Cartagena, Colombia

The beatiful plazas of Cartagena

A perfect flight from Panama and we'd arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, located near the northernmost tip of South America. Colombia's notorious past is over which has opened it up to huge investment and tourism and we plan to spend a couple of weeks here on the coast on the start of a new three month leg of our trip.

Strangely we were greeted with the warmest welcome ever by the immigration official which was an unusually good sign and then within an hour we'd checked into our huge hotel room and eaten a superb meal in the wonderfully named Cafe Lunatico which proved that the appalling food in Panama City wasn't just bad luck.

We woke to blue skies and 30C temperatures and spent the day strolling around the 16th century, picture potscard, walled part of the city with its plazas, churches, and colourfully painted houses with their bougainvilla strewn balconies.

A great start to a new country and a new continent.