Part 3 of a journey - South America

Leaving Panama marks the end of our Central America trip. (Part 1 was North America and Mexico)

Now things are getting more difficult because we are off the normal traveller route. Add to this a guerrilla war within Colombia and increasing tension with Venezuela and it becomes important to know the current situation. Chavez is upsetting Colombia because he appears to be supporting FARC and petrol is so cheap in Venezuela that there is a big smuggling problem over the boarder with petrol one way and drugs the other.
How dangerous can a country be with these on the streets

Reading the guide books and the UK Gov web site makes it all look very scary but on the ground everything seems normal. There are 2 buses a day each way across the Carib Colombia Venezuela border plus loads of cars taking passengers. The people in Colombia are very friendly and seem delighted to have foreign visitors, all the time we get shouts of ´welcome to Colombia´


Crowd control

Cartegania is very beautiful. Especially the walled old colonial city. We were staying just outside in an area considered a bit edgy. In reality it was just full of life and locals and our hotel was 4 times cheaper than within the old city. The only time it felt dangerous was late at night and then we just got taxis.



Breakfast, Yucca stuffed with cheese, fresh fruit, lime juice and expresso

We have been to casinos in virtually every country on this trip. In Cartegina we lost on Black Jack and were left with a $2 chip that we put on 26 on the roulette table - it came in twice on the trot

Marilyn´s new friend helping her choose her emeralds (or glass chips!!)


The military is everywhere. On the road to the mud baths we where stopped in check points 4 times over 20KMs. Think this means that the Government is on top of the guerrillas, not that there is more activity. The current Colombian President is getting massive US help in fighting the civil war and is very popular

We are now in Santa Marta. We were here almost exactly 8 years ago. We stopped for a day on our one and only cruise.


Our current plan is to cross in Venezuela and then through the Guiana's across the top of South America into Brazil