the same vibe as a Saturday night. We ended up in a small alley that had bars either side having mojitos whilst a variety of dancing street performers worked their way up the street. The atmosphere was very carnival like with loud songs playing in the bars and so many people singing at the top of their voices or standing up dancing. The couple on their plastic chairs in front of us had bought a bucket of 10 beers (£4.50ish) and after a few minutes turned to us and offered us some. We then spent the next 3 hours talking through a mixture of Google translate, their pigeon English and our limited Spanish, drinking beer and Colombian brandy. An unexpectedly lovely evening which was worth Callum’s hangover the next day. Over the next few days, we wandered round the old town, did a walking tour, thoroughly enjoyed the street art and visited the fort. I also enjoyed a few museums whilst Callum sampled the ice cream. We learnt lots of new things about the slave trade and it’s impact on Columbia too.We would highly recommend this place despite the old America tourists from the cruise ships everywhere.

We had expected to then spend the rest of our time on a beach but decided that this would be a bit of a waste of time as we can do beaches anytime and so headed to Medellin, the murder capital of the world in the 80s and 90s. Everyone we had spoken to had raved about how interesting it was and after finishing season 2 of Narcos, we thought it was worth a few days. We stayed in a lovely area where all the tourists stay arriving early after our night bus. It was a bank holiday ( a christingle type of celebration) and so when we headed downtown it was packed. We visited a memories museum remembering the victims of the violence and then tried to find the plaza where the Botero’s ( famous Columbian artist) statues were. Google maps and Maps.me have been somewhat unreliable at times and we ended up, with the help of a bent sign, in a street with many “ ladies of the night” at noon. We felt quite unsafe and didn’t want to retrace our steps so took 2 right turns and ended up in the right place with a sigh of relief. We took 2 tours the next day – a general walking one and a graffiti tour in communa 13- the most notorious area in Medellin. It was so interesting to get 2 different perspectives from people who had lived through the violence. Our first guide had been shot twice as a young man though he had come from a privileged background and area by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our second guide had grown up in the communa and talked about running from police bombardments and hiding under the bed as an 8 year old. The most moving part was seeing 2 statues together in our final square where many people died including a 7 year old when a bomb was placed in one of Botero’s statues during a celebration. The authorities wanted to remove it but instead Botero created another and they sit side by side. Hearing the human stories behind the death figures brought it all home. However, the visit to the communa 13 did show how far they have come. It has changed into a huge tourist draw though still home to a huge number of people living in one room houses (including our guide). Escalators have been installed so people can travel up the hill in 15 minutes rather than an hour to improve mobility and so employment opportunities, the transport system is cheap and immaculate (40p for any trip) and art and dance is being used as an alternative to gangs to interest the youth. Whilst we were there, we saw street dance shows and art galleries as well as the place where executions by the gangs and cartels used to happen (in the middle of the communa so everyone could see) that are now used for sport. The atmosphere was one of regeneration and hope which was pretty amazing to see. It was interesting that no one there uses Pablo Escobar’s name but rather the “crazy criminal” and find it hard to understand why people are interested in him. Our guide was passionately unhappy that Escobar was shown to have a human side in Narcos as he built a school and houses when trying to get elected to Congress. He raised the point of how many houses would be worth the life of your mother, father, son or daughter. We found it hard to understand why people would think he was in any way a good man after he was responsible for 46,000 deaths however a couple we met a few days later from the Netherlands were pretty insistent that if you followed the cartels rules and didn’t speak against him, “ the crazy criminal” was very good for the middle classes and Columbia. Not sure the mothers in the communa would agree!

Our next stop was a much smaller place supposedly only 6 hours by bus (it was 12 and clashed with the football) and was another coffee region , Salento . It is famous not just for its coffee but also for having the tallest palm trees in the world and for being a beautifully painted town. We spent 2 days there, walking in the national park in the rain, wandering the town and playing the national game tejo. This involved throwing a metal puck at the metal ring that had triangles placed on it filled with gunpowder. When you hit it correctly, it caused a fairly loud explosion. You bought a beer and then played in lanes so you could see and hear each other’s explosions. It was surprisingly hard but a lot of fun even if Callum did win.

For our final few days, we went to Bogotá to wander the old town and do another walking tour. We didn’t have high expectations of Bogotá as everyone we’d met, including our Columbian friends who live there, had warned us about safety there but it was good enough to while away the day before our flight. I finally got Callum into a museum – the Botero museum and art gallery. We really enjoyed the paintings and seeing smaller versions of the statues we’d seen in Medellin.

This trip has been so varied and memorable. We’ve done some amazing things, learnt a lot, met so many interesting people and talked lots of politics- very unlike us. All in all, a fantastic few weeks.